EPT Monte Carlo: Little fish turns shark at final table!
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The EPT Monte Carlo, which ended at 20:30 on Sunday, May 3rd, was won by 26-year-old Pieter de Korver, a virtually unknown Dutch player. De Korver, whose previous experience was mostly online, is a member of Team Pokerstars Pro and gave himself up to professional poker just two years ago.
Surprisingly, this is only the second time that Pieter de Korver has participated in a live poker event. His first tournament was aired on a Dutch TV show titled “Poker Kampioen Van Nederland” and sponsored by Pokerstars. In this tournament, de Korver exceeded 20 thousand other participants to take first prize.
To get an idea of just how unknown de Korver is within the live poker tournament world, consider that the site www.thehendonmob.com, the largest European poker portal on the net, doesn’t even include Pieter de Korver in its list of current professional players. This list represents the most comprehensive web database of information and statistics on pro poker players.
As happened with several other unknown players who claimed major tournament prizes, it will likely only be a matter of time before de Korver is added to the hendonmob rolls. Salvatore Bonavena, for example, a former unknown who won EPT Prague in December 2008, now appears in the database. The same is true of Kranich Moritz, EPT Deauville winner, and Joao Barbosa, EPT Warsaw winner. The list of similar cases goes on and on.
Thus, history repeats itself! Recently, more and more live events involving the poker world’s biggest names culminate in final tables in which nearly all players are unknown. This has become a real phenomenon and, in our humble opinion, deserves examination.
At first glance, it appears as though poker champions have evolved, like athletes and celebrities, into “commercial products” for which there is fierce competition. Of course, while these stars make profits, the product they peddle is themselves, and they must remain at the top of their game in order to remain in demand for endorsements and media coverage. Thanks to online poker, unknowns can quickly acquire the experience of poker veterans and, as witnessed by De Korver’s EPT Monte Carlo win, bypass them altogether in even the most prestigious live poker tournaments.
