Eurosport - Mon, 10 Nov 16:21:00 2008
Will Fry of Nottingham won the first European Poker Tour Hungarian Open.
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
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