Max Altergott Wins European Poker Tour Grand Final €100,000 Super High Roller

The 2013 European Poker Tour Grand Final €100,000 no-limit hold’em super high roller drew a total of 50 entries, building a a prize pool of €4,851,000 ($6,275,253 USD). The eventual champion was Max Altergott, a high-stakes online cash-game player who is known as “AltiFC.” For the win Altergott earned €1,746,400 ($2,259,143 USD) and 600 Card Player Player of the Year points.

Runner-up Jason Mercier earned €1,115,700 ($1,443,270 USD) and 500 points, climbing to 47th place in the POY standings as a result of this score, his seventh-place finish in the EPT Grand Final main event and a win in a €2,000 open-face Chinese poker re-entry event just days earlier. All told, the American pro cashed for $1,684,063 while in Monte Carlo.

Mercier entered the day as the chip leader amongst the final seven players, holding roughly a third of the chips in play as the day began. He survived to heads-up play with 5,150,000 to Altergott’s 7,350,000 but was able to re-take a slight chiplead just a few hands later.

This lead was short lived however, as the next deal brought the largest hand of the tournament. With blinds of 50,000-100,000 with a 10,000 ante, Altergott raised to 200,000 and Mercier three-bet to 505,000. Altergott raised again to 1 million and Mercier called.

The flop brought the J87 and Mercier checked, prompting Altergott to bet 700,000. Mercier called and the 4 hit the turn. Mercier check-shoved over Altergott’s 1.2 million chip bet and after a moments consideration, Altergott called with QQ. Mercier flipped up the K7, meaning that he had 14 outs to win the tournament. The 2 on the river was not one of those outs, however, and Altergott’s queens were enough to win the massive pot and leave Mercier crippled. Moments later it was all over.

In addition to Mercier, Altergott outlasted a number of other top poker talents including Sorel Mizzi (3rd – €679,100), Timothy Adams (4th – €485,100) Scott Seiver (6th – €266,900) and Mike Watson (7th – €218,300). This was Watson’s fifth final table of the year, and the 150 POY points he earned saw him climb to ninth-place in the POY standings with 1,904 points and year-to-date earnings of $971,883.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at this final table:

Photos courtesy of PokerStars and Neil Stoddart.