Michael Watson Wins Monte Carlo Main Event For Second European Poker Tour Title

Michael Watson defeated a field of 1,098 entries to capture the 2023 European Poker Tour Monte Carlo €5,300 no-limit hold’em main event title. For the win, the 39-year-old Canadian poker pro earned $801,885 in prize money, and the honor of becoming just the third player in history to have earned multiple EPT main event titles, joining Victoria Coren Mitchell and Mikalai Pobal.

“Couldn’t be happier with the accomplishment,” Watson told PokerStars reporters after coming out on top. “It’s definitely something that I’m really thrilled with. I’m going to keep trying to build on it, of course. But it’s definitely a huge result.”

“Winning two main events on the same tour is really, really hard thing to do,” Watson said. “I think it’s definitely right up there, maybe the biggest accomplishment of my poker career and I’m really happy with that.”

Watson’s first EPT main event victory came at the 2016 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. He overcame a field of 928 entries in that tournament to cash for nearly $730,000. He also has a World Poker Tour main event win to his name, having taken down the 2008 WPT Bellagio Cup for nearly $1.7 million.

Watson now has just shy of $20 million in recorded tournament earnings, placing him fifth on Canada’s all-time money list.

This latest victory saw Watson earn 1,920 Card Player Player of the Year points. It was his third title and fifth final-table finish of the year. With 3,240 total points and more than $2.3 million in to-date POY earnings, Watson is now ranked seventh in the 2023 POY race standings presented by Global Poker.

The EPT Monte Carlo main event played out over the course of seven days inside the Salle Des Étoiles at Monte-Carlo Sporting in the principality of Monaco along the French Riviera. The event featured two starting flights on April 30 and May 1, and then allowed five more days for the 1,098-entry field that resulted by the end of registration to play down to a champion.

The top 159 finishers made the money in this event, with accomplished players like bracelet winner Orpen Kisacikoglu (40th), PokerStars Players Championship winner Ramon Collilas (32nd), 2023 PCA main event runner-up Pedro Neves (20th), bracelet winner Peter Aerts (17th), 2021 EPT Sochi main event champion Artur Martirosian (14th), and bracelet winner Jason Wheeler (7th) all running deep. Wheeler’s elimination at the hands of Leo Worthington-Leese brought a close to day 5, with Worthington-Leese just edging out Watson for the chip lead when his set of sixes held against Wheeler’s flush draw.

Watson was able to move back atop the leaderboard in the early action of the final day. He then extended his chip advantage thanks to a preflop cooler that saw his pocket jacks best the pocket tens of bracelet winner Arnaud Enselme (6th – $193,563).

Samy Boujmala was the next to fall, with most of his stack heading to Worthington-Leese when pocket queens held against Boujmala’s pocket jacks. Boujmala then got in the rest of his stack with K-Q trailing the A-Q of Worthington-Leese. Both players made queens up, but the superior kicker for Worthington-Leese earned him the pot. Boujmala took home $251,611 as the fifth-place finisher.

Joachim Haraldstad got his last six or so big blinds in preflop with K-6 from the small blind. Watson called with 10-8 suited and flopped trip tens to take a commanding lead. He ended up backing into a flush to eliminate Haraldstad (4th – $327,153).

Not long after that, Worthington-Leese got all-in on a 973 flop with 105 for a flush draw. He was up against the JJ of Leonard Maue. The 5 on the turn gave Worthington-Leese a pair for some additional outs, but the 6 on the end sent him packing in third place ($425,272).

Watson entered heads-up play with 17,500,000 to Maue’s 15,425,000. The two struck a deal to redistribute the remaining prize money which left nearly $36,000 and the title to play for.

Maue overtook the lead in the early going, but Watson soon won a big pot with his top pair and king kicker besting the same pair with a six kicker for Maue. That hand gave Watson a 3:1 lead. Maue battled back to nearly even at one point, but Watson was able to re-extend his chip advantage to better than 2:1 again by the time the final hand was dealt. Watson raised on the button with 109 and Maue defended his big blind with 43. The flop came down 1075 and Watson made a continuation bet when checked to. Maue check-raised with his gutshot straight draw and Watson called with top pair. The turn brought the A, prompting checks from both players. The 7 on the end paired the board and Maue moved all-in. Watson thought it over for a few minutes before making the call to earn the pot and the title. Maue earned $745,977 as the runner-up, the largest live tournament score yet for the German professional poker player.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded on the final day:

Photo credit: Danny Maxwell / Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd.