Jannick Wrang wins EPT Campione

Here at PokerPlayer we love singing the praises of Team UK, and the past few years have been kind to our nation’s talent. But Season 8 of the European Poker Tour has belonged to one country alone. And after Jannick “EDWARDHOPPER” Wrang’s marathon victory in Campione, Team Denmark has now won a staggering three EPT main events on the bounce.

Wrang banked a tidy €640,000 after beating American Olivier Busquet heads-up,  following fellow countrymen Mickey Petersen and Frederick Jensen into the EPT history books after their recent wins in Copenhagen and Madrid respectively.

Wrang has been an EPT regular since Season 3, but aside from a handful of tour and WSOP cashes,  his best results have come online, with the 31-year-old PLO tournament specialist up almost $1,000,000 on PokerStars alone.

But the €640,000 first prize is by far the biggest in Wrang’s career, and it came at the expense of Busquet – widely regarded as one of the best heads-up sit-n-go players in the world and an EPT veteran who already has a runner-up finish at the EPT6 Grand Final High Roller and a fourth place at EPT London High Roller last October to his name.

Wrang, who won his seat to Campione in a $109 re-buy satellite on PokerStars, had to overcome 570 players from 48 countries to bank his share of the €2,764,500 prizepool. And in the final hand, he crushed Busquet’s hopes of winning a first EPT title when the Dane’s Ah-6d outdrew the American’s Ad-9h on a As-3h-5h-10h-2h board.

After the 13-hour final – one of the longest in EPT history – Wrang said: “Of course I’m thrilled! I’ve been wanting this for many years but I’m also pretty busted after five days. I knew of Busquet’s reputation as a heads-up player and I wasn’t intimidated, but I also knew it wasn’t going to be easy. The final was 14 hours against very tough opponents. It was brutal.”

Here’s how the final table finished up:

1. Jannick Wrang  €640,000
2. Olivier Busquet  €430,000
3. Fabrice Soulier  €240,000
4. Balazs Botond  €157,000
5. Koen De Visscher  €124,000
6. Mario Nagel  €92,000
7. Stefano Puccilli  €71,500
8. Robin Ylitalo  €54,000