For the first time in the competition’s history, the Party Poker Million has been won by a German. Twenty-five year old Mathematics student Alexander Jung beat 171 other players to the first place prize of over $350,000.
Going to the heads-up battle, the resident of Berlin had to outlast Dominik Stopka to secure the championship. The event took place on the luxury cruise liner MSC Poesia, which left Venice on 3rd May and returned on the 10th. Previous winners of the event include Kathy Liebert, Erick Lindgren, Howard Lederer and Michael Gracz.
This is the biggest win of Jung’s career so far, and commenting on the tournament the young German was obviously delighted with the result. 'This is my biggest live win so far. The structure of the tournament was perfect for me, and there were some very good players here. I had a lot of respect for Dominik. I had seen him play a great many hands, mostly without a showdown and when he did have to show it was often something like aces, so he is a good player. However, I felt one or two others were a bit tight on the final table, perhaps wanting to try and climb the money positions'.
Runner-up Stopka, another German who had qualified online, also netted his biggest lifetime cash. “I once won $72,000 in an online tournament, but this is by far my biggest result” he said.
A Party Poker spokesman said “Alexander Jung was the deserving winner in a week where German players truly dominated the tournament. The heads-up was a clash of two different kinds of player. In Jung you had the mathematical online whiz kid and with Stopka, the experienced and respected professional who has fine tuned their game over the years. Everybody on board had a great time - it is just that the German players departed a great deal richer!”