There is a new player standing at the top of the leaderboard in terms of the Greek all-time money winning table, as Sotirios Koutoupas has recently become the first of a Greek player to win a European Poker Tour title. This is certainly not the type of man who waste his time on sites like Slots Jungle, as he has clearly been putting in a lot of time at the poker table – he took down the 2014 European Poker Tour Deauville main event for a payday which was worth €614,000, or $839,670. This follows his previous biggest score which happened in 2012, when he was the runner-up at the European Poker Tour main event in Prague for a win of €666,614.
Following his recent and impressive Victorian friends, the thirty-one-year-old player can now boast $1,583,469 in live earnings which will propel him to the number one spot on the all-time money list in Greece. Commenting on the win, he said: “it was my time now, it was my time to win. I was very lucky today in some situations but that’s poker. Everything well now for me. After Prague I had some more to do.” The main event attracted a field of 671 players in order to create a prize pool which was worth $4,404,573, and the final table saw eight players including Koutoupas going up against one another for the title. These included Anthony Lerust, Harry Law, Eli Heath, Oliver Price, and the runner-up, team PokerStars pro player Eugene Katchalov. Koutoupas managed to take him down in order to be rewarded with the main event Crown, while Katchalov had to be contended with second. The place was worth €379,500 to him, and commenting on his deep run in the competition, he said: “At this point in my career I’m obviously looking for first place and the Triple Crown is always in the back of mind, but at the same time I realise how hard it is to win a tournament. I think I was a lot more upset in Barcelona. I think I’ve grown up and don’t put so much pressure on myself to win. I’m satisfied with second place. I’ve got a lot of money to soothe my wounds!”
Down in eighth place, Lerust managed to walk away with €63,900, so there was a good spread of payouts right across the board, allowing all of the final table players to keep their heads held high. This is a fantastic result for Koutoupas in particular, however, as it means that not only does he managed to create a new world record by being the first Greek player to have that kind of victory, but he also puts himself right at the forefront of the poker playing world in his country by getting a win which is very impressive indeed and puts him right at the top of the leaderboard. That kind of advantage is very important in a game which relies on mental games as much as the luck of the cards.