Italian Raffaele Sorrentino has won the main event of the first PokerStars Championship in Monte Carlo.

The winning prize was €500,800 but Sorrentino and runner-up Andreas Klatt struck a chip-chop deal that left €15,000 to play for.

Klatt was guaranteed €402,768 while the chipleader at the time had €451,714 locked up. As it went, Sorrentino took the extra cash and the title, too.

A Dream Come True

“It’s a dream come true,” said an exhausted but happy Sorrentino after his win. “I was feeling like I could do this one week ago, and the closer it got, the more I believed in it.” 

“I was really tired in the end. I re-raised too high with my aces but I was lucky that the other guy had queens.”

Sorrentino, an Italian who lived in Malta (he made the money in last year’s Battle of Malta) but flew in to play this week from Mexico, took over the chip lead early on Day 6 and slowly but surely extended it all the way to the end.

With 200 big blinds still on the table it took a major set-up for the heads-up to finish. Both players had shown to be the strongest at the table and it looked like this could become a very long finale.

Instead, after a quick deal, it took just around two hours until it was all over. The Italian picked up pocket aces and while his opponent believed his pocket queens would have to be the best hand, little did he know.

The chips went in and the board ran dry so Sorrentino claimed the title with the best starting hand in Texas Hold’em.

Runner-up Andreas Klatt, however, was the player who made the most headlines in Monte Carlo. He won the PokerStars National Championship a few days ago only to almost repeat the feat in the main event.

Main Event Numbers

• Buy-In: €5,300 NLHE
• Dates: April 29 – May 5
• Field: 727 players
• Prize pool: €3,525,950

Final-Table Payouts

Place	Name	Country	Prize
1	Raffaele Sorrentino	Italy	€466,714*
2	Andreas Klatt	Germany	€402,768*
3	Andrey Bondar	Russia	€271,500
4	Maxim Panyak	Russia	€199,900
5	Michael Kolkowicz	France	€147,120
6	Diego Zeiter	Switzerland	€108,300
7	Davidi Kitai	Belgium	€79,750
8	Romain Nardin	France	€58,740

*2-way deal

Bryn Kenney, Adrian Mateos Take Big Paydays

The largest pay-outs in Monaco this week went to Bryn Kenney (€1,874,500) and Vlacheslav Buldygin (€1,290,800) who came first and second in the €100k Super High Roller.

Julian Stuer defeated John Juanda to win the 3-day €25k High Roller event for €1,015,000 and Adrian Mateos (€908,000) took down the €50k event.

PSC Monte Carlo High Roller results

€10,300 NLHE, April 25-27, 110 entries

Place	Name	Country	Prize
1	Ole Schemion	Germany	€274,450
2	Murad Akhundov	Azerbeijan	€188,860
3	Koray Aldemir	Germany	€123,770

€100,000 NLHE, April 27-29, 61 entries

Place	Name	Country	Prize
1	Bryn Kenney	US	€1,874,500
2	Vlacheslav Buldygin	Russia	€1,290,800
3	Daniel Dvoress	Canada	€832,800

€50,000 NLHE, April 30, 64 entries

Place	Name	Country	Prize
1	Adrian Mateos	Spain	€908,000
2	Daniel Dvoress	Canada	€652,700
3	Erik Seidel	US	€423,800

€10,300 PLO, May 1-2, 60 entries

Place	Name	Country	Prize
1	Imad Derwiche	France	€174,600
2	Sampo Ryynanen	Finland	€126,300
3	Sylvain Loosli	France	€81,500

€25,500 NLHE, May 2, 85 entries

Place	Name	Country	Prize
1	Philipp Gruissem	Germany	€485,135
2	Steve O’Dwyer	US	€494,665
3	John Juanda	Indonesia	€266,550

€25,750 NLHE, May 3-5, 187 entries

Place	Name	Country	Prize
1	Julian Stuer	Germany	€1,015,000
2	John Juanda	Indonesia	€683,900
3	Thomas Mühlöcker	Austria	€471,400

The PokerStars Championship now moves to another venue where it hasn’t been before. From May 20 the next PSC will take place on the shores of the Black Sea in Sochi, Russia, former host of the Olympic Winter Games.

The main event starts on May 25 and TV coverage will commence on Saturday, May 27.