Florida maths teacher Jason Mercier was the winner of the European Poker Tour event in San Remo, the biggest poker tournament ever to have taken place in Italy.

Online qualifier Mercier landed a whopping 869.000 first prize after over 700 entries paid a 5000 buy-in to take the total prize pool over 3.2 million.

It was only Mercier's second major tournament and was certainly more successful than his first when he departed on day one of the EPT event in the Caribbean earlier this year.

Mercier was second in terms of chip stack, with 1.591 million, entering the final table behind home favourite Dario Minieri who held 1.832 million.

Antony Lellouche of France (1.192 million), Italy's Gregory Genovese (694,000), the Slovak Dag Palovic (585,000), Eric Koskas, also of France, (449,000), Swede William Thorson (418,000) and Mercier's compatriot Marcus Bower (278,000) completed a final table with a real international flavour.

Bower was the first to depart with 76,700 for his efforts after he was eliminated by Lellouche. The American had lost 123,000 of his short stack and went All-In with what was left with pocket fours only for the river to conjure up an Ace and give the Frenchman the winning pair.

Palovic had to settle for the seventh placed 111,800 cheque as Mineri delighted the tifosi by winning a big hand. The Italian had called the Slovak's 96 thousand raise and Palovic went All-In with pocket Queens only for the home hero to land three trips on the flop.

The players were departing at a rapid rate and Mercier improved his stack at the expense of Thorson. The Scandinavian went All-In pre-flop with an Ace, Queen but the flop handed the American a pair of Aces which held up and meant Thorson was forced to exit with 140.600 to his name.

Mercier continued to cull the opposition with Genovese booted out in fifth for 188.500. The second Italian at the final table went All-In post-flop trailing Mercier's pair of Aces and he received no help from the board.

The American then belied his lack of final table experience to account for Koskas (fourth for 223.600) as he called the Frenchman's bluff All-In with pocket fives.

Then came the pivotal moment of the fast moving finale as the home faithful were left disappointed with Minieri's departure.

Minieri was denied the chance to break his big tournament victory duck as the cards fell for Mercier. A three of diamonds on the river landing the flush and trumping the Italian's pocket queens.

Minieri claimed 287,600 and just two hands later Lellouche knew that he had to be content with the 505,000 cheque for second place.

The aggressive Lellouche still had a relatively deep stack entering the heads-up and raised and then reraised, prompting Mercier to go All-in and he was met by an instant call from Lellouche.

Lellouche showed pocket sevens to Mercier's King, Queen and the flop brought the American a further Queen.

The turn and river offered no help to the Frenchman and after just two and a half hours the shortest final table in the history of the European Poker Tour was over.

Mercier said after the victory: "I felt pretty confident of winning after making a tough call against Eric. That was when I really started to believe I could win."

The young American will now be hoping for a repeat in the EPT finale in Monte Carlo.

Angus MacKenzie / Eurosport