“Hey guys, I really need to go to bed. Can you play it faster?”

So said Fabian Quoss who along with Anton Morgenstern was railing the finish of the €5,000 NL eight-handed Event #51 that had played down to heads-up between their fellow countryman, Philipp Gruissem of Germany, and France’s Sylvain Loosli. Quoss had just finished third in the event, and was ready to go.

At the time Gruissem enjoyed an almost 2-to-1 chip lead versus Loosli, and as heads-up play proceeded seemed as though he were indeed trying to accommodate Quoss’s request, taking six of seven hands against Loosli to chip up even further to about 1.3 million to Loosli’s 400,000 or so.

That’s when a hand arose in which Gruissem opened the button for 55,000 (a bit over 2x), then after pausing a couple of beats Loosli announced he was reraising all in. Gruissem quickly grabbed a handy stack and forcefully set it down in front of him, emphatically signalling his call.

Loosli kind of sheepishly turned over 9♣ 5♣ while Gruissem tabled 10♣ 10♥ . The former sat and the latter stood as the dealer dealt an 8♦ 7♥ 5♠ flop that caused the German to make a noise of slight discomfort. A small Gruissem grumble, it was. But the turn was the 7♣ and river the K♣ , and soon Gruissem was shaking Loosli’s hand then receiving congratulations from Quoss and Morgenstern.

Gruissem wins a tidy first prize of €147,700 for a long day’s work. That’s enough to put a person in his happy place.

Everything in its right place for Philipp GruissemHere’s how that final table paid out, with Senh Ung (9th, €14,700) and Sorel Mizzi (10th, €12,000) among the near-missers.

Event #51, €5k NL Holdem 8-Handed
Entries: 121
Prize pool: €605,000
Places paid: 51

1. Philipp Gruissem (Germany) — €147,000
2. Sylvain Loosli (France) — €99,800
3. Fabian Quoss (Germany) — €64,800
4. Shyam Srinivasan (Canada) — €53,700
5. Joao Vieira (Portugal) — €43,300
6. Mayu Roca (Colombia) — €34,200
7. Jason Mo (USA) — €26,100
8. Georgios Vrakas (Greece) — €19,700

Thus begins our last report on the side action for the evening, with a round-up of where things stand in the various events playing out during the wee hours here in Monaco at the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT Grand Final festival.

********A while ago Event #46 played down to a winner as well, with Hossein Ensan managing to hang onto his chip lead to take the title and €87,043 prize following a three-way deal, adding nicely to the €150K-plus score the German enjoyed after finishing sixth in the EPT Malta Main Event in March.

Hossein EnsanHere are the final table payouts for Event #46, with Max Greenwood (10th, €8,930), Giacomo Fundaro (11th, €8,930), Daichi Tominaga (12th, €7,800), Stefan Huber (13th, €7,800), and Ivan Luca (14th, €7,040) having all gotten close to making the final nine:

Event #46, €2k NL Holdem
Entries: 263
Prize pool: €526,000
Places paid: 39

1. Hossein Ensan (Germany) — €87,043*
2. Valeriu Coca (Moldova) — €70,568*
3. Andrey Bondar (Russia) — €62,489*
4. Sergii Zubariev (Ukraine) — €40,160
5. Georgios Sotiropoulos (Greece) — €31,500
6. Akin Tuna (Germany) — €23,800
7. Daniel Osvaldo Ades (Argentina) — €17,500
8. Vladimir Alekseev (Russia) — €12,850
9. Anthony Zinno (USA) — €10,650
*denotes three-way deal

Event #53, the €500 H.O.R.S.E. also played down to a champion, with the UK’s George Rankin topping a field of 30 to claim the title and a €5,385 first prize.

The first day of the two-day Event #54, a €1,000 NL event with a single re-entry, wrapped up a short while ago, and from a 198-entry field 43 players remain.

Atanas Kavrakov (114,400), Said Zakaria (106,500), Jonas Lauck (78,700), Denis Krasavin (77,200), Teodor Popovic (71,700) all bagged better than average chips at night’s end, but Joao Brito had the most of anyone with a hefty stack of 142,900 which he was nice enough to lift up for us to see.

Joao BritoIn other action, both the €200 PLO Turbo (Event #56) and that €100 NL Turbo “Second Best Hold’em” (Event #57) we told you about were down to heads-up at last pass. In the PLO Turbo, Russia’s Sergey Kudryavtsev and Switzerland’s Quirin Berger were the last two with chips, while in the “Second Best Hold’em” event Jennifer Shahade had just gone out in third to leave Sweden’s Christian Berg and Russia’s Aleksandr Denisov to see who could make the best second best hands to finish first.

And with late registration — or should we say, late late registration — closed, there were 82 total entries in the €5,000 “Midnight Turbo” NL Event #58 when we made our final walkthrough. Several recognizables were battling, including Benny Spindler, Ivan Luca, Dan Smith, Sorel Mizzi, Joaquín Melogno, David Peters, Mustapha Kanit, Ole Schemion, Anthony Gregg, Thomas Muehlocker, and Jason Koon. That one will be over as well once the sun greets us tomorrow.

We’ll be back then to finish off reporting on tonight’s fun, sharing Quoss’s earlier stated desire to catch some winks. From there we’ll pick things back up again with another full slate of EPT Grand Final side action highlighted by the €25,000 High Roller for which a satellite is also still playing out as we scribble.

Until then bon soir!

Click here for a continually updated list of all side event results from the EPT11 Grand Final.

Follow all the action from the €10,000 Main Event is on the Main Event page. Also watch on EPT Live. It’s also about time you downloaded the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS.

Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.

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