Nicolas Dumont, a driving instructor from Paris, France, steered his way through the final table of the EPT Monte Carlo Main Event just beautifully to collect a first place prize of €712,000, the tournament trophy, and a Platinum Pass to the PokerStars Players Championship next year.

Dumont was the last person standing from a field of 777 entries. The player entered the final day of the tournament as the chip leader, and while he might have relinquished the lead to other players over the course of action, he never stopped playing great until the tournament’s very end.

Day 6 of the Main Event began with eight players reconvening at the host venue on Friday. The first elimination of the day occurred on the very first hand of play. German poker star Ole Schemion, who was the short stack at the time, walked out in eighth place after clashing against Patrik Antonius. Schemion, who has enjoyed quite some success in previous EPT Monte Carlo editions, scooped €68,300 from this year’s Main Event.

Spain’s Javier Fernandez left the final table not long after. The player took a hit from Spin & Go qualifier Krisztian Gyorgyi in a previous hand and was unable to recover afterward. A confrontation against Tomas Jozonis finished off the player and he left in seventh place, good for €99,900.

Dumont was relatively quiet while the short stacks were trying to improve their situation. But he spotted a great opportunity to eliminate Antonius, who was aiming for a second EPT Main Event title, and took excellent advantage of it. As for the Finn, he took €139,050 for his efforts.

Gyorgyi, poker superstar David Peters, and Jozonis were the next to leave in that order. They collected €184,000, €232,000, and €308,000, respectively; each putting great performance and contributing to an exciting poker show at the host casino.

That left just two players at the final table – Dumont and Honglin Jiang from New Zealand. Here it is interesting to note that both finalists were recreational players who managed to bust some of the world’s toughest poker pros.

Two-handed duel began with Jiang holding the chip lead with 13.4 million to Dumont’s 9.835 million. Being at disadvantage did not discourage the Frenchman from his pursuit for the title and it was not that long before he evened the stacks.

The next thing the two players knew, they were locked in an all-in confrontation that was about to end it all. Dumont held [Qd][Qh] to his last opponent’s [6h][6d]. A blank [10d][Kc][3d][8h][3s] board was of little help to Jiang and the player had nothing else left to do but to head to the payout desk and collect his €434,000 prize for finishing runner-up in the tournament.

It was a sweet victory for Dumont after six days of EPT action. That was not just the player’s first-ever EPT victory, but his first-ever participation in the series. Dumont was not even planning to enter it but a friend of his had lent him money to buy into the tournament. While that good friend was not at the host casino last night, Dumont Facetimed him to take part in the celebrations.

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