Egypt Poker Open- Sinai Grand Casino was proud to host the Egypt Poker Open from January 28th  until February 3rd 2008. We had a great time for our first tournament and here is the summery from Pokernews.com. Congrats to the big winner Jon Backman from Sweden!

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Poker in the Middle East continues to grow, as evidenced by the recent win of Swedish native Fredric Ollsen in Egypt's first-ever major poker tournament, a no-limit hold'em tournament at Sharm El Sheikh's Sinai Grand Casino in Egypt. Ollsen's victory in the €500 main event capped a series of events that ran from January 28 to February 3, 2008. Four smaller tournaments ranging from €100 to €200 each preceded the two-day tourney that Ollsen, who now lives in Finland, captured.

53 entrants arrived at Sharm El Sheikh, a popular Red Sea tourist destination, to compete for what would be announced as €7,000 in first-place money. All 53 players were from other
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countries, because Egyptian law allows only citizens of other countries to gamble in Egyptian casinos. The first day saw 30 players eliminated, with survivors returning on Day 2 to set the lineup for the final table, with players and chip counts as follows:

Jon Backman (Sweden) — 102,400
Colin Thompson (UK) — 67,800
Valadis Muizicka (Latvia) — 57,800
Serge Kammerer (Morrocco) — 57,000
Janne Takala (Finland) — 39,700
Fredric Ollsen (Sweden) — 29,300
Tommaso [unknown] (Italy) — 24,400
George Crawley (UK) — 18,300

The first casualty at the final table was George Crawley, whose (Q-Clubs)(J-Spades) lost out to Tommaso's (9-Hearts)(9-Diamonds) on a board of (3-Clubs)(8-Diamonds)(4-Spades)(9-Spades)(J-Clubs). Crawley collected €800. Soon after, three players were involved in a pot that saw Serge, with (A-Spades)(7-Spades), and Ollsen, with (K-Diamonds)(K-Clubs), go all in before a flop that was also called by Colin Thompson with (K-Spades)(A-Clubs). Thompson had the other players covered. The board brought (Q-Spades)(2-Diamonds)(6-Clubs)(10-Hearts)(10-Spades), Ollsen picked up a 80,000 pot, and Serge exited in seventh place collecting €1,000.

Thompson recovered later when he raised 10,000 on the button with (A-Diamonds)(Q-Spades), and was reraised all-in for 33,000 by Janne Takala with (K-Clubs)(Q-Clubs). Thompson called and the flop interestingly came (A-Clubs)(3-Hearts)(5-Clubs), giving both players hope, but the turn (J-Diamonds) and river (7-Diamonds) gave Thompson the pot. Takala exited in sixth with €1,100. The next person out was Tommaso, who went all in for 35,000 with (Q-Spades)(Q-Hearts). He was called by Ollsen with (A-Clubs)(Q-Clubs), who flopped the flush when (9-Clubs)(5-Clubs)(8-Clubs) arrived. The board ran out (5-Hearts) and (9-Diamonds) and Tommaso departed in fifth place with €1,300.

Three hands after a short break, Thompson reraised all in with (A-Clubs)(K-Hearts) for 89,000 in chips after Backman, with (K-Diamonds)(10-Diamonds), bet 16,000 on a flop of (K-Spades)(8-Diamonds)(9-Diamonds), which Backman called. The turn came (9-Spades) and, cruelly for Thompson, a river (4-Diamonds) gave Backman a flush. Thompson exited in fourth with €1,800. After losing several hands, Backman moved in on a flop of (A-Spades)(5-Hearts)(6-Diamonds). Ollsen called with (A-Diamonds)(6-Clubs). A (4-Hearts) turn and (10-Spades) river missed Backman's outs, assuring his exit in third for €2,400.

With Ollsen holding over two thirds of the chips, the tournament concluded when Valadis Muizicka moved all in with (5-Diamonds)(4-Hearts) after a (2-Clubs)(3-Clubs)(8-Clubs) flop. Ollsen called and showed (10-Clubs)(10-Spades) . A turn (3-Spades) and river (6-Clubs) gave Muizicka a straight, but also filled Ollsen's winning flush. Muizicka collected €4,000 for his runner-up finish and Ollsen took home €7,000, plus the honor of being the first-ever Egypt Open Main Event winner.