Portugal's Diogo Coelho Takes Down EPT Paris €10,300 High Roller (€810,500)

The third and final day of the €10,300 High Roller at PokerStars European Poker Tour Paris finally wrapped up after 13-plus hours of play in an event that required last-minute structure adjustments to finish on time. Portugal's Diogo Coelho was the one left standing at the end of it all to take home the trophy and €810,500 after defeating Russia's Aleksandr Shevliakov in a brief heads-up battle.

Despite being a High Roller event, the tournament managed to attract a massive field of 431 runners to generate a prize pool of €4,137,600. The field included many of the high-stakes regulars like Timothy Adams (23rd - €32,900) and Tom-Aksel Bedell (15th - €50,000), as well as plenty of up-and-coming players looking for their first major score.

One of those up-and-comers was Coelho, a 27-year-old who has been playing professionally for five years but had just $75,304 in live tournament earnings before binking more than ten times that.

“I’m feeling well. Very hyped in the moment," Coelho told PokerNews in a winner's interview. "It’s amazing. I’ve never won a prize like that before, so for me it’s everything.”

EPT Paris €10,300 High Roller Final Table Results

The final table included a star in 2014 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Martin Jacobson (7th - €126,500) and fellow Scandinavians Christian Pedersen (8th - €103,700) and Toni Kaukua (3rd - €361,300).

Coelho, who is primarily an online grinder, acknowledged the final table had many "good players who usually play more live poker than me" and "probably feel more comfortable than me" on the live felt.

"But I don’t think they have a lot of edge on me because of that," he said. “I think it was a fun tournament, a fun final table. A good vibe for almost everyone.”

Day 3 Action

It was shaping to be a long day from the beginning when 44 players returned on Day 3 for some deep-stacked poker across 60-minute levels.

It took several hours to reach the final three tables after the eliminations of 2022 GPI Player of the Year Stephen Song (39th - €21,600), recent PCA $50,000 7-Handed champion Conor Beresford (31st - €24,900) and bracelet winner Antoine Vranken (25th - €28,600).

Several players fell to make way for the final two tables, including Jun Obara, who bowed out in 20th place when he called down Coelho with just ace-high before getting the bad news as Coelho had flopped trips.

Other players to fall ahead of the final table include David Miscikowski and Rui Ferreira before the Balenciaga-sporting Fahredin Mustafov bowed out in tenth place as his nines couldn't survive a flip against Coelho's suited ace-queen. Ace-queen was also that hand that doomed Vlada Stojanovic in ninth place when his king-jack couldn't pull ahead in a heads-up pot against Shevliakov.

Next out was Christian Pederson, who suffered a tough beat as his kings were cracked by the ace-deuce of Kaukua in a pivotal hand that propelled Kaukua to his deep run.

Jacobson entered the final table as a short stack but managed to ladder and double up before falling in seventh to Coelho. The Swede who famously won $10 million in the 2014 World Series after running up a short stack had to settle for €126,500 this time around.

Kaukua had the chip lead and was pushing his opponents around for most of the final table until losing a critical flip to give Coelho the lead and to take the role of the short stack.

“It’s a crucial pot," Coelho recalled. This pot, If I lose, I’m out of the tournament. If I win, I have 70% of the chips in play. So it’s a very important flip.”

The talkative Finn managed to ladder a bit before getting it in with ace-king to dominate the ace-nine of Coelho. Unfortunately, a runner-runner flush sent Kaukua packing and set Coelho up to have a big heads-up chip lead.

Heads-up play lasted for around a half hour as Shevliakov managed to stay afloat with less than 15 big blinds but could never get anything going.

In the final hand, Coelho open-jammed with ace-eight and Shevliakov called off with queen-seven. An ace-high flop all but sealed it and Shevliakov failed to improve to go out as the runner-up.

As soon as the river card hit, Coelho's rail of Portuguese grinders, including Daniel Custodio and 11th-place finisher Ferreira, both of whom stuck around for a winner's photo, erupted in celebration as their friend locked up his biggest score.

That wraps up the PokerNews live reporting team's coverage of €10,300 High Roller on the final day of the inaugural EPT Paris stop. Check out the EPT Paris hub to see coverage of other events here in France's capital.