Tournaments - Fry tucks in

Eurosport - Mon, 10 Nov 16:21:00 2008

Will Fry of Nottingham won the first European Poker Tour Hungarian Open.

Chips, POKER - 0

The 28-year-old won the $759,456 first prize and a seat to the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo after defeating 531 players in the $5,544 sell-out event.

In one of the quickest heads-up matches in EPT history, Fry took down 35-year-old Romanian Ciprian Hrisca and the first EPT Hungarian Open championship in less than 30 minutes.

The final hand began with raises and re-raises until all the chips ended up in the middle preflop. Hrisca's Ace of clubs and six of diamonds went up against Fry's pocket jacks.

With queens and jacks, Fry won the hand and the championship to send Hrisca home in second place with $436,688.

"I'm going to pay my mortgage, help out my family and friends, and look into some good charities to help stop third-world hunger," said Fry.

"I'm going to try to do my bit to help and hopefully others will get involved."

Fry has been playing poker since he was six years old but only took up Texas Hold 'Em eight years ago. For the past five years, the former croupier and art student has made poker his full-time job, specialising in online cash games.

"They were the first good cards I'd had in ages," said Fry.

"Up until then I'd been re-raising with rubbish. If I get good cards, I can be pretty dangerous."

The inaugural EPT Budapest tournament included 71 Hungarian players and attracted players from all over the world.

Hungarians have proven an increasingly impressive force on the international poker scene with players including Denes Kalo, twice runner on last season's EPT, and Valdemar Kwaysser, who won the Latin America Poker Tour event in Costa Rica this year.

Hungarian businessman Zoltan Toth, 41, carried Hungary's hopes into the final day, ending in seventh place for $100,356 (78,736).

"The EPT has once again proved that we can move into emerging markets like Hungary and provide a sell-out tournament," said EPT founder John Duthie.

"The support from the local players has been overwhelming and players have been happy to travel from all over the world to attend the inaugural event in Budapest.

The next stop on the European Poker Tour is the Warsaw event from November 15-19 at Casinos Poland at the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

Results (prize money in euros):

1 William Fry (Britain) 595,835

2 Ciprian Hrisca (Romania) 342,608

3 Martin Jacobson (Sweden) 197,904

4 Albert Iverson (Denmark) 153,216

5 Marino Serenelli (Italy) 127,680

6 Gino Alacqua (Italy) 100,016

7 Zoltan Toth (Hungary) 78,736

8 Johnny Lodden (Norway) 53,200

9 Ivo Donev (Austria) 32,984

10 Sebastian Saffari (Britain) 32,984

11 Robin Keston (Britain) 23,402

12 Menno Bussinik (Netherlands) 23,408

13 Simeon Tsonev (Bulgaria) 32,984

14 Oleg Korotkov (Russia) 23,408

15 Casey Kastle (USA) 12,768

16 Christophe Haller (Germany) 12,768

17 LBritainas Bencovic (Slovakia) 10,640

18 Jari-Pekka Juhola (Finland) 10,640

19 Micha Hoedemaker (Netherlands) 10,640

20 Ofer Golko (Israel) 10,640

21 Denis Volkov (Russia) 10,640

22 Tibor Tolnai (Hungary) 10,640

23 Alexander Kravchenko (Russia) 10,640

24 Nicolo Calia (Italy) 10,640

25 Pantelis Pavlis (Greece) 8,512

26 Pasquale Braco (Italy) 8,512

27 Dwayne Stacey (Britain) 8,512

28 Mauro Corsetti (Italy) 8,512

29 Tommi Etelapera (Finland) 8,512

30 Christophe Wemebelke (France) 8,512

31 Janek Schleicher (Germany) 8,512

32 Nicholas Maieritsch (USA) 8,512

33 Ofir Abramovivi (Israel) 7,448

34 Dave Hardy (Britain) 7,448

35 Robert Firestone (USA) 7,448

36 Jacek Ladny (Poland) 7,448

37 Brice Cournut (France) 7,448

38 Rikard Englund (Sweden) 7,448

39 Milan Andrejkovics (Hungary) 7,448

40 Severin Walser (Switzerland) 7,448

41 Szabolcs Attila Saskoy (Hungary) 6,384

42 George McKeever (Ireland) 6,384

43 Symeon Pyrakis (Greece) 6,384

44 Massimiliano Rosa (Italy) 6,384

45 Stefano Fiore (Italy) 6,384

46 Ionel Anton (Romania) 6,384

47 Pier Luigi Scatola (Italy) 6,384

48 Alan Baekke (Denmark) 6,384

49 Tristan Clemencon (France) 5,320

50 Ludovic Lacay (France) 5,320

51 Mario Puccini (Germany) 5,320

52 Kara Scott (Britain) 5,320

53 Peter Zamiska (Slovakia) 5,320

54 Sorel Mizzi (Canada) 5,320

55 Daniel Ryan (USA) 5,320

56 Aditya Agarwal (India) 5,320

Angus MacKenzie / Eurosport

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