The main tournament, which had a €250,000 guarantee, attracted players from all over Europe, but still did not have the expected interest and the casino had to pay part of the guarantee. Players were certainly pleased by this fact, especially those who made it to the final day.

In the top 16, Slovakia had a few irons in the fire, with two players - Goran Hristovski and Peter Koren - making it to the final table. Before that, Marek Blaško aka 7andarr and Tibor Balaz dropped out.

Finding a clear table captain was very difficult. There was big money at stake, so no one wanted to make a major mistake that would deprive them of the opportunity to win tens of thousands of euros.

However, the players in the following order went to the cashier:

9th place:    Manfred Gonda (AUT)    3.670€
8th place: Yasen Dichev (BUL)        4.790€
7th place: Goran Hristovski (SVK)    6.055€
6th place: Wolfgang Hinterndorfer (AUT)    7.530€
5th place: Peter Koreň (SVK)        9.260€
4th place: Markus Ganglbauer (AUT)    11.100€
3rd place: Jean Lhuillier (FRA)        14.980€

The final heads-up was provided by Hungarian player Krisztian Kis and Bulgarian Emil Trenkov. It was evident from both that the final stage is probably not quite their domain. Especially the Hungarian made several mistakes when he was either afraid to make a big decision or couldn't ask for value.

And so the heads-up stretched to three hours. In the end, fortune was on the Hungarian player's side and he was delighted with the win.

The final pair agreed to a deal about an hour before the end of the tournament, both taking the same €32,438. The hand was for €7,208, which went to Kis.

The Card Casino Bratislava schedule continues this week with one-day tournaments. For a full schedule of tournaments and information on the overall casino action, please visit www.cardcasino.sk