Switzerland’s Sam El Sayed is the champion of the inaugural €3200 + €300 World Poker Tour® Amnéville Main Event, presented by http://www.partypoker.fr/. 543 players took part in the event at the Seven Casino d’Amnéville, breaking the record for most runners in a WPT® tournament in Europe. More than 200 people came to support the finalists and their local heroes – railing the action well into Sunday morning.

The final table was a predominantly French affair with five players from France taking part in a tense and entertaining final table of eight players that lasted more than 12 hours. The most notable name to make the tournament’s finale was French whizz Jean-Paul Pasqualini, easily the most experienced player who is causing a stir in the European rankings. However it was Switzerland’s Sam El Sayed who scooped first prize of €426,425, a WPT Champion Tiffany bracelet, the first WPT Amnéville winner title and a seat for the 2011 $25,000 WPT World Championship at the Bellagio, Las Vegas. The runner-up was France’s Franck Pepe, who took home €229,613 and a €10,000 seat for the prestigious 2011 WPT Grand Prix de Paris.

El Sayed was delighted with his win: “It’s amazing to win this tournament – I think I picked my spots well. Now the plan is to wake up every morning and continue to play poker. Next stop is WPT Marrakech at the end of November.

Full details on all the action and video interviews can be found at: http://www.partypoker.com/blog/featured/wpt-amneville-final-table-live-updates.html. Comprehensive French language coverage can also be found at: http://www.partypoker.fr/blog/.

Christophe Schanne, Seven Casino director, explained: “We are delighted with the record turnout for the inaugural WPT Amnéville, presented by http://partypoker.fr. There are so many people I would like to thank at Seven Casino - it has been one big team effort. This weekend there was nearly double the amount of people coming through our doors than they would normally. People asked where’s Amnéville and doubted you could have an event here- they know now where Amnéville is!”

World Poker Tour President Adam Pliska said: “We’d like to congratulate Sam Al Sayed on his win and all the players that made the final table – we look forward to welcoming him to Bellagio for the WPT World Championship. The tremendous efforts made by the Seven Casino and the truly impressive attendance record at the inaugural WPT Amneville, presented by PartyPoker.fr, cement it as a must-attend stop for players for the future.”

 The inaugural WPT Amnéville (2nd -6th November), presented by PartyPoker.fr, was the first major event hosted at Seven Casino d’Amnéville, a sparkling new casino complex located in the historic town in the north-east region of France. Amnéville is just a short distance from Metz, Nancy and Luxembourg and only 90 minutes from Paris by train. Due to its border position it is convenient for travel from Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands. Amongst those who took part were Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier, recent WPT London Poker Classic champion Jake Cody, Arnaud Mattern, Nicholas Levi, Bruno Fitoussi, Isabelle Mercier, WPT Bucharest winner Guillaume Darcourt, Ludovic Lacay and Roger Hairabaidan.