A poker player turned a €530 online satellite on PokerStars into a million-plus payoff by winning the European Poker Tour Monte Carlo Main Event.
Aleksandr Shevliakov won €1 million ($1,130,352) and the PokerStars trophy for being the last player standing at Sporting Monte Carlo in the headliner. The €5,300 event attracted a 828 field who also rebought 367 times to build a prize pool of €5,795,750 ($6,551,239).
Shevliakov, an IT professional from Russia, doubled his lifetime best of $541,206 for finishing second in a €10,000 buy-in at the 2023 EPT Paris festival.
“I won. It’s a dream come true. This is it,” the 37-year-old said afterwards.
This was the second-largest EPT Monte Carlo in its history, just missing out in tying last year’s 1,208 entry field by 13. These numbers are being reached in no small part by the online qualifiers that run on PokerStars, which owns the EPT.
Alexandros Kolonias, the 2019 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event champ, stalled in 15th. WSOP Circuit ring record-holder and four-time bracelet winner Ari Engel made it to 34th. It’s a given the event attracted many of the best in the world, and they did well in the side events.
Nguyen, Lonis among high-roller winners
The Main Event was part of a 42 event series that took place in Monte Carlo April 30 to May 10. Buy-ins ranged from €330 all the way up to the super high roller event’s €100,000 — with all sorts of buy-ins between.
Of course, several well name pros found their way on top of the fields — just like they always do.
Germany’s Christofer Nguyen had a fantastic EPT Monte Carlo, making three final tables winning a total of €2.4 million ($2.7 million). He was the winner of the €100,000 Super High Roller event for €2 million ($2.2 million). He also won €50,100 ($56,923) for a fifth-place finish in the €10,000 knockout event, and also banked a third-place finish in the €50,000 super high roller event for €352,000 ($398,772).
Jesse Lonis also had a solid series, making three final tables for a €631,902 total ($714,155). Most of that came by winning the €30,000 Super High Roller Warm-up for €449,802 ($508, 000). He nearly won a €10,200 no-limit event, but stalled in second-place cash of €143,600 ($161,947). He started this run by finishing sixth in the €10,000 knock-out event for €38,500 ($43,743).
He will soon more into the $16 million lifetime total neighborhood.
Another regular on the high-roller tournament trail was David Peters, who was the 25,000 event for 409,412 ($464,112). He also finished sixth for €25,900 ($29,509) in the €10,000 mystery bounty event. He now has nine finishes in ninth-place or nine or better in 2025. This was his first win of the year.
