The  live tournament circuit slowed down a bit in May as the poker world prepared for another installment of the World Series of Poker, but there were some big prizes handed out in Europe as the European Poker Tour’s fifth season came to a close in Monte Carlo.

Vanessa Rouso's hot streak continued in May with a win at the EPT Grand Final High Roller Event

After a win by Rob Hollink in Season 1, the EPT Grand Final title had spent three years in North America. But Pieter de Korver returned the most prestigious poker tournament title in Europe to its home soil when he outlasted a field of 935 players, the largest in the tournament’s history, to claim the €2,300,000 ($3,024,167) top prize. Dag Martin Mikkelsen had entered the final day as the chip leader but two hands gone wrong against de Korver sent him into a tailspin and he eventually busted at de Korver’s hande in fourth place. Monte Carlo was the scene of another Vanessa Rousso triumph as she beat out a field of 78 players to win the EPT Grand Final €25,000 High Roller Event. Rousso entered with the chip lead, fell behind with four players left, and then came roaring back past Tony G, Florian Langmann, and Randy Dorfman to claim the €720,000 ($964,207) first prize.

Less than a week after the EPT wrapped up its season, the World Poker Tour stopped in Italy for the first time for the last major European tournament before the WSOP, WPT Venice. A healthy turnout of 397 players made for a nice first-place payday of €397,960 ($543,000) for champion Sven Ragnar Astrom, and it also helped to expand the tour’s footprint in the growing European market.

Back stateside, tournament grinder Jean “Prince” Gaspard won the last WSOP Circuit championship event of the season when he conquered the Bayou Poker Challenge at Harrah’s New Orleans. Gaspard’s heads-up opponent was Billy “Patrolman35” Kopp, who later in the summer would come out on the losing end of one of the biggest pots in WSOP Main Event history and propel a little-known logger from Maryland into poker’s spotlight.

Annie Duke may have been fired from Celebrity Apprentice, but she turned the experience into a successful fundraiser

Away from the felt, WSOP owner Harrah’s Entertainment formed a new subsidiary, Harrah’s Interactive Entertainment, and recruited former PartyGaming CEO Mitch Garber to head its operations. Doyle Brunson jumped on the Twitter bandwagon, while Annie Duke made it to the final of television’s Celebrity Apprentice only to be lose out to Joan Rivers. Duke got a little jab back at Rivers later in the month, raising $70,000 for Refugees International via her “Suck Out On The Rivers” charity tournament.

And in Washington, DC, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) introduced two bills to Congress: the Internet Gambling Regulation Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act of 2009, which would explicitly legalize and establish a regulatory framework for  online gambling in the United States, and a companion bill that would delay implementation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act for another year. With $3 million in spending on lobbying efforts planned from the Poker Players Alliance and Frank’s bills up for consideration, explicitly legal online poker in the U.S. now appeared to be more than just a pipe dream.

Tomorrow we’ll take a look at the biggest stories from the month of June.

The action Saturday at the PokerStars European Poker Tour Grand Final was all about getting the 31 players who started the day down to the final eight for the final table on Sunday. While it was American Matthew Woodward who came into the day with the chip lead the story of the day was the play of two Norwegians; Dag Martin Mikkelsen and Annette Obrestad.

Obrestad started the day with a below average chip stack but she managed to work her way into contention and was as high as fifth in the chip count when disaster struck. Mikhail Tulchinskiy raised to 150,000 and Obrestad and Pieter De Korver both called. The flop came Q 9 7 and everybody checked to Obrestad who bet 300,000. De Korver then raised to 800,000 and after Tulchinskiy folded Obrestad moved all-in. De Korver called and revealed a set of nine while Obrestad tabled pocket aces. The turn was the 4 and the river was the 9 giving De Korver quads to send the 2007 WSOP Europe champion home in 13th place.

While Norwegian poker fans were disappointed with her elimination they had to have been ecstatic with the surge to the top of the leaderboard of Mikkelson. The 22 year old started the day with only 553,000 chips, good enough for 23rd spot of the 31 players. By the end of the day though he’d built his stack to over 7,000,000 and a commanding chip lead over Woodward who started the day in first.

The final eight players will begin play on Sunday at 2 pm local time in pursuit of the €2,300,000 ($3,050,000 US) first place prize.

EPT Grand Final Chip Counts

1. Dag Martin Mikkelsen - 7,315,000
2. Matthew Woodward - 4,560,000
3. Peter Traply - 4,365,000
4. Mikhail Tulchinskiy - 3,220,000
5. Eric Qu - 2,880,000
6. Pieter De Korver - 2,500,000
7. Daniel Zink - 1,865,000
8. Alem Shah - 1,490,000

Frenchman Ludovic Lacay is one of the Europeans chasing current chip leader Matthew Woodward.

The pursuit of European poker’s most prestigous title is down to just 31 players. Day 3 action at the PokerStars European Poker Tour Grand Final saw the elimination of 116 players. If the title is going to return to a European player for the first time since Rob Hollink won it in Season I it will up to one of the 22 remaining Europeans to catch current chip leader American Matthew Woodward.

Woodward wrapped up the day with 2,726,000 chips which put him and France’s Ludovic Lacay, who bagged up 2,235,000, as the only players above 2 million in chips. The average chip stack is 906,000 and only the top ten players are above that. Two other American players are in the top ten; Steven Silverman (1,509,000) and (1,340,000).

Marcel Luske, who busted out on the bubble earlier in the day, wasn’t the only big name to be sent packing. Sorel Mizzi found himself out before the cash was flowing but JJ Liu, EPT all-time cash leader Luca Pagano and Phil Laak will all be leaving town with a few extra Euros in their pockets.

The payout schedule was announced Friday and the winner will be walking away with a pultry €2,300,000 ($3,050,000 US) which is almost €300,000 more than Glen Chorny took back to Canada last year. The second and third place finishers will also walk away with at least $1 million US. The eventual runner-up will bank €1,300,000 ($1,700,000) while third place will earn €800,000 ($1,060,000).

Other players still in pursuit include Annette Obrestad (668,000), Dag Mikkelson (553,000) and sitting with the shortest stack is John Cernuto (166,000). The remaining players will return to the felt on Saturday at Noon local time to play down to the final eight players for the televised final table.

EPT Grand Final Top 10 Chip Counts

1. Matthew Woodward - 2,726,000
2. Ludovic Lacay - 2,235,000
3. Marc Naalden - 1,770,000
4. Johannes Strassmann - 1,612,000
5. Steven Silverman - 1,509,000
6. Peter Traply - 1,449,000
7. Bart Spijkers - 1,377,000
8. Grayson Physioc - 1,340,000
9. Grigory Zima - 1,313,000
10. Alexander Morozov - 1,202,000

Two days and 15 levels of play have gone by in Monte Carlo as the clock on the PokerStars European Poker Tour’s fifth season winds down.

With the opening days of play finally out of the way and the field down to a manageable size, levels at the Grand Final were extended from 60 minutes to 75 minutes, giving the players even more bang for their Euro as they all sought to capture one of the most prestigious titles in European poker.

The chip leader at the end of the day was Marc Naalden of the Netherlands. A former tournament chess champion and one-time EPT final tablist, Naalden finished the day with 777,000 in chips - more than enough to mount a serious challenge for the title.

Ending the day in second position was Norway’s Annette Obrestad. After coming in with 110,000 in chips, the former WSOP Europe Main Event champ set her phasers on “obliterate” and began amassing the kind of stack that has a chance to win. She led the way for much of the day before being overtaken by Naalden in the late going, and finished with 671,500.

Plenty of accomplished players will join Naalden and Obrestad at the tables tomorrow when play resumes at noon local time. Among them are Luca Pagano, Ludovic Lacay, Alexander Kravchenko, Marcel Luske, Johannes Strassman, Farzad Bonyadi, Phil Laak, JJ Liu, and Joe Hachem.

In all, 147 players survived to take a shot on Day 3. Only 88 of them will be paid, so tomorrow will be a sad day for a good percentage of the field. And of course, the only person who will truly be happy will be the one who walks away with the €2,300,000 ($3,049,897) top prize.

If you can’t wait for Day 3 to begin, here are the top 10 chip counts to help you pass the time:

1. Marcus Naalden          777,000
2. Annette Obrestad    671,500
3. Joseph Ebanks         601,500
4. Vadim Shlez         540,000
5. Peter Traply         534,500
6. Johannes Strassmann     495,000
7. Matthew Woodward     444,500
8. Stephen Haughey     431,500
9. Adrian Schaap         430,000
10. Luca Pagano         411,000

The scene at Day 1b of the PokerStars European Poker Tour Grand Final in Monte Carlo included players standing at tables. Line-ups at the bathrooms. And a record-setting field playing in the biggest EPT Grand Final in the five year history of the tour.

The 539 players who showed up on Day 1b pushed the total number of players to 935 - 93 more than hit the felt in 2008. The chip leader after both starting days wrapped was Lee Nelson who bagged up 253,600 chips on Day 1a. The largest stack from Day 1b belongs to Canadian Amicha Barer who ended the day with 207,800. The next three largest stacks also belong to players who started their quest for the title on Wednesday. American Dan Dyke has 179,700, Niccolo Caramatti is the top-rated European player with 176,500 and Dag Palovic has 173,200.

Also in contention are David Williams (148,600), Sami ‘LarsLuzak’ Keloporu (133,500), Nenad Medic (123,100), Annette Obrestad (112,000) and EPT Dortmund champion Sandra Naujoks (110,600). However it wasn’t all good news for some of poker’s biggest name. Defending champion Glen Chorny was busted early in Day 1b action as was Season III champ Gavin Griffin. Katja Thater, Liv Boeree, Dave ‘Devilfish’ Ulliott and rapper Nelly were also eliminated on Wednesday.

Official payouts have yet to be released but the €9.35 million ($12.44 million US)  prize pool is the second largest of the season just barely behind the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in January which had a $12.64 million purse.

Action resumes at 2 pm local time on Thursday.

EPT Grand Final Top 10 Chip Counts

1. Lee Nelson - 253,600
2. Amicha Barer - 207,800
3. Dan Dyke - 179,700
4. Niccolo Caramatti - 176,500
5. Dag Palovic - 173,200
6. Luca Pagano - 169,600
7. Anthony Donald Venturini - 160,000
8. Thiago Nishijima - 159,000
9. Steve Berdah - 156,000
10. Faraz Jaka - 155,900

Lee Nelson is looking good as the chip leader at the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo. (Photo courtesy PokerStars)

Sitting atop the leaderboard at the end of Day 1a was New Zealand’s Lee Nelson with 253,600 chips. Luca Pagano, who holds the record for most EPT cashes with nine, is his closest competitor. The Italian member of Team PokerStars Pro has 169,600. Also in contention are two well known online poker phenoms. Annette Obrestad, former WSOP Europe Main Event champion is just outside the top ten with 112,000 while Sami ‘LarsLuzak’ Kelopuro is eighth with 133,500.

The field, which was four players larger than last year on Day 1a, was whittled down to 223 players. Included among those cast aside on the opening day were recent EPT San Remo winner Constant Rijkenberg, Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, Chris Moneymaker and Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald.

Day 1b kicks off at 6 am ET and tournament organizers are expecting at least 400 more players in what could be a record setting-sized field for the EPT Grand Final. If more than 446 players play Day 1b this would be the largest Grand Final in the five year history of the EPT.

EPT Grand Final Day 1a Top 10 Chip Counts

1. Lee Nelson - 253,600
2. Luca Pagano - 169,600
3. Anthony Donald Venturini - 160,000
4. Thiago Nishijima - 159,000
5. Faraz Jaka - 155,900
6. Michael Tureniec - 146,600
7. Diaz Gilbar - 141,900
8. Sami Kelopuro - 133,500
9. Andrey Zaichenko - 131,300
10. Stephen Haughey - 124,400

Rapper Nelly was just one of the celebrities out of the Ante Up for Africa event in Monte Carlo Monday.

Some of the stars who made their way to felts to help raise funds for refugee efforts in Darfur included rapper Nelly, James Kyson Lee, Joel Madden as well as English soccer star Teddy Sheringham. They were joined by Team PokerStars Pros Vanessa Rousso, Daniel Negreanu, Joe Hachem, Peter Eastgate, Greg Raymer and Isabelle Mercier.

The event raised over €260,000 ($343,000) for the cause to push the total earnings from Ante Up for Africa event to over $2 million.

Mercier eventually won the tournament after eliminating Sheringham in the heads-up battle. For finishing as the runner-up to a Team PokerStars Pro Sheringham won entry to the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

Who wins a tournament with pocket aces? Constant Rijkenberg did just that Thursday when he won EPT San Remo with bullets on his final hand.

Thursday’s final table of the San Remo stop on the European Poker Tour was supposed to be a coronation of Dragan Galic. The Croatian had lead every single day of the €5,000  buy-in event and came to the final table with the chip lead.

Enter Constant Rijkenberg. The 20 year old Amsterdam native handled four of the seven eliminations himself at the final table to capture the title and the €1,508,000 ($1,982,000 US)  first place prize. He started off by eliminating Danilo D’Ettoris in the first level but his most important elimination may have been that Galic. After sending Galic to the rail in fifth Rijkenberg was in control of the final table. He then sent the only American at the final table, William Reynolds, back across the Atlantic in fourth.

With play three-handed Kalle Niemi  busted Gustav Sundell to get heads-up with Rijkenberg. The final hand of the tournament demonstrated Rijkenberg’s skill and ability to let his opponents make mistakes. With the board showing T 5 3  Niemi made a bet of 1,075,000 and Rijkenberg made the call. The 5 fell on the turn and Niemi moved all-in for nearly 2,800,000 and Rijkenberg called instantly. Niemi showed A T for two pair, tens and fives, but Rijkenberg flipped over pocket aces for a better two pair. When the river wasn’t one of the two remaining tens the tournament was over and Rijkenberg was champ.

The event broke the record for the largest ever EPT event on European soil with 1,178 players (the 2009 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure had more players but was played in Nassau, Bahamas) paying the €5,000 buy-in.  

Final Table Payouts 2009 EPT San Remo

1. Constant Rijkenberg - €1,508,000
2. Kalle Niemi - €862,000
3. Gustav Sundell - €480,000
4. William Reynolds - €377,000
5. Dragan Galic - €314,000
6. Ovi Balaj - €229,000
7. Alex Fitzgerald - €171,000
8. Danilo D’Ettoris - €114,000

The next EPT stop goes next week in Monte Carlo as EPT Season 5 wraps-up with the €10,000 buy-in EPT Grand Final.

After two successful runs at the World Series of Poker, Ante Up For Africa is turning its attention to Monte Carlo and the European Poker Tour Grand Final Week with a €4,000 event hosted by PokerStars.

PokerStars pros Daniel Negreanu, Joe Hachem, and Vanessa Rousso will join together with the charity co-founded by Annie Duke and Don Cheadle on April 27, the night before the EPT Grand Final begins, to raise money for charities that advance the cause of refugees in Darfur, Sudan. All the money collected at the tournament will go to the cause, and PokerStars has announced that it will provide a $10,000 seat in the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for the tournament’s winner.

To date, Ante Up For Africa has raised more than $2 million through its special events at the WSOP. Among the celebrities who have attended past tournaments are Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Jason Alexander, Adam Sandler, Charles Barkley, Hank Azaria, Cheryl Hines, Mekhi Phifer, Martin Sheen, Ray Romano, and Montel Williams. Both previous Ante Up For Africa tournaments saw the winners - Dan Shak and Brandon Moran in 2007, John “World” Hennigan in 2008 - gave their entire prizes to the charity.