Marcelo Mesqueu Triumphs in Monte Carlo, First Brazilian to Win EPT Title
The Brazilian Marcelo Simoes Mesqueu won the EPT Monte Carlo Main Event and became the first player from Brazil to lift a European Poker Tour trophy after he beat the Dane Morten Hvam in the final.
It had been a while. After two years the PokerStars European Poker Tour Monte Carlo was back and the main event is a complete success. With a total of 1,073 entries (747 unique players) the EPT Monte Carlo 2022 was the second largest in history.
EPT Monte Carlo 2022 Main Event – Key Facts
- Date: May 2 – 7
- Place: Monte Carlo
- Players: 1,073 entries (747 unique players)
- Buy-in: €4,850 + €450
- Prize pool: €5,204,050
- Winner: Marcelo Mesqueu
Second Biggest EPT Monte Carlo Main Event of All Time
After a two-year break due to the pandemic, the European Poker Tour is back this year at the Sporting d’été in Monte Carlo.
The Main Event with a buy-in of €5,300 was the most important poker tournament of this event and the players overran the tables. With 419 entries on Day 1A, 631 on Day 1B, and 24 late registrations on Day 2, a total of 1,073 entries were in the books – the second-highest number of players after EPT Monte Carlo in 2016 with 1,098 entries.
EPT Monte Carlo over the years
This is how player and prize pool numbers at EPT Monte Carlo have developed since 2005:
| Year | Players | Prize Pool | Champion |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 211 | 1,983,400 € | Rob Hollink |
| 2006 | 298 | 2,801,200 € | Jeff Williams |
| 2007 | 706 | 6,636,400 € | Gavin Griffin |
| 2008 | 842 | 8,420,000 € | Glen Chorny |
| 2009 | 935 | 9,350,000 € | Pieter De Korver |
| 2010 | 848 | 8,480,000 € | Nicolas Chouity |
| 2012 | 665 | 6,650,000 € | Mohsin Charania |
| 2013 | 531 | 5,310,000 € | Steve O’Dwyer |
| 2014 | 650 | 6,500,000 € | Antonio Buonanno |
| 2015 | 564 | 5,640,000 € | Adrian Mateos |
| 2016 | 1,098 | 5,325,300 € | Jan Bendik |
| 2017 | 727 | 3,525,950 € | Raffaele Sorrentino |
| 2018 | 777 | 3,768,450 € | Nicolas Dumont |
| 2019 | 922 | 4,471,700 € | Manig Loeser |
| 2022 | 1,073 | 5,204,050 € | Marcelo Mesqueu |
Buy-In: [2005 – 2015: €10.300; from 2016: €5.300]
Re-Entry: [2005 – 2018: Freeze-Out; from 2019: Single Re-Entry]
Double Bubble on day 2
In the evening hours of Day 2, the bubble loomed as only 159 players were guaranteed a min-cash. As is common in big tournaments the speed at the tables decreased significantly as the number of remaining players approached the 159 mark. It took almost an hour for 3 players to bust out in 163rd to 161st place.
But then within one instant, the bubble was all over as Harpreet Gill and Ariel Sebban were eliminated almost simultaneously at two different tables. Gill met his fate when he open-jammed for 20 big blinds with tens from the button only be called by Guillaume Diaz in the small blind with aces. Diaz even flopped a full house and sent Gill to rails. Meanwhile across the room, a rather similar hand saw Ariel Sebban eliminated at the same time. He was all-in preflop with jacks against Danny Pyke’s kings and got no help from the board. Thus the bubble burst without hand for hand play and all remaining players secured at least a min-cash worth €8,690.
In the following five hours another 70 players were eliminated from the tournament. Among them were Leo Margets (155th), Davidi Kitai (153rd), Christoph Vogelsang (138th), Benjamin Spragg (124th), Rainer Kempe (121st), Fabian Quoss (101st) and Koray Aldemir (94th).
Impressive Run by Ana Marquez
The following third day of the tournament was a brutal affair for most players as more than 80 percent of the remaining field were eliminated in one day.
Among the casualties was Gaelle Baumann in 60th place (the woman who almost made the WSOP Main Event final table in 2012). She lost all her chips against Morten Hvam when she found herself all-in with K-9 on K-8-6-Flop against the Dane who had her dominated with A-K. The title last woman standing went to Ana Marquez. She bowed out in 26th place when she found herself all-in preflop with A-K against Yannick Cardot’s A-A.
Other notable players that hit the rails that day were Sofia Lövgren (53rd) the Germans Ole Schemion (41st)and Jonas Lauck (28th) and Jason Wheeler (19th).
Morten Hvam Dominates the way to the Final Table
The second to last day saw the Dane Morten Hvam dominate the field. The day began with 16 players and it was played down to the final six. Hvam began with a substantial chip lead and kept it most of the day. He eliminated several players, including Niall Farrell with a draw to a Flush. Both players were all-in after a bet, raise and call on a 9 5 3 flop. Farrell hat a strong overpair with Q Q , but Hvam had outs with J 8 . Turn and river fell 3 and 6 and with the third diamond on the board, Hvam completed his flush and sent the Brit to the rails in 16th place.
Other notable players eliminated right before the final were WSOP-bracelet winner Justin Saliba (15th) and PokerStars Pro Ramon Colillas (7th).
Marcelo Mesqueu Dominates the Final Table
The Final Table was only six-handed and while Morten Hvam started with the lead, the Brazilian Marcelo Mesqueu quickly overtook him. After six hours of play, still all six players remained, but Mesqueu already had more than 50 percent of all chips.
It was in the later evening hours that players started to bust. The first to fall was German Erkan Soenmez who was taken out by Mesqueu. Shortly after Hugo Pingray from France also succumbed to Mesqueu. Morten Hvam took care of the next player when he eliminated the American Jaime Cervantes in 4th place.
After Dragos Trofimov was eliminated in 3rd place the heads-up between Hvam and Mesqueu began. The Brazilian had a sizable 4-1 lead and refused any deal. The two kept playing for a little while but Hvam never got any momentum going and eventually saw himself shoving all-in with a gutshot. Here’s how the final hand hand went down: preflop Hvam raised to 2 big blinds with K 10 and Mesqueu made it a bit over 5 big blinds. Hvam called and flopped an inside straight draw on a 9 7 6 board. Mesqueu bet another 4 big blinds and subsequently Hvam moved all-in for a total of roughly 14 big blinds. Mesque insta-called with K K . Turn and river brought 5 and J – no help for the Dane and with this hand the tournament was over.
The 55-year-old Marcelo Simoes Mesqueu became the first Brazilian EPT Champion ever. He took home more than €900,000 during his only second trip to Europe. He already announced he will be coming back to Europe to play the EPT Barcelona in August.
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Images courtesy of Tomáš Stacha
Final Results EPT Monte Carlo 2022 Main Event
| # | Player | Country | Prize Money |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marcelo Simoes Mesqueu | Brazil | €939 840,00 |
| 2 | Morten Hvam | Denmark | €564 640,00 |
| 3 | Dragos Trofimov | Moldova | €397 590,00 |
| 4 | Jaime Cervantes | USA | €298 710,00 |
| 5 | Hugo Pingray | France | €228 460,00 |
| 6 | Erkan Soenmez | Germany | €167 050,00 |
| 7 | Ramon Colillas | Spain | €125 420,00 |
| 8 | Yannick Cardot | France | €89 770,00 |
| 9 | Alejandro Romero | Spain | €69 990,00 |
| 10 | Jussi Nevanlinna | Finland | €58 130,00 |
| 11 | Zhong Chen | Netherlands | €58 130,00 |
| 12 | Francky Magliocco | France | €52 090,00 |
| 13 | Ferenc Deak | Hungary | €52 090,00 |
| 14 | Nariman Yaghmai | Iran | €46 890,00 |
| 15 | Justin Saliba | USA | €46 890,00 |
| 16 | Niall Farrell | UK | €41 680,00 |
| 17 | Nicola Grieco | Italy | €41 680,00 |
| 18 | Marc Foggin | UK | €36 480,00 |
| 19 | Jason Wheeler | USA | €36 480,00 |
| 20 | Jacques Der Megreditchian | France | €36 480,00 |
| 21 | Fausto Tantillo | Italy | €31 280,00 |
| 22 | Arthur Conan | France | €31 280,00 |
| 23 | Vlado Banicevic | Montenegro | €31 280,00 |
| 24 | Peter Turmezey | Hungary | €26 230,00 |
| 25 | Danut Chisu | Romania | €26 230,00 |
| 26 | Ana Marquez | Spain | €26 230,00 |
| 27 | Charles-Henri Garnero | France | €26 230,00 |
| 28 | Jonas Lauck | Germany | €22 220,00 |
| 29 | Alexis Nicolai | France | €22 220,00 |
| 30 | Eric Sfez | France | €22 220,00 |
| 31 | Jean-Marc Cristiani | France | €22 220,00 |
| 32 | Fabien Motte | France | €19 310,00 |
| 33 | Daniel Golder | UK | €19 310,00 |
| 34 | Shakhabiddin Muradov | Latvia | €19 310,00 |
| 35 | Flavien Mullet | France | €19 310,00 |
| 36 | Aram Sargsyan | Armenia | €19 310,00 |
| 37 | Christophe Panetti | Switzerland | €19 310,00 |
| 38 | Nikolai Tulin | Russia | €19 310,00 |
| 39 | Shyngis Satubayev | Kazakhstan | €19 310,00 |
| 40 | Didrik Mantor | Norway | €16 440,00 |
| 41 | Ole Schemion | Germany | €16 440,00 |
| 42 | Javier Gomez | Spain | €16 440,00 |
| 43 | Andrian Simone | Italy | €16 440,00 |
| 44 | Lucas Sfez | France | €16 440,00 |
| 45 | Rintaro Kagawa | Japan | €16 440,00 |
| 46 | Stephan Salzmann | Switzerland | €16 440,00 |
| 47 | Stefano Ferrara | Italy | €16 440,00 |
| 48 | Laurent Chenet | France | €16 440,00 |
| 49 | Claudio Di Giacomo | Italy | €16 440,00 |
| 50 | Ariel Sebban | France | €16 440,00 |
| 51 | Mikael Guenni | France | €16 440,00 |
| 52 | David Lopez | Spain | €16 440,00 |
| 53 | Sofia Lovgren | Sweden | €16 440,00 |
| 54 | Julien Martini | France | €16 440,00 |
| 55 | Pavel Veksler | Ukraine | €16 440,00 |
| 56 | Guillaume Diaz | France | €13 790,00 |
| 57 | Terje Bremseth | Norway | €13 790,00 |
| 58 | Kamel Atoui | France | €13 790,00 |
| 59 | Artem Kasidin | Switzerland | €13 790,00 |
| 60 | Gaelle Baumann | France | €13 790,00 |
| 61 | Christian Rotundo | Italy | €13 790,00 |
| 62 | Inigo Martin Naveiro | Spain | €13 790,00 |
| 63 | Ramzi Karam | Lebanon | €13 790,00 |
| 64 | Boris Kuzmanovic | Croatia | €13 790,00 |
| 65 | Oliver Bosch | Austria | €13 790,00 |
| 66 | Jérôme Zerbib | France | €13 790,00 |
| 67 | Julien Veyssiere | France | €13 790,00 |
| 68 | Hassan Fares | France | €13 790,00 |
| 69 | Sylvain Loosli | France | €13 790,00 |
| 70 | Dylan Lambert | Switzerland | €13 790,00 |
| 71 | Quang Pham | Vietnam | €13 790,00 |
| 72 | Alexandros Kolonias | Greece | €11 550,00 |
| 73 | Tommaso Briotti | Italy | €11 550,00 |
| 74 | Mikal Blomlie | Norway | €11 550,00 |
| 75 | Leonard Herrmann | Germany | €11 550,00 |
| 76 | Arnaud Mattern | France | €11 550,00 |
| 77 | Mehdi Chaoui | Morocco | €11 550,00 |
| 78 | Franz Bracher | Switzerland | €11 550,00 |
| 79 | Josip Simunic | Austria | €11 550,00 |
| 80 | Sylvestre Ceccaldi | France | €11 550,00 |
| 81 | Andrea Rasulo | Italy | €11 550,00 |
| 82 | Lucien Cohen | France | €11 550,00 |
| 83 | Enrico Mosca | Italy | €11 550,00 |
| 84 | Nicolas Julien | France | €11 550,00 |
| 85 | Demosthenes Kiriopoulos | Canada | €11 550,00 |
| 86 | Mikita Badziakouski | Belarus | €11 550,00 |
| 87 | Pierre Calamusa | France | €11 550,00 |
| 88 | Andrew Hulme | UK | €11 550,00 |
| 89 | Kazuhiko Yotsushika | Japan | €11 550,00 |
| 90 | Marco Regonaschi | Italy | €11 550,00 |
| 91 | Ewen Trevidy | France | €11 550,00 |
| 92 | Joseph Sabe | Lebanon | €11 550,00 |
| 93 | Oleg Bessaev | France | €11 550,00 |
| 94 | Koray Aldemir | Germany | €11 550,00 |
| 95 | Ange Besnainou | France | €11 550,00 |
| 96 | Toru Ida | Japan | €10 410,00 |
| 97 | Antonin Teisseire | France | €10 410,00 |
| 98 | Jeremy Saderne | France | €10 410,00 |
| 99 | Ermo Kosk | Estonia | €10 410,00 |
| 100 | Andreas Bolling | Germany | €10 410,00 |
| 101 | Fabian Quoss | Germany | €10 410,00 |
| 102 | Nicolas Vayssieres | France | €10 410,00 |
| 103 | Leonardo Patacconi | Italy | €10 410,00 |
| 104 | Ladislao Dalfo | Spain | €10 410,00 |
| 105 | David Comeron | Spain | €10 410,00 |
| 106 | Mikalai Vaskaboinikau | Belarus | €10 410,00 |
| 107 | Ermanno Di Nicola | Italy | €10 410,00 |
| 108 | Kent Roed | Norway | €10 410,00 |
| 109 | Kosei Kitano | Japan | €10 410,00 |
| 110 | Fady Kamar | Lebanon | €10 410,00 |
| 111 | Martin Stausholm | Austria | €10 410,00 |
| 112 | Merijn van Rooij | Netherlands | €10 410,00 |
| 113 | Arnaud Peyroles | France | €10 410,00 |
| 114 | Jules Hamidou | Switzerland | €10 410,00 |
| 115 | Miguel Capriles | Portugal | €10 410,00 |
| 116 | Daniel Rezaei | Austria | €10 410,00 |
| 117 | Jonathon Darling | UK | €10 410,00 |
| 118 | Stefan Schillhabel | Germany | €10 410,00 |
| 119 | Tobias Anttila | Finland | €10 410,00 |
| 120 | Tom Kunze | Germany | €9 320,00 |
| 121 | Rainer Kempe | Germany | €9 320,00 |
| 122 | Vahe Ter-Khachatryan | Armenia | €9 320,00 |
| 123 | Diego Zeiter | Switzerland | €9 320,00 |
| 124 | Benjamin Spragg | UK | €9 320,00 |
| 125 | Dan Djorno | France | €9 320,00 |
| 126 | Duong Nguyen | Vietnam | €9 320,00 |
| 127 | Aleksandar Tomovic | Serbia | €9 320,00 |
| 128 | Rafael Moraes Da Silva | Brazil | €9 320,00 |
| 129 | Armin Rezaei | Austria | €9 320,00 |
| 130 | Dmitry Schepkin | Russia | €9 320,00 |
| 131 | Claas Segebrecht | Germany | €9 320,00 |
| 132 | Pierrig Robin | France | €9 320,00 |
| 133 | Youness Ait Hssain | France | €9 320,00 |
| 134 | Maher Nouira | Tunisia | €9 320,00 |
| 135 | Yuri Dzivielevski | Brazil | €9 320,00 |
| 136 | Gangzhou Hu | France | €9 320,00 |
| 137 | Senol Ardic | France | €9 320,00 |
| 138 | Christoph Vogelsang | Germany | €9 320,00 |
| 139 | Marius Levinskas | Lithuania | €9 320,00 |
| 140 | Alex Peffly | UK | €9 320,00 |
| 141 | Jean-Philippe Peyratoux | France | €9 320,00 |
| 142 | Laurent Vauquelin | France | €9 320,00 |
| 143 | Alexandre Reard | France | €9 320,00 |
| 144 | Julien Mariani | France | €8 690,00 |
| 145 | Alexander Tkatschew | Germany | €8 690,00 |
| 146 | Alexandre Amiel | France | €8 690,00 |
| 147 | Wang Tin | Hong Kong | €8 690,00 |
| 148 | Henry Strasser | Canada | €8 690,00 |
| 149 | Michael Chetrit | France | €8 690,00 |
| 150 | Csaba Bakk | Hungary | €8 690,00 |
| 151 | Massou Cohen | France | €8 690,00 |
| 152 | Jon Kyte | Norway | €8 690,00 |
| 153 | Davidi Kitai | Belgium | €8 690,00 |
| 154 | Krystian Wrobel | Poland | €8 690,00 |
| 155 | Leo Margets | Spain | €8 690,00 |
| 156 | Matas Cimbolas | Lithuania | €8 690,00 |
| 157 | Timothy Adams | Canada | €8 690,00 |
| 158 | Viliyan Petleshkov | Bulgaria | €8 690,00 |
| 159 | Paul Hoefer | Germany | €8 690,00 |
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