EPT result

European Poker Tour, San Remo, Italy, 1-5 April

Entrants: 701
Buy in: €4,700 + 300
Prize pool: €3,195,860

Final results:
1. Jason Mercier, USA, €1,364,330
2. Antony Lellouche, France, €792,850
3. Dario Minieri, Italy. €451,532
4. Eric Koskas, France, €702,104
5. Gregory Genovese, Italy, €295,945
6. William Thorson, Sweden, €220,742
7. Dag Palovic, Slovakia, €175,526
8. Marcus Bower, USA, €120,419

Jason Mercier of the USA won the biggest poker tournament ever held in Italy today, the €3.1m sell-out PokerStars.com EPT San Remo.

The 21-year-old math teacher from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, overcame a field of 701 players to secure a first prize of €869,000 ($1.35m).

In the fastest final table in EPT history, Mercier busted Frenchmen Antony Lellouche (2nd) and Erik Koskas (4th), plus local Italian champion Dario Minieri (3rd) in just two and a half hours.

Mercier qualified for the €5,000 event via an online satellite on PokerStars, the world’s largest online cardroom. He said: "I felt pretty confident of winning after making a tough call against Eric. That was when I really started to believe I could win."

The play against Koskas, where Mercier successfully called the Frenchman’s all-in bluff with a pair of fives, was the talk of the San Remo casino. Eric Koskas said afterwards: "It wasn’t just an amazing call. It was the best poker play I have ever seen."

With Mercier now holding 80 per cent of the chips, it took him just two hands to eliminate Lellouche in 2nd place. It was Lellouche’s fourth EPT cash – the popular Frenchman already cashed at two EPT Grand Finals and came sixth at EPT London last September.

Minieri, who started the day as chip leader, benefitted from vociferous support from a strongly partisan Italian crowd. The 23-year-old from Roman fell to Mercier when his pair of queens was beaten by a flush on the river.

Among the star names in San Remo were Tony G, Patrick Antonius, Todd Brunson and Roland de Wolfe, as well as TeamPokerStars Pros Daniel Negreanu, Luca Pagano, Katja Thater, Noah Boeken, Vanessa Rousso, Lee Nelson, Raymond Rahme and Isabelle Mercier, plus 164 players who won their seats online with PokerStars.

Mercier was playing in only his second live event. He wins not only the San Remo title but a seat in next week’s €10,000 EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo which starts next week (12-17 April). Online qualifier satellites are running on PokerStars until midnight Eastern Time tomorrow (6 April).