Glen Chorny claims largest European payout
April 17, 2008
Monaco will live long in the memory of 22 year old business student Glen Chorny. His victory in the European Poker Tour Grand Final not only gave him his first bracelet, but also netted him the first-place prize of almost $3.2 million - the largest cheque ever paid out in European poker history.
Having qualified for the tournament through a Pokerstars satellite, Chorey found himself at the final table sitting alongside household names such as Antonio Esfandiari, Valeriy Ilikyan and Team Pokerstars Pro Luca Pagano, and the young Candadian didn’t waste any time taking advantage of his chip advantage.
His ultra-aggresive style appeared to both suprise and outclass his opponents and it wasn’t long before the table started to empty.
Despite being the big chip leader after the third day, Esfandiari was the first to fall putting pay to any hopes he had of completing a WPT, WSOP and EPT Triple Crown. He shoved all his chips into the middle of the table with a weak Ace and then had to watch helplessly as Pagano turned over As-Jc and continued to flop the nut straight.
Ilikyan was the next go when his A-Q didn’t hold up against Michael Martin’s A-K and he was followed after dinner by Luca Pagano when the PokerStars pro turned over A-J and couldn’t find the cards he needed to overturn Denes Kalo’s pair of queens.
There had been rumours of an altercation between Martin and Chorey during a toilet break, and there was clearly no love lost between the two players as they clashed throughout the evening. Things came to a head though when Martin’s top pair failed to break the Canadian’s overpair and the American had to go home with clenched teeth in fifth place.
After a fairly long period of play, Isaac Baron went to the rail in fourth and was soon followed by Villemure meaning that the heads-up part of the tournament would be played out between Denes Kalo and Chorey. With the young Canadian holding a 10-1 chip lead, it was always going to be a short affair and so it proved when the Hungarian shoved the remainder of his chips with Kh-Qd and found himself second best to Ah-5h.
“It hasn’t set in yet” Chorey claimed in an interview just afterwards. “There’s no better way to feel right now than like this. It feels like you’re a rock star.”
Final placings and prize money are listed below:
| 1 | Glen Chorny | $3,193,822 |
| 2 | Denes Kalo | $1,864,116 |
| 3 | Maxime Villemure | $1,130,487 |
| 4 | Isaac Baron | $931,268 |
| 5 | Michael Martin | $665,643 |
| 6 | Luca Pagano | $532,831 |
| 7 | Valeriy Ilikyan | $400,018 |
| 8 | Antonio Esfandiari | $265,625 |
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