A driving instructor from Paris won the return of the EPT Monte Carlo. Nicolas Dumont faded a field of 777 runners at the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel & Casino to win €712,000. Dumont outlasted a shark-infested final table that included David Peters, Patrik Antonius, and Ole Schemion. Dumont edged out New Zealand's Honglin Jiang heads-up for the title and €712K in cash. Dumont also shipped a Platinum Pass to the 2019 PSPC in the Bahamas.

A French player shipped the EPT Monte Carlo. Huzzah! Welcome back to the mix, EPT. We missed ya! The old-school branded event returned to the fancy-schmancy Monte Carlo Casino in Monte Carlo for the season-ending Grand Finale. This year's EPT Monte Carlo had a €5,300 buy-in. A total of 777 runners took a shot at the glory, bucket-load full of Euros, and a shot at Platinum Pass. Yeah, PokerStars has been sweetening the pot at the PSPC by handing out Platinum Passes to various winners on their global circuits.
Nicolas Dumont has a day job as a driving instructor in Paris, but he managed to outlasted a difficult final table with a trio of Great White sharks circling the waters in David Peters, Ole Schemion, and Patrik Antonious. Yeah, blast from the past Antonius was attempting to become the first 2-time male champion on the European Poker Tour. Lucky for Dumont, Ole Schemion was short-stacked and didn't have much to work with. Ole Schemion hit the road in 8th place.
Javier Fernandez from Spain went out in 7th place. Antonius was dunzo in sixth place and Peters hit the bricks in fourth place. The American pro earned €232K for a week of work in the Main Event. In between the Antonius/Peters eliminations, Krisztian Gyorgyi from Hungary got squeezed out in fifth place. Tomas Jozonis from Lithuania busted in third place, which set up a heads-up battle between Dumont and New Zealand's Honglin Jiang.
Dumont defeated Jiang heads-up to win the title, the trophy, the cash, and the coveted Platinum Pass. Yeah, Dumont will be freerolling at the $25,000 buy-in PokerStars Players Championship, to be hosted at the 2019 PCA at Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas.
Dumont earned a first-place payout worth €712K, while Jiang banked €434K. The top six spots earned at least six-figure scores.
Davidi Kitai, one of the greatest citizens of the history of Belgium, went deep but busted before the final table. Kitai went out in 11th place. Fellow teammate from team Winamax Adrian Mateos was dunzo in unlucky 13th place.
A total of 111 players got a cut of the prize pool. Among those who went deep and cashed in the Main Event... Erik Seidel, Ryan Reiss, Leo Margets, Pierre Barthelmy, Jack Salter, Mikita Badziakouski, Randy Lew, Antal Roth, Liwei Sun, Fabrice Maltez, Dan Djorno, Hossein Ensan, Andreas Korn, Philippe Narboni, Jason Wheeler, Wei Huang, Paul Newey, Sam Greenwood, Thiery Gogniat, Mike Glick, Rainer Kempe, Romain Lewis, Gaelle Baumann, Nick Petrangelo, Mark Teltscher, Max Panyak, Yorane Kerignard, Antoine Sauot, Philipp Gruissem, Gavin O'Rourke, Andre Akkari, Dan Abouaf, and Stefan Huber.
EPT Monte Carlo - Main Event
Buy-in: €5,300
Prize Pool: €3,768,450
Entrants: 777
Payouts: 111
Final Table Payouts:
1. Nicolas Dumont (France) €712,000
2. Honglin Jiang (New Zealand) €434,000
3. Tomas Jozonis (Lithuania) €308,000
4. David Peters (USA) €232,000
5. Krisztian Gyorgyi (Hungary) €184,000
6. Patrik Antonius (Finland) €139,050
7. Javier Fernandez (Spain) €99,900
8. Ole Schemion (Germany) €68,300

The festival of poker in Monte Carlo also included a couple of high balla afairs. I mean, what's Monte Carlo without some highfalutin action? The EPT Monte Carlo had several bigger buy-in events on the schedule including a couple of 25Ks, a 50K, and 100K.
Steve O'Dwyer binked the single-day €50K High Roller for a €676K score. I know, I know... file that one under MANGO BITES DOG. O'Dwyer also won two events, but he had to settle on a runner-up finish in the 25K. In total, he earned €900K for both deep runs.
ZeeJustin (€25K) and Sam Greenwood (€100K) also won High Roller events. Greenwood earned over €1.5M for his score. Not too shabby, eh? And ZeeJustin prevented O'Dwyer from winning another spade trophy.
French pro Guillaume Diaz also shipped the EPT National. Diaz banked €250 for winning the €1,100 buy-in National, which had a single re-entry. Diaz defeated Federico Petruzzelli heads-up for the win. Rounding out the final five were Abdullatif Attia, Danilo Cangianello, and Michal Mrakes.
€100K High Roller - Top 5:
1. Sam Greenwood €1,520,000
2. Christoph Vogelsang €1,046,000
3. Ali Reza Fatehi €669,920
4. Ole Schemion €513,000
5. Justin Bonomo €401,000
€50K High Roller - Top 5:
1. Steve O'Dwyer €676,300
2. Nick Petrangelo €467,410
3. Steffen Sontheimer €298,300
4. Justin Bonomo €228,700
5. Daniel Dvoress €179,000
€25K High Roller - Top 5:
1. Justin Bonomo €378,000
2. Steve O'Dwyer €273,200
3. Erik Seidel €174,100
4. Tim Adams €132,100
5. Bryn Kenney €102,000
The National - Top 5:
1. Guillaume Diaz €250,000
2. Federico Petruzzelli €143,000
3. Abdullatif Attia €100,000
4. Danilo Cangianello €74,120
5. Michal Mrakes €57,840