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Backgammon NewsFebruary 17, 2009Partouche Gammon Tour Grand Finale 2008 ResultsOlivier Decultot of France is the winner of the 2008 Partouche Gammon Tour (PGT) Grand Final held on February 10-13, 2009 at the Palm Beach Casino in Cannes, France. Decultot will be splitting the 150,000 euro total prize pool with his runner up, fellow countryman Francois Tardieu. 48 players took part in the Grande Finale of the 2008 PGT, which consisted of two events: the Open (won by Bartolomeo Migliore and finalized by Serge Dahan) and the Grand Finale event. 32 of the players, including last year's PGT champion Gotz Hildsberg of Germany, Ed O'Laughlin of the US and Mario Sequeira of Portugal, were qualified during the 1 year old and 8 stops long Partouche Gammon Tour. The other 16 participants either qualified online or paid the outrages 2,650 euro entry fee (excluding accommodation). PGT 2008 backgammon champion is not yet a household name in the international backgammon community, but the guy has been playing in several major backgammon tournaments in his homeland of France including the 3rd Lucien Barriere Backgammon Open in 2005, the 5th Paris Open in 2004, the Monte Carlo World Backgammon Championship in 2001 and others. PGT 2008 runner up, Francois Tardieu, is, on the other hand, a well known figure in the tangent worlds of backgammon and poker. Last year, he was elected number 3 in the biannual Giants of Backgammon list, won the special "bad beat" prize at the EBGT Portuguese Open and at the same time won the Side Event and Super Satellite of Partouche Poker Tour in Lyon. |
