Gavin Griffin made history in 2004 when, at the age of 21, he beat the field in the $3,000 pot-limit hold ‘em event at the World Series of Poker to become the youngest bracelet winner of all time.

The title of “youngest bracelet winner” has traded hands a few times since then, but Griffin re-entered the record books last night as the winner of the largest poker tournament ever held outside of the United States.

The tournament, of course, was the 2007 European Poker Tour Monte Carlo Grand Final. The event created huge buzz in the poker world, partly because of the glamorous setting, partly because of the big name pro’s (Phil Ivey, Greg Raymer) and high-stakes side games (?40,000 sit-n-go’s), but mostly because the ?10,000 buy-in event pulled in 706 players and created one of the larger prize pools in poker history.

It took four days, including a split day one, to reduce the field to the final table, and Griffin was one of several distinguished players to reach it.

Joining Griffin at the final table was Andy Black, who received a ton of TV time on his way to a 5th place finish at the 2005 WSOP Main Event, Hendon Mobber Ram Vaswani, and WPT and Aussie Million final table finisher Marc Karam, who was making his second consecutive final table appearance in Monte Carlo. The table also featured four lesser-known players: Josh Prager, who cashed for over $75,000 in the 2005 WSOP Main Event, Norwegian high-stakes online pro Kristian Kjondal, Asian Poker Classic final table finisher Soren Kongsgaard, and Scottish Poker Championship runner-up Steve Jelinek.

Ram Vaswani, who entered the final table as the short-stack, busted out within a few minutes of the beginning of play, and it wasn’t long before Black, Jelinek, Prager, Kjondal and Kongsgaard joined him on the rail, leaving Griffin and Karam to battle heads-up for the championship.

Karam began the match with the chip lead, but after almost one hundred hands and two hours of play, Griffin had taken back the advantage by a small margin.

On the final hand of the tournament Griffin raised from the button, then called Karam’s re-raise to see a flop of 4-3-2. Karam led out with a bet on the flop and Griffin made a big raise, moving nearly half his chips into the pot. Karam followed up with an all-in re-raise and Griffin reluctantly made the call.

Karam had 7-4 for top pair and Griffin had K-5 for an open-ended straight draw with two over-cards. The turn paired the board with a three, but one of Griffin’s 14 outs, a King, landed on the river, eliminating Karam and giving Griffin the championship trophy.

Marc Karam wins ?1,061,820 for his second place finish, more than he would have received had he outlasted three more players and won the event last year.

Gavin Griffin (pictured), who was one of 246 players to qualify for the event on PokerStars, collects ?1,825,010 ($2.4M) and the title of EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final Champion.

Final Results

1. Gavin Griffin ? 1,825,010
2. Marc Karam ? 1,061,820
3. Soren Kongsgaard ? 610,550
4. Kristian Kjondal ? 471,180
5. Josh Prager ? 391,550
6. Steve Jelinek ? 305,270
7. Andy Black ? 238,910
8. Ram Vaswani ? 159,270

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