Jannick Wrang Wins 2012 EPT Campione

PokerStars qualifier Jannick “EDWARDHOPPER” Wrang from Denmark has won EPT Campione for €640,000 after beating American Olivier Busquet heads-up. Wrang is the third Danish EPT champion in a row following Mickey Petersen’s triumph in Copenhagen in February and Frederick Jensen’s win in Madrid two weeks ago. As well as his title and cash prize, Wrang also receives a stunning bracelet worth more than €10,000 from Shamballa Jewels, the Official EPT Season 8 Bracelet Sponsor. Wrang has been playing EPTs since Season 3 but his best results have come online. The 31-year-old is a Pot Limit Omaha tournament specialist and has won nearly $1,000,000 on PokerStars. Runner-up Olivier Busquet, who takes €430,000 back to New York, is widely regarded as one of the best heads-up sit-n-go players in the world and also has a great track record at EPTs. He was runner-up in the EPT6 Grand Final High Roller event for € 597,000 and fourth in the EPT London High Roller event last October for £171,200. A total of 570 players from 48 countries competed in the €5,300 EPT Campione Main Event creating a total prize pool of €2,313,450. After the 13-hour final - one of the longest in EPT history - Wrang said: “Of course I’m thrilled! I’ve been wanting this for many years but I’m also pretty busted after five days. I knew of Busquet’s reputation as a heads-up player and I wasn’t intimidated, but I also knew it wasn’t going to be easy. The final was 14 hours against very tough opponents. It was brutal.” Wrang won his seat to Campione in a $109 re-buy satellite on PokerStars and says he’s been known as the “satellite king” for years back home because he always wins his seats to live events. French pro and EPT veteran Fabrice Soulier finished third for €240,000, one of his best live results in a career that has already earned him more than $3.6 million in live tournament winnings, including a World Series bracelet last year. A total of 87 PokerStars online qualifiers took part in Campione - and ten made the money including Wrang and also Simeon Naydenov, who finished ninth for €41,000. Naydenov was runner up in a WCOOP PLO event last year and is the first Bulgarian to be sponsored by PokerStars. EPT San Remo champion Liv Boeree was the member of Team PokerStars Pro who survived longest in the event, finishing 51st for €9,000. Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier bust ten spots earlier, also for €9,000. Koen De Visscher finished in fifth place for €124,000, all profit for the Belgian pro as he also won the Last Longer contest run by Skrill, the Official Payment Provider Sponsor for EPT Season 8. De Visscher, who also came third at EPT Snowfest last season, now gets his entire €5,300 buy-in credited back to his Skrill account. The 88 players who cashed included EPT London champion David Vamplew who finished tenth for €41,000, as well as Ronny Kaiser and Martin Finger, both EPT Season 8 champions. The EPT Campione final was broadcast on EPTLive with commentary in English and Italian. 1, Jannick Wrang, Denmark, PokerStars qualifier , € 640,000 
2, Olivier Busquet, USA, PokerStars player, € 430,000 
3, Fabrice Soulier, France, , € 240,000 
4, Balazs Botond, Hungary, PokerStars player, € 157,000 
5, Koen De Visscher, Belgium, , € 124,000 
6, Mario Nagel, Germany , PokerStars player, € 92,000 
7, Stefano Puccilli, Italy, , € 71,500 
8, Robin Ylitalo, Sweden, , € 54,000 - Source: PokerStars.com