Michael Watson wins Monte Carlo Main Event for second European Poker Tour Title
Source: cardplayer.com
Michael Watson defeated a field of 1,098 entries to capture the 2023 European Poker Tour Monte Carlo €5,300 no-limit hold’em main event title. For the win, the 39-year-old Canadian poker pro earned $801,885 in prize money, and the honor of becoming just the third player in history to have earned multiple EPT main event titles, joining Victoria Coren Mitchell and Mikalai Pobal.
“Couldn’t be happier with the accomplishment,” Watson told PokerStars reporters after coming out on top. “It’s definitely something that I’m really thrilled with. I’m going to keep trying to build on it, of course. But it’s definitely a huge result.”
“Winning two main events on the same tour is really, really hard thing to do,” Watson said. “I think it’s definitely right up there, maybe the biggest accomplishment of my poker career and I’m really happy with that.”
Watson’s first EPT main event victory came at the 2016 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. He overcame a field of 928 entries in that tournament to cash for nearly $730,000. He also has a World Poker Tour main event win to his name, having taken down the 2008 WPT Bellagio Cup for nearly $1.7 million.
Watson now has just shy of $20 million in recorded tournament earnings, placing him fifth on Canada’s all-time money list.
The EPT Monte Carlo main event played out over the course of seven days inside the Salle Des Étoiles at Monte-Carlo Sporting in the principality of Monaco along the French Riviera. The event featured two starting flights on April 30 and May 1, and then allowed five more days for the 1,098-entry field that resulted by the end of registration to play down to a champion.
The top 159 finishers made the money in this event, with accomplished players like bracelet winner Orpen Kisacikoglu (40th), PokerStars Players Championship winner Ramon Collilas (32nd), 2023 PCA main event runner-up Pedro Neves (20th), bracelet winner Peter Aerts (17th), 2021 EPT Sochi main event champion Artur Martirosian (14th), and bracelet winner Jason Wheeler (7th) all running deep. Wheeler’s elimination at the hands of Leo Worthington-Leese brought a close to day 5, with Worthington-Leese just edging out Watson for the chip lead.
Watson was able to move back atop the leaderboard in the early action of the final day. He then extended his chip advantage thanks to a preflop cooler to Arnaud Enselme (6th – $193,563).
Samy Boujmala was the next to fall, with most of his stack heading to Worthington-Leese. Boujmala took home $251,611 as the fifth-place finisher.
Joachim Haraldstad got his last six or so big blinds in preflop with K-6 from the small blind. Watson called with 10-8 suited and flopped trip tens to take a commanding lead. He ended up backing into a flush to eliminate Haraldstad (4th – $327,153).
Not long after that, Worthington-Leese got all-in on a 9 7 3 flop with 10 5 for a flush draw. He was up against the J J of Leonard Maue. The 5 on the turn gave Worthington-Leese a pair for some additional outs, but the 6 on the end sent him packing in third place ($425,272).
Watson entered heads-up play with 17,500,000 to Maue’s 15,425,000. The two struck a deal to redistribute the remaining prize money which left nearly $36,000 and the title to play for.
Maue earned $745,977 as the runner-up, the largest live tournament score yet for the German professional poker player.
Michael Watson wins $801,885 and Monte Carlo Main Event Title for second European Poker Tour Title.
