EPT Deauville Main Event: Bulgarian poker player Ognyan Dimov wins €543k

Season 11 of the European Poker Tour made its stop in Deauville, France this month, where Bulgarian poker player Ognyan Dimov claimed his first EPT Title for taking down the Main Event on Saturday. At just 25 years of age, Dimov collected €543,700 ($613,193) for the win, raising his total career earnings by more than 5x to $721,099.

The EPT Deauville Main Event started with a field of 592 gathered round the poker tables at Casino Barriere de Deauville. Each participant posted the €5,300 buy-in for the EPT Main Event, bringing the total prize pool to €2,841,600. When the tournament reconvened on Saturday, only 6 players remained to finish out the final table.

On the very first hand of the day, the table was reduced to five when Joseph Carlino ran A-K into the pocket Jacks of Andrius Bielskis. Carlino walked away with €115,650 for the 6^th place finish. It wasn’t long before Bielskis followed him out the door in 5^th (€147,760) when he shipped his stack on A-3, only to be outmatched by the pocket rockets of Benjamin Buhr.

The clock ticked on, but time was running out for Benjamin Pollak, whose K-7 wasn’t strong enough to compete with the A-K of Dany Parlafes. Pollak was eliminated in 4^th for €187,550. Parlafes would then take on the A-K of Buhr, and he easily survived with pocket Aces underneath, sending Buhr out in 3^rd for €242,390.

Since Ognyan Dimov had taken no personal responsibility for ousting the final day’s competitors up that point, it was the Romanian Parlafes that held a near 2x chip advantage over the Bulgarian as the heads up battle for the EPT Title between the two commenced. However, over the next 117 hands of play, a series of expert decisions turned the tides into Dimov’s favor before the final hand of the EPT Deauville Main event was dealt.

Every chip was on the line pre-flop as Ognyan, looking down at Ah-Jh, found himself behind the Ac-Kc of Parlafes. The Qh-6h-3c flop excited the Bulgarian’s fans as any heart would complete a nut-flush draw, and that’s exactly what he got on the 3h turn. Dany Parlafes was drawing dead before the Jd fell on the river, ending his run at EPT Deauville with a 2^nd place finish worth €338,700.

Ognyan Dimov scooped the 1^st place prize of €543,700 and his first title at a major poker tournament. With the win, Dimov became the second Bulgarian to ever win an EPT Title; the first being Dimitar Danchev, who took down the 2013 EPT PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for $1,859,000 two years ago.

When the uproarious cheering abated, the 25 year old poker pro found himself struggling to find words to appropriately describe his gratification. “I can’t explain how I feel. I’m super happy.” When asked about what strategies he used to get so deep in the tournament, Dimov simply replied. “I discussed some strategy with my friends but I just ran really well.”