In 2007, the European Poker Tour grew tremendously. A far cry from the seven event tournament series that launched two years before, the EPT ballooned in 2007 to include eight events, adding stops in Dortmund and Warsaw in the process (the French event was no more). Many of the tournaments boasted 5,000 Euro buy-ins, five times higher than was the norm in 2005; the Grand Final in Monte Carlo was once again carried a 10,000 Euro price tag. For the second straight year, an American emerged victorious from Monaco. In the 2006 Grand Final, it was Jeff Williams. In 2007, Gavin Griffin won the Grand Final, taking home 1.8 million Euros in the process. A blistering 706 poker hopefuls from around the world entered the Grand Final, more than double the total from a year earlier. Just like in the United States, the poker boom was officially on.
Griffin was already a champion. The youngster turned 21 in August, 2002, and had a World Series of Poker bracelet around his wrist within a year. Griffin won the $3,000 Pot Limit Omaha event in the 2004 WSOP, his first cash ever in the series, and walked away with $270,420. He defeated Gary Bush heads up. Phil Hellmuth and Phi Nguyen also made the final table, meaning Griffin marched through a gauntlet to victory. Coincidentally, Rob Hollink, the winner of the first EPT Monte Carlo event, finished 10th in the WSOP event.
Griffin defeated Canadian Mark Karam heads up. Karam placed fourth in the Monte Carlo Grand Final in 2006, making him one of the most feared players on the EPT. Karam’s consistency netted him just over one million Euros. Denmark native Soren Kongsgaard finished third, taking home 610,550 Euros. Norweigan Kristian Kjondal placed fourth in Monte Carlo in 2007. It was his second cash of the eight tournament EPT season. Kjondal also finished 36th in the Baden tournament.
If you’re looking for top tournament players in the EPT, look no further than Andy Black. The Ireland native cruised to a seventh place finish in Monte Carlo and had two other top 20 finishes in the tour during the season. Black finished 20th in the Dublin event and 15th in Baden. Black is probably best known for finishing fifth in the 2005 WSOP Main Event, which was won by PokerStars pro Joe Hachem. He turned $10,000 into $1.75 million in Las Vegas. In Monaco, Black cashed for 238,000 Euros.
Then there’s Carlos Mortensen. The Spaniard finished 11th in the Grand Final, taking home 66,360 Euros. Mortensen was already a WSOP bracelet holder by the time he entered the Monte Carlo’s doors, having won the Main Event of the 2001 WSOP. He captured his second bracelet in the 2003 World Series, winning a $5,000 buy-in limit hold’em event.
A total of 64 players cashed in the 2007 Monte Carlo event, one that would grow to have 842 entrants a year later.