EPT Deauville: Lucien Cohen wins €880,000
First EPT event of 2011 is won by pest-control expert Lucien Cohen
| by Alligator Blood |  February, 1st 2011 |
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Above: EPT Deauville champion Lucien Cohen...and his rat
The EPT Deauville has been won by French pest-control expert Lucien Cohen.
The 47-year-old from Paris, using a toy plastic rat as a card protector, beat final table chip leader Martin Jacobson - and a record-breaking 891-strong field - to scoop the €888,000 first prize and the first EPT title of the season.
Jacobson, finding himself at a 5:1 chip disadvantage in heads-up, had to act and shoved his 6♥7♥ with 1,500,000 chips. Cohen called with A♠K♦ and when the board missed everything, Cohen's fans on the rail went wild.
Cohen said: "I’m very proud. It’s a very emotional moment. I want to say thank you to the organisers, the EPT and my opponents.
"This is one of the best days of my life after my wedding and the day my children were born. I'm happy, happy, happy."
Swedish pro Jacobson was devastated after losing the heads-up battle. He was also runner-up at the EPT Vilamoura in September.
A total of 146 players won their seats to the event online on PokerStars including runner-up Jacobson, third-placed Alex Wice from Canada, serial qualifier David Sonelin from Sweden and Pierre Neuville.
World champion Jonathan Duhamel, Isildur1 Viktor Blom, Daniel Negreanu and Vanessa Rousso also played in Deauville - but failed to cash.
The six-day event at Casino Barrière generated a record prize pool of €4,276,800.
EPT spokeswoman Kirsty Thompson said: "EPT Deauville has been a huge success yet again and the move to an annex of the casino – giving us tons more space – had a great effect on boosting numbers.
"We had a record-breaking turnout with 891 players and there were some incredible performances - especially from our winner Lucien Cohen as well as runner-up Martin Jacobson."
EPT Deauville 2011
Main Event
Final table - results
1: Lucien Cohen, France, €880,000
2: Martin Jacobson, Sweden, online qualifier, €560,000
3: Alex Wice, Canada, online qualifier, €330,000
4: Julien Claudepierre, France, €260,000
5: Kaspars Renga, Latvia, €200,000
6: Kenny Hallaert, Belgium, €155,000
7: Anthony Hnatow, France, €110,000
8: Ruslan Prydryk, Ukraine, €66,800
