Max Altergott Wins EPT High Roller For $2.25m

Germany’s Max Altergott has just won the EPT Grand Final Super High Roller, after defeating a field of 50 players over three days on his way to capturing the title, and collecting the  €1,746,400 ($2,259,143) first place prize.
Incredibly, Altergott is actually a professional cash-game heads-up specialist who only started playing tournaments recently, and so his victory at the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel counts as his first live cash.
By the time the €100,000 buy-in event reached its final table of seven, Jason Mercier was the chip leader with Max Altergott lying in 4th place. Mike Watson (K-Q) then became the first player to exit in 7th (€218,300), after running into the pocket aces of Sorel Mizzi, and 100 minutes later he was joined on the rail by Scott Seiver in 6th (€266,900), whose pocket nines faltered against the A-Q of Mercier.
Next, Vladimir Troyanovsky saw his tournament come to an end in 5th (€339,500) in a preflop all-in encounter which saw his K-Q pitted aginst the A-J of Sorel Mizzi, while Timothy Adams picked up €485,100 in 4th when his pocket nines came off second best against Max Altergott’s A-8.
Following Adams’ departure,  the three remaining players failed to agree a deal and soon after Sorel Mizzi (K-Q) was eliminated by Altergott (J-J) in 3rd (€679,100), thus ushering in the heads-up phase of the competition against Jason Mercier.
As the heads-up battle commenced, Altergott held a 7.35m to 5.15m chip advantage over Mercier, but the US pro was soon able to eek out a slight lead until he lost most his stack going all-in holding Kd-7d on a Jd-8-7-4d board. Max Altergott made the call with his pocket queens and after the river blanked with a 2c,  a depleted Jason Mercier was eliminated the very next hand and consequently finished the runner-up for €1,115,700, while Max Altergott was crowned the EPT champion
The final table payouts were as follows:
1 Max Altergott    €1,746,400
2 Jason Mercier    €1,115,700
3 Sorel Mizzi    €679,100
4 Timothy Adams    €485,100
5 Vladimir Troyanovsky    €339,500
6 Scott Seiver    €266,900
7 Mike Watson    €218,300