Norwegian Tops Record Field In PokerStars Open Monte Carlo

The European Poker Tour Monte Carlo festival has featured a €1,100 buy-in kickoff event for more than a decade now. While this series-starting tournament has long been known as the France Poker Series main event, it was one of many smaller regional tour tentpoles to be unified under the PokerStars Open banner this year.

The name change was seemingly well received, as this year’s running drew a record turnout of 2,387 entries to beat the previous top showing of 2,138 that was set in 2023. The sea of players that turned out to the inaugural PokerStars Open Monte Carlo at Sporting Monte-Carlo created a prize pool worth nearly $2.6 million when rendered in US dollars. The top 358 finishers all earned a share, with the top five each securing a six-figure payday.

The largest of all of those payouts was the $384,200 secured by eventual champion Jon Kyte. This was the second-biggest score of the Norwegian player’s tournament career, trailing only the $694,440 he earned as the runner-up in the 2023 EPT Prague main event. Kyte now has more than $3 million in recorded cashes to his name, including ten titles.

This latest win came with 1,080 Card Player Player of the Year points for Kyte, who has now made five final tables in 2025. With 1,696 total points, he now sits just outside the top 50 in the overall POY race standings.

The PokerStars Open Monte Carlo main event ran from April 30 through May 4, with four starting flights and three more days of combined-field action. The final day began with just six contenders remaining and Kyte in the lead.

Eventual runner-up Gilles Cadignan had begun the final day in second chip position and was able to join Kyte in converting that advantage into a top-two showing. Cadignan’s final hand saw his K7 clash against KQ for Kyte. The board came down K10833 and Kyte’s kicker played to bring the event to a close.

Cadignan earned $241,899 for his efforts, by far the largest tournament result for the Frenchman.

Final Table Results

Photo credit: Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd. / Danny Maxwell.