EPT Deauville - Josip Simunic wins High Roller for €309,000

Josip Simunic defeated a record field of 115 and a tough final table with Robin Ylitalo and Jean-Noel Thorel in the EPT Deauville €10,300 High Roller to claim the title and €309,000.

101 players entered Day 1 of the EPT Deauville €10,300 High Roller and there were 21 re-entries to create a record field in Deauville (last year there were 115 entries).

12 players returned for Day 3 including Davidi Kitai who was hunting for his second EPT title. Kitai was the first player to bust however, he was soon followed by Tobias Peters and Garret Gruener.

Players continued on one table:

Seat 1. Thomas Butzhammer - 424.000
Seat 2. Josip Simunic - 92.000
Seat 3. Fady Kamar - 273.000
Seat 4. Joao Ribeiro - 841.000
Seat 5. Eric Sfez - 766.000
Seat 6. Robin Ylitalo - 1.000.000
Seat 7. Nikolay Komcharokov - 744.000
Seat 8. Jean-Noel Thorel - 1.440.000
Seat 9. Ivan Luca - 807.000

The first player to bust from the unofficial final table was Komcharokov, he was followed by Butzhammer, Ribeiro, Sfez, Luca and Ylitalo.

The EPT London champ lost most of his stack during Level 27 (40,000-80,000-10,000 ante) but managed to double upo with J-9 against Simunic's K-J. Ylitalo was all-in the next hand aswell, this time with 820,000 chips.

Ylitalo had KQ against Simunic's 6-6 and after the K-T-3 flop it looked like Ylitalo could double up again, but a 6 on the turn had him drawing dead and eliminated in fourth.

The heads-up play began after Thorel eliminated Kamar.

Jean-Noel Thorel - 3.320.000
Josip Simunic - 3.080.000

The heads-up ended during Level 28 (50,000-100,000-10,000 ante), the players got the money in on a 6-3-T-4 board. Simunic had 6-4 for two pair while Thorel held T-9 for top pair. The river five didn't improve Thorel's hand and Simunic claimed the biggest score of his career.

Final table results

1. Josip Simunic - €309.170
2. Jean-Noel Thorel - €208.900
3. Fady Kamar - €135.780
4. Robin Ylitalo - €112.440
5. Ivan Luca - €90.690
6. Eric Sfez - €71.520
7. Joao Ribeiro - €54.680
8. Thomas Butzhammer - €41.160