When the European Poker Tour gathered in San Remo, excitement was high. The entire poker world new that this would be the last chance to get an EPT trophy before the Grand Final in Monte Carlo, and everyone wanted to take a shot at it.

How many is everyone? Believe it or not, the EPT San Remo brought a mind-blowing 1178 competitors to Italy, creating a massive prize pool worth nearly seven and a half million dollars.

EPT 2009 in Retrospect: EPT San Remo

The competitors with the extraordinary combination of luck and skill to outlast 1172 opponents were short stack Ovidiu Balaj, Kalle Niem, Constant Rijkenberg, William Reynolds, Gustav Sundell and chip leader Dragan Galic.

Hardly household names in the poker world, to be sure, but one of them was about to change their life with the help of the turn of a few playing cards.

EPT 2009 in Retrospect: Furious Action in Italy

Unsurprisingly, short stack Balaj was the first to go, albeit in brutal fashion, as he was all in with pocket nines against Reynolds' pocket sixes and was forced to watch helplessly as a six came right on the flop.

The fierce competitors chopped away at Galic's chip lead, and his dreams were suddenly dashed when he moved all in with 99, was called by Rikjenberg's AQ and watched in shock as the K J T flop awarded Rijkenberg the nuts and sent Galic home in fifth place.

EPT 2009 in Retrospect: A San Remo Champion Is Crowned

Rijkenberg then took care of Reynolds by calling Reynolds' all-in with KJ with his own A7. After Nemi took out Sundell with AJ against A6, it was heads up for the title. Niemi understandably put all his chips in with AT on a board of T 5 3 5, but unfortunately for him, Rijkenberg was sitting pretty with pocket aces.

He made the call and won it all. Constant Rijkenberg was the San Remo champion, with a life-changing 1.5 million plus added to his bank account.

Finally, the stage was set. All eyes were on Monte Carlo and the Grand EPT Final. Who would emerge the overall champion? Time would tell.