Michael Schulze has won the EPT Polish Open in Warsaw for a first prize of 2,154,000 Polish Zlotys, which converts to around €609,782 approx.

The 40-year-old stock trader from Schleswig in Germany never expected to get past Day 1 of the tournament and kept re-booking his flights, hotel room and even his daily dinner voucher as he went deeper and deeper in the four-day 20,000 Polish Zloty event.

He started the final table as chip leader - and maintained his lead through most of the day, eventually beating Portugal’s Ricardo Sousa into second place after nearly 11 hours of play. Sousa, a 30-year-old father-of-one, from Oporto, who turned pro last September, takes home 1,220,600 PLN (€345,779 approx.)

Third place – and 718,000 PLN (€203,399) - went to PokerStars qualifier Mathias Viberg, 23, from Boden in Sweden. He was one of four PokerStars qualifiers to make the final table, along with Norwegian Trond Erik Eidsvig. Trond, who came 8th, broke an EPT record with his third final table in a single season.

The 20,000 PLN tournament attracted 359 players – 80 more than last year – and created a record Polish prize pool of 7,180,000 PLN (about €2 million). Among the players were Team PokerStars Pros Greg Raymer, Katja Thater, Dario Minieri and Luca Pagano, plus 103 players who won their seats online with PokerStars.

For his win, Schulze also receives a €10,000 seat to Europe’s biggest poker tournament, the EPT Grand Final, which takes place in Monte Carlo next month (12-17 April). The next EPT is in San Remo, Italy (1-5 April, 2008). Satellites for the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo, as well as EPT San Remo, are running now on PokerStars.

Final results:
1. Michael Schulze, Germany, €609,782
2. Ricardo Sousa, Portugal, €345,543
3. Mathias Viberg, Sweden, €203,261
4. Mehdi Ouakhir, France, €152,445
5. Christian Oman, Sweden, €123,989
6. Juan Maceiras, Spain, €97,565
7. Niclas Svensson, Sweden, €77,239
8. Trond Erik Eidsvig, Norway, €56,913
9. Dan Woolson, USA, €34,554