Ioannis Poullos Claims €2,200 FPS High Roller Trophy After Three-Way Chop
After a marathon 16-hour final day the last hand has been dealt in the €2,200 FPS High Roller here at the 2024 PokerStars European Poker Tour Monte Carlo hosted at Sporting Monte Carlo. After the dust had settled Ioannis Poullos stood triumphant over a field of 1,217 entrants, earning €288,635 for his victory after a three-way ICM chop that also included runner up Mathieu Di Meglio and third-place finisher Javier Gomez.
The victory marks a career-best score for Poullos, besting a fifth place finish in the €3,000 Mystery Bounty event at the 2023 EPT Prague this past December where he won €65,150.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (EUR) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ioannis Poullos | Greece | €288,635* |
| 2 | Mathieu Di Meglio | France | €278,123* |
| 3 | Javier Gomez | Spain | €266,540* |
| 4 | Javier Fernandez | Spain | €138,630 |
| 5 | Vladas Tamasauskas | Lithuania | €106,870 |
| 6 | Taran Parmar | Canada | €82,430 |
| 7 | Joachim Meisolle | Germany | €63,230 |
| 8 | Stephane Gabarre | France | €48,180 |
| 9 | Julien Thome | France | €37,060 |
* Denotes three-way ICM chop
Final Day Highlights
A total of 181 players survived from one of two Day 1 starting flights to advance to the final day. All players to make the final day were guaranteed at least a min-cash of €3,290 and players wasted no time in the early levels trying to build up a stack in pursuit of the lion’s share of the €2,336,640 prize pool.
Toni Kaukua started the day with a top ten stack and found himself at the top of the chip counts in the early levels after forcing a big fold from start of day chip leader Kamel Marzouk. Kaukua would enjoy the chip lead for most of the first half of the day but couldn’t keep the momentum going in the later levels and would ultimately fall in 28th place for €8,740.
Some notables who made the second day but fell short of the final table include Ole Schemion (74th - €5,000), Dominik Nitsche (71st - €5,750), Antoine Labat (45th - €6,610), Andrew Hulme (39th - €7,590) and Arsenii Karmatckii (26th - €10,050).
Poullos was under the radar for the first half of the day until he found himself on the right side of an aces versus kings cooler to soar up the chip counts. Poullos continued to accumulate chips from that point all the way to the final table where he entered with the chip lead. Just behind him was Di Meglio, who scored a pivotal double up through Vladas Tamasauskas just before the final table.
Julien Thome became the first final table casualty after running into Poullos' pocket aces. Thome was followed out the door by Stephane Gabarre, Joachim Meisolle and Taran Parmar in eight, seventh and sixth place respectively. Di Meglio knocked out both Gabarre and Meisolle and by that point he had begun to close the gap between himself and Poullos for the chip lead.
Javier Gomez entered the final table with the second shortest stack but did an excellent job laddering up until just five players remained. From that point on Gomez would go on a late-night heater. First he decimated the stack of Vladas Tamasauskas who bowed out in fifth place right afterwards. Gomez followed this up by knocking out his fellow countryman Javier Fernandez in fourth place and by that point the three remaining stacks were somewhat close, with Poullos holding a now-modest lead over his two opponents.
The final three players immediately began discussing a deal following the elimination of Fernandez. After a few minutes of negotiation, they came to an agreement that saw the remaining prize pool split close to even. Poullos, who had never relinquished the chip lead at any point during the final table, claimed the trophy and €288,635 while Di Meglio and Gomez settled for €278,123 and €266,540 respectively.
That concludes our coverage for this event but stay tuned as the PokerNews team will be covering all the action tomorrow for both the final day of the €100,000 Super High Roller and the second starting flight for the €5,300 Main Event.