Frenchman Lucien Cohen won the 2011 EPT Deauville main event after 6 days of play and besting 767 other players to win the €880,000 first prize. Sweden's Martin Jacobson had to settle for second again following up Vilamoura, and a third place in Budapest in season five of the EPT.
Cohen's lucky mascot at the final table was a large toy plastic rat he used as his card protector. He owns a pest control company in Paris, so it seemed fitting. He was very emphatic about his win with much exhaltations when the time came.
Alex Wice was disappointed to settle for third after dominating most of the tournament, but left with €330,000 and the latest apparent poker success to come from tiny Waterloo, Canada.
Most of the big names remaining in the field were casualties by day 4 and 5; including Thomas Bichon (75th), Praz Bansi (74th), Ludovic Lacay (52nd), Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier (44th), and Joe Ebanks (30th) and Fabrice Soulier (19th).
A total of 891 players, 123 players more than last year, created a prize pool of €4,276,800.
Final table payouts:
1. Lucien Cohen - €880,000
2. Martin Jacobson - €560,000
3. Alex Wice - €330,000
4. Julien Claudpierre - €260,000
5. Kaspars Renga - €200,000
6. Kenny Hallaert - €155,000
7. Anthony Hnatow - €110,000
8. Ruslan Prydryk - €66,800
The next EPT event begins February 21st in Copenhagen.