Roman Stoica won the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Monte Carlo €5,300 Main Event, taking €825,000 after coming through a 1,011-entry field on the French Riviera. Stoica defeated Austria’s Bernhard Binder heads-up to secure the title.
Stoica, 31, is from St Petersburg in Russia. PokerStars said he became Russia’s ninth EPT winner and followed Aleksandr Shevliakov, named by the operator as the 2025 EPT Monte Carlo champion. “I’m very happy that I’ve become an EPT champion,” Stoica said. “This is the dream of every poker player. I’m feeling great – I just won €825,000, so how else can I feel! The secret to running as deep as I did is to play and practice as much as you can. It’s what brings you to the final table and to winning the tournament.”
The Main Event final table payouts listed by PokerStars were: Stoica (€825,000), Binder (€515,000), David Djian (€368,750), Samuel Ju (€283,550), Jose Malpelli (€218,300), Longmao Fan (€167,850), Raul Mestre (€129,050) and Oshri Lahmani (€99,450).
In the high-roller schedule, PokerStars said the festival’s €250,000 Super High Roller was the largest buy-in event ever held at a PokerStars-branded event. Alex Kulev won the tournament for €2,786,332, beating Bryn Kenney heads-up.
Elsewhere, the €100,000 High Roller for One Drop raised €228,000 for the One Drop Foundation, with PokerStars stating 3% of each €100,000 buy-in was donated. Albert Daher won €2,055,000 after defeating Stephen Chidwick heads-up. Jason Koon won a €100,000 Sit & Go Invitational for a winner-takes-all €1 million first prize, beating Chidwick in heads-up play.
PokerStars also reported movement in the PokerStars Live League standings after EPT Monte Carlo, with Juan Pardo leading the High leaderboard, Julien Sitbon leading Medium, and Danilo Donnini leading Low. A total of €157,500 in PokerStars LIVE credit is set to be awarded across the top three finishers in each leaderboard category, according to the operator.
