Salvatore Bonavena Becomes First Italian EPT Champion

Bonavena Wins EPT Prague

Salvatore Bonavena is the first Italian to win an EPT Title(credit: Poker Stars Blog)

Deanna Goodson - 16 Dec 2008

570 players took to the felt for the Poker Stars European Poker Tour including Sebastian Ruthenberg, Nenad Medic and Luca Pagano (among others). A grand total of 56 players made bank in the tourney which was played at the Prague Hilton in the capital of the Czech Republic. The final table was a melting pot with three Italians, a Canadian, a Finn, a Spaniard and a representative from Greece.

Salvatore Bonavena walked into the final table with the chip lead and exited as the winner after defeating fellow countryman Massimo Di Cicco heads-up. Bonavena (44) became the first Italian to win an EPT tournament.

Here are the final results:

1) Salvatore Bonavena - €774,000
2) Massimo Di Cicco - €445,000
3) Andrew Alan Chen - €257,000
4) Francesco Cirianni - €166,000
6) Fredrik Nygard - €130,000
7) Nasr El Nasr - €99,500
8) Raul Mestre - €71,800

Check out this video from YouTube, courtesy of Poker Stars: