EPT Monte Carlo Returns Strong as Brazilians Shine

It had been nearly three years since the European Poker Tour hosted its famous EPT Monte Carlo series. But the post-pandemic return of live poker brought poker players from around the world to compete at Sporting Monte-Carlo in Monaco. PokerStars put its EPT together with FPS (France Poker Series) for the schedule, and it was a hit.

Altogether, EPT Monte Carlo ended with these numbers:

-Total number of tournaments: 33

-Total entries: 8,476

-Total prize money awarded: €29,145,940

The FPS Main Event kicked off the entire series by setting a record with 1,918 entries and a prize pool exceeding €1.8M. The EPT Main Event, with a much larger buy-in, still brought in 1,073 entries to send the prize pool past €5.2M. That didn’t set a record but came close.

Another highlight of the series was Neymar Jr. in attendance. He cashed in the FPS Main Event and the FPS High Roller, boosting his Hendon Mob results from one to three.

And speaking of Neymar’s presence, it meant quite a lot to one EPT winner. Lucas Scafini of Brazil won the FPS Main Event. The €250K first-place prize was the largest score of his poker career, but that became even more of a special moment when fellow Brazilian Neymar saw Scafini’s win from another table, got up, and went over to congratulate Scafini.

A list of all of the winners, fields, and prize pools is as follows:

Brazilian Scores Main Event Win

The EPT Main Event was a potpourri of players from around the world. In fact, its participants hailed from 55 different countries and nations. As proximity would have it, France had the most entries with 28.8% of the field, with Italy second with 9.4% and then Germany with 7.2%. Brazil had only 3% of the field with its 19 players, but they made their mark.

It's time for the #EPTMonteCarlo Main Event final table.

SIx players remain, and they're playing for €939,840.

Cards-up coverage, from the first hand to the last 👉 https://t.co/w9TRK5Q5f8 pic.twitter.com/JJX8gRGBYM

— PokerStars LIVE (@PokerStarsLIVE) May 7, 2022

Of the final six players at the final table, Morten Hvam of Denmark had the chip lead with 7.35M of them, but Marcelo Mesqueu of Brazil was second with 6.89M. Mesqueu started strong and took over the top spot on the leaderboard. He lost some ground but then soared to an almost unreachable lead of 16M chips.

Hours and (nearly eight) hours later, Mesqueu ousted Erkan Soenmez of Germany in sixth place and then Hugo Pingray of France in fifth. Hvam stepped in to send Jaime Cervantes of the United States to the rail in fourth place. Mesqueu took down a big pot against Hvam that eliminated Dragos Trofimov of Moldova in third place.

Heads-up play started with Mesqueu dominating with nearly four times the stack of Hvam. Mesqueu only increased his lead further, and Hvam had only 13 big blinds left to work with. Hvam did score a double-up, so he went for it again soon after. Hvam put it all at risk with K-T on a 6-9-7 flop, but Mesqueu called quickly with pocket kings. The 5 turn and J river changed nothing, and Mesqueu won the EPT Main Event. It was his largest score ever to win €939,840.

That vamos feeling. 🎉 🥳

This is how Marcelo Simoes became Brazil's first EPT Main Event champion. 👇 pic.twitter.com/urg08WK0sh

— PokerStars LIVE (@PokerStarsLIVE) May 8, 2022