Frenchman Thomas Santerne upset Chris Brewer’s applecart today, defeating the American heads-up for the €50k Super High Roller title, denying Brewer back-to-back victories in the highest buy-in event of EPT Paris.
62 runners built a prize pool of €2,916,480, and among the rich and famous, were Sam Greenwood, Steve O’Dwyer, Artur Martirosyan, Timothy Adams, Duco ten Haven (fresh from success in the €10k Mystery Bounty) and SHR specialists Stephen Chidwick and Daniel Dvoress (respective winners of this week’s brace of €25k SHR events).
It took two days of hard play to whittle the field down to the final table of six, with Aleksejs Ponakovs busting on the money bubble. Chidwick and Niklas Astedt picked up hefty paychecks for eighth and seventh places respectively.
Back-to-back Brewer?
Leader of the final six was Chris Brewer, who was looking to go back-to-back after scooping the €50k (as well as a €25k) in Paris last year.
Short-stacked Hissou couldn’t ladder, losing most of his stack when Markkos Ladev hit him with a runner-runner flush, with the Estonian busting next in fifth spot when his threes lost a race against Brewer’s AJ.
Down to four and it was Dutchman ten Haven, who calls Paris home, who fell next to actual Frenchman Thomas Santerne.
A pre-flop raising war saw all the chips go in and ten Haven was in the lead, but the flop brought serious trouble and the turn dashed Duco’s dreams of an EPT Paris double.
Duco ten Haven: 10♦️️10♣
Thomas Santerne: K♦️️8♦️️
Flop: 4♦️️3♦️️8♣
Turn: 2♦️️
River: 6♠
San-turns victory
Belgium’s Pieter Aerts had to settle for the lowest spot on the podium. Santerne was the executioner again after hitting his ace on the river, which beat Aerts' flopped King top-pair.
Heads-up and it was Santerne with the 2.5:1 chip lead. The young Frenchman is relatively unknown to many, but has made some big moves recently. He followed two six-figure live cashes at WSOP Paradise with a similar brace of six-figure scores in the GG Million$ online.
The heads-up battle with Brewer was a topsy-turvy affair. Santerne hit quads to apply pressure and Brewer hit flops to survive along the way.
Eventually, Brewer’s luck ran out. He shoved his button with K❤️6❤️and received a quick call from Santerne.
Chris Brewer: K❤️6❤️
Thomas Santerne: 9❤️8❤️
Brewer looked fine on the 3♦️️3❤️10♠ flop, but the 9♠ turn left him one card away from defeat, and the 5♠ brick on the river gave Santerne the victory and €889,480.
EPT Paris €50k Super High Roller results
| Place | Player | Prize |
| 1 | Thomas Santerne | €889,480 |
| 2 | Chris Brewer | €583,300 |
| 3 | Pieter Aerts | €422,900 |
| 4 | Duco ten Haven | €320,800 |
| 5 | Markkos Ladev | €247,900 |
| 6 | Sirzat Hissou | €189,600 |
| 7 | Niklas Astedt | €145,800 |
| 8 | Stephen Chidwick | €116,700 |
