19-year-old American scoops first place

They say youth is fearless and that was certainly proved right over the weekend in Monaco, as 19-year-old Jeff Williams from Atlanta, Georgia, USA, took down the European Poker Tour Grand Final event, winning a first place prize of €900,000 ($1,078,000).

The Pokerstars.com qualifier known online as "yellowsub86" beat a field of 298 fellow poker players including three World Champions, at the €10,000 buy-in tournament at the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort.

The event saw current WSOP Main Event Champion Joe Hachem arrive in style by helicopter, but he, along with some of the world’s top professional players were unable to halt tyro Williams’ relentless progress to the final table, and then the chip lead, and then the title.

The final table had a nice international flavour, which was fitting for such a cracking tournament. Six countries were represented in the eight chairs with Tierry Cazals (France), Aleksander Strandli (Norway,) Jeff Williams (USA), Marcel Luske (The Netherlands), Marc Karam (Canada), Arshad Hussain (UK), Fraser Dunphy (UK), and Ross Boatman (UK) all in it to win it at the final stage.

Tierry Cazals was leader going into the final table but Williams soon amassed a massive chip lead and saw off Arshad Hussain in heads-up to claim the win. Williams’ A-10 offsuit was enough to beat the UK player’s A-8 offsuit.

This was Williams’ first major live tournament, and his tender age means he won’t be able to toast his win with his homies on his return stateside, as he’s not yet old enough to drink!