Winner Winner Chicken... Supper in France Poker Series Main Event

This year's PokerStars and Monte-Carlo Casino EPT Grand Final saw 993 runners enter the Main Event of France Poker Series. Of those 993, all but one left with something to be desired. Only one man, Sebastian Supper, made his dreams come true and captured the title, together with the cash prize of €177,000.

The event generated a very respectable prize pool of €963,210, and although it came just short of seven figures total, you wouldn't hear any complaints from the final seven who came back to play yesterday. Every single one of them was certain to take home at least €23,500 for their efforts, which is already a nice return on a €1,100 investment.

It was Brazilian Sergio Braga who claimed the above mentioned amount, as he was first to leave his final table seat, failing to make it through the first orbit. After Braga, the Italian Luca Moschitta was stopped in his attempt at the title, taking home €32,700 for a rather outstanding performance that only lacked some luck to become truly epic.

It was a rather colorful final table in terms of representation, as several countries had their representatives, including the USA. While Michael Ferrari fell a day earlier, leaving in eight place, his compatriot Joseph Mouawad made it to the final day and climbed a couple of spots, before being sent to the rail in fifth with €43,800 to his name.

Spaniard Pablo Gordillo has been recording some very nice results in the last couple of years, but the big title has been an elusive dream. He was looking to finally change that fact as he started the day the chip leader. However, it is well known fact that chip leaders rarely end up winners, and Gordillo continued the tradition as he was railed in fourth, adding €56,600 to his live tournament earnings. Close, but no trophy (€56k certainly buys a lot of cigars).

The only Frenchman at the final table, Gilles Sibernagel came close to keeping the title of the FPS where it naturally belongs, but fell short after Supper took most of his chips in a cooler hand where Sebastian was freerolling his opponent on the river and found the magic card to award him the entire pot instead of just a half of it. Soon after that hand, Gilles was sent to the rail, €75,400 richer.

Although it seemed at one point that Supper wouldn't last long earlier at the final table, as he was down to just five big blinds, he mastered a remarkable comeback after first tripling up and then kept at it, building his stack further, until the hand described in the previous paragraph gave him the lead.

Once Sibernagel was ousted, Manuel Martinez of Spain found himself in a tough spot agains Sebastian Supper, as German went into the heads up with 7 to 1 lead. The lead would prove to be insurmountable for Martinez, as after one double up that gave him some hopes, he failed to hold in the next all-in confrontation as flush came in to give Supper the title.

Martinez still claimed six figures for his runner up finish, as he banked €107,500, but it was Supper raising the prestigious trophy and boosting his roll with €177,000. Not bad at all for a few days' work!

Photo: Rene Velli, PokerStars Blog