The first ever major poker tournament to be played on Cyprus soil was won last night by French poker pro Thomas Bichon. The WPT Merit Classic Poker Tournament event attracted a strong field from all over the world and Bichon finished the day $500,000 richer than he was on Friday.

After a cautious start the chip leader from day 5 Rony Jazzar, was the first one to exit stage left after a run in with Rep Porter made a major dent in his stack. Shortly after Uri Keidar hammered the nail in his coffin with a flush to Jazzar’s pair.

Next up was Janar Kiivramees and after some serious to -ing and fro-ing Rep Porter was out chasing a flush to Keidar’s pair of nines.

Thomas Bichon then knocked out Steven Fung with J-5 to face Uri Keidar in a heads up that lasted just two hands. Keidar immediately changed his style to go all-in with J-10 against Bichon’s pair of 7′s. After the flop came 7C-AS-KS Keidar was chasing a straight but the turn and river (10h – 3s) sealed the win for Bichon and brought an end to a fantastic week of Poker in Northern Cyprus.

The whole tournament on the whole has been a great success, and despite a slightly lower turnout than expected the general opinion was extremely positive. Cyprus looks set to become a favourite WPT European destination in the years to come.

Here are the final table results.

1st: Thomas Bichon – $579,165
2nd: Uri Keidar – $380,645
3rd: Steven Fung – $216,275
4th: Rep Porter – $121,115
5th: Janar Kiivramees – $90,835
6th: Rony Jazzar – $73,535