The first leg of the inaugural European Masters of Poker series, held in Tallin, Estonia at the weekend, has been won by Johanna Pyysing from Finland who 
topped the field of 248 players ahead of former EPT Barcelona winner Bjorn-Erik Glenne from Norway.
Pyysing lifted €69,440 for his victory in the €1,000 + €100 buy-in event which created a prize pool of €248,000 which, in the current economic climate and with so much competition in the live poker arena, is a staggering achievement.
Third place went to Canadian former chess prodigy Jeff Sarwer.
- Johanna Pyysing (Finland) €69,440
- Bjorn-Erik Glenne (Norway) €44,640
- Jeff Sawrer (Canada) €29,760
- Janne Rusanen (Finland) €17,360
- David Hefner (Sweden) €13,392
- Sami Ollila (Finland) €10,664
- Daniel Destici (Sweden) €8,928
- Matias Knappinen (Finland) €7,440
- Janne Laaksonen (Finland) €5,925
The European Masters of Poker is a five-stop Tour which will move on to Bulgaria, Spain, Prague, and Malta. Each event has an estimated starting field of 200-400 participants offering a top prize of between €50,000 to €100,000.
Additionally the series runs a leaderboard offering cash prizes with the player who tops the league after the last stop receiving cash and a watch worth €10,000. Detials of the next venue remain to be release but the event will occur in April 2009.
