Philippe Pertuisot wins the Winamax Poker Tour final
The first edition of the Winamax Poker Tour came to a close on Tuesday May 1 at the Cercle Clichy-Montmartre with the crowning of Philippe Pertuisot. The 42-year-old amateur from Marne-la-Vallée is France’s new poker champion. He won his first tournament and the sum of 80,700 euros at the end of a six-day event which brought together 1,138 participants.In front of a packed house of supporters and cameras broadcasting the event live on the Internet, Philippe defeated eight formidable opponents, including Laurent Polito, a well-known Parisian player, and Irina Batorevich, an amateur from the Czech Republic who came especially for the tournament. In the final head-to-head, Laurent Michot came close to turning the match in his favor, before losing a huge pot to give Philippe back the advantage, who finally completed his victory shortly after 10pm.From every point of view, the first edition of the Winamax Poker Tour was an unprecedented success, with the final stage at Cercle Clichy-Montmartre concluding a record-breaking event. Launched in autumn 2011, the Winamax Poker Tour attracted hundreds of thousands of online participants, with over 10,000 qualifying for one of the 69 regional stages held in 38 French cities between November and March, following a memorable kick-off event at Paris’ La Grande Halle de la Villette in the company of 2,000 players. 174 amateur players shone during these regional stages, enabling them to reach the final stage free of charge, for which the entry fee had been set at 550 euros. The final stage attracted a total of 1,138 players, including professionals, amateurs and celebrities: never before has a paid tournament attracted so many players in France! Celebrity players included Alain Bouzigues, Christophe Josse, Philippe Cura, Titoff, Vikash Dhorasoo and singer Christophe, surrounded by over 270 amateur players. Present to launch the tournament, Patrick Bruel marveled at such a success: “After the success of the tournament at La Villette, it’s a matter of pride to break the record for the number of players in a paying tournament!” “It’s a great source of pride for Winamax to have been able to organize the success of this tour,” confided Matthieu Duran, Winamax Poker Tour dad in charge of Winamax’s live events. “All these stops across France, these meetings, these amateur or professional players but above all passionate players… We’re happy to have helped poker progress in France with this event. We’d like to thank the Cercle Clichy-Montmartre teams for their hospitality and organization, and the Winamax staff for putting together this wonderful circuit. Congratulations to Philippe and all the finalists, and see you very soon for the next edition!”
Julien Tissot
[email protected]
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