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They had their moment in the sun. They had their moment in the spotlight. They had their moment with a Latin America Poker Tour trophy hoisted above their head. Now, they are going to have their moment at the LAPT Grand Final Carnival of Poker.

As you might know, the LAPT will host the Season 4 Grand Final next week. The big event coincides with Brazil's biggest party of the year, Carnival. Today the LAPT revealed that it has invited and received RSVPs from every Season 4 champion.

The five previous winners from the season will be sponsored players when the LAPT Grand Final main event kicks off at the World Trade Center Sheraton in Sao Paulo. Alex Manzao (Sao Paulo champion), Murilo Figueredo (Vina del Mar), Kemal Ferri (Lima), Alex Komaromi (Punta del Este), and Julian Menendez (Medellin) will all be in their seats February 17 for the Grand Final kickoff.

The Carnival party is pulling people from far beyond the Latin American borders. The word from Brazil indicates Eugene Katchalov, ElkY, Daniel Negreanu, and Chris Moneymaker will all be showing up for the big event.

And, of course, we here the PokerStars Blog wouldn't miss the festival. Several of us are packing our Carnival clothes as we speak and planning a full week for in-depth reporting.

Be sure to join us next week from Sao Paulo as we hook up with Team Pro, all of the Season 4 champions, and the rest of the traveling LAPT circus.

In case you didn't know, poker players tend to like to gamble with their money, and I'm not talking strictly in cash games or poker tournaments. Prop betting offers another way for poker players to be in action and have their money on the line. Working in the industry, oftentimes some of the members of the media enjoy feeling the same adrenaline rush from making a prop bet, especially when they're able to make such a wager against a player. The excitement is only greatened when that player is of a high caliber and well known, because then you're gambling with the best of them. Yes, we all know anyone, anywhere can plop down a certain amount of money and buy into a poker event to play with those players, but it's not so often you get to compete with them off the felt.

Last week, in Melbourne, Australia, a few of the members of the media, myself included, ventured out to dinner with two Team PokerStars Pros, Daniel Negreanu and Jason Mercier. The venue of choice was Ichi Ni Izakaya, a Japanese restaurant down by the water in St. Kilda. The conversation was lively, the sake was flowing and everyone was feeling good -- maybe too good.

One of the members of the PokerNews team, Remko Rinkema, brought up the idea of challenging someone to a best-of-seven sports competition. Maybe it was the ego, maybe it was the sake or the vodka cranberries, maybe it was just something in the air; whatever it was, Rinkema decided to challenge Mercier.

Now, before we get into more specifics of the bet, let me give a little background on where the bet stemmed from. Rinkema made a bet last year against former Team PokerStars Pro Noah Boeken while at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. It was a weight-loss bet and at the time Rinkema weighed in at 128.5 kilograms. The details of the bet were that for every kilogram over 100, Rinkema had to pay $500 and for every kilogram under 100, Boeken owed him $500. Rinkema had just under one year before the final weigh-in took place during the 2012 PCA. When it was all said and done, Rinkema weighed 95.2 kilograms. Partial kilograms didn't count, which meant Rinkema lost four kilograms total and earned a payment of $2,000 from Boeken. That's quite the effort given that he had to drop 28.5 kilograms just to break even. Not too mention, Rinkema earned a nice little payday.

Given that background story, Rinkema would like to keep up his healthy, weight-losing ways and though this would be another reason for him to keep on the right track in getting in the best shape he's been in since his teenage years. Both he and Mercier discussed the terms of the bet and settled on a wager of $5,000. Yes, this was a little high for Rinkema's liking, but it was decided that it would ultimately give him the most drive to win. The amount also had to be enough that Mercier would actually want to try and win. After all, the guy has earned over $7.6 million in live tournament earnings and probably several million more in cash games.

After some debating and banter back and forth, it was decided that I would arbitrate the bet with Rinkema selecting four sports to Mercier's three. For each sport picked, I would decide the competition within that sport that the two would engage in. For example, if one of them selected basketball, I could decide that the competition would be a game of one-on-one with the first player to seven winning.

For the rest of the night, the two went back and forth a little bit about the bet. They even sought out the opinions of others in the party before taking to Twitter to get even more views. Right away, Mercier seemed pretty confident about the bet and tweeted the following.

@JasonMercier: "Booked a 5k prop bet last night against @happyfreaked we play best of 7 sports and he chooses 4 I choose 3 ... Think I'm -260 to win #mash"

Rinkema, though, didn't seem as confident in Mercier, even though he had the edge in sports to be picked, four to three. Here's what he first tweeted about the bet.

@happyfreaked: "So I made this silly prop bet with @JasonMercier tonight. Gotta think of 4 sports I can beat him at in 24 hours. Time to get some sleep now."

Mercier then went on to add even more words of confidence in the following tweet.

@JasonMercier: "@DWBenefield @happyfreaked pretty sure he's drawing dead in the 3 I'll pick, so I just gotta beat him in one of his 4"

In the details of the bet, Rinkema was supposed to pick his four sports first, but he seemed to have a bit of a hard time doing so.

@happyfreaked: "Having a hard time figuring out which 4 sports I will pick. Leaning towards tennis, cycling time trial, speed skating on ice and kickboxing."

After some back and forth banter on Twitter that included Mercier asking for my ruling on Rinkema's time frame for choosing his sports and plenty of players, fans and media members voicing their thoughts, Rinkema decided on his four sports as tug of war, cycling, snowboarding and speed skating on ice. But Mercier wasn't buying those and argued against a couple of them.

@JasonMercier: "@happyfreaked tug of war a sport? Also, assumed since we are supposed to do this in Vegas in the SUMMER snowboarding? @Donnie_Peters Plz"

I have to agree, tug of war was a bit of a stretch by Rinkema and I disallowed it. I also agreed with Mercier on the idea of snowboarding. This bet is supposed to take place during the summer and the World Series of Poker, preferably at the beginning. It's also supposed to be able to be completed within 24 hours. Having to trek up to a mountain and compete in snowboarding more than likely wouldn't be doable. I also disallowed speed skating on ice for the same reason as snowboarding. Speed skating in the summer in Las Vegas? Good luck with that. I also don't think it's overly fair to include a sport that each person much go out and buy some unique equipment for. Finding a basketball or some tennis racquets is one thing, but speed skates? Don't think that's going to happen.

Given all of that, the only sport that actually stood was cycling, leaving Rinkema to have to pick three more. Cue the Jeopardy theme song because this took some time for him to finally decide. Eventually, he chose shot put as another one of his four. Although Mercier tried to argue against shot put, as you can read in his following tweets, it's part of the Olympics, a sport involved in track and field competitions, so I allowed it.

@JasonMercier: "Shotput is just an event in track and field. If u can't make a living at it specifically... It's not a sport!! @happyfreaked @Donnie_Peters"

@JasonMercier: "That's like me picking half court basketball shots. Basketball is the sport. Donnie would choose what we do in the sport"

Sorry, Mercier, there are specific athletes who specialize in shot put and shot put only. It is a sport, although one more unique one, but it's still a qualifying sport.

Another day or so passed before Rinkema added his final two sports. It took him a lot of deliberating, Wikipedia research and consultation from friends, but he finally picked rowing and inline skating. He still wasn't that impressed about a couple of his first selections getting turned down, though.

@happyfreaked: "After long deliberation I pick Cycling, Shot pot, Rowing and inline speed skating. @JasonMercier @Donnie_Peters"

@happyfreaked: "Still not happy about getting turned down on the initial sports, but these are as legit as they get imo."

Then, it was Mercier's turn and he had to select the final three events of the competition. Shortly after Rinkema finalized his four picks, Mercier responded with his three to close out the drafting.

@JasonMercier: ".@Donnie_Peters @happyfreaked I choose basketball, racquetball, baseball guess I just gotta figure out which of Remko's sports I can win at"

With all seven sports now picked, it's up to me, as the arbitrator to decide what these two will compete at for the sports. After a little bit of thought, it's been decided.

For cycling, the two will compete in a 10-kilometer time trial. The person who competes the 10 kilometers the fastest wins this competition. For shot put, it was very simple -- distance. For rowing, I chose to have the two row for 15 minutes of elapsed time and whoever completes the most distance wins. For inline speed skating, the two will have a one-on-one race with the distance yet to be determined.

For the three sports that Mercier selected -- basketball, baseball and racquetball -- the following was chosen. For basketball, the two will play a one-on-one format with the first player to score 15 points winning. You must win by two in this event and all baskets will be worth one point. For racquetball, the two will play another one-on-one format and it will be best-of-three games. The first person to score 15 points wins each game. For baseball, the two will play home run derby with 10 outs allotted per side. A neutral pitcher will be used.

Those are the seven sports and the competitions that will be completed for each. With the event set to take place at the beginning of the WSOP, it's going to be something great to come out and watch if you're in the area. We'll be sure to keep everyone posted about the happenings of the bet and competition, so as always, stay tuned.

The final table of EPT Deauville promised so much. In the end it delivered on some of what we'd hoped for, but for much of the eleven-and-a-half-hours this day took it became a tactical duel, riddled with a mixture of caution and patience. For eventual winner Vadzim Kursevich it was patience that won through, but only just, making him the latest EPT champion and €875,000 richer.

Kursevich faced Paul Guichard heads-up, the two players who had led coming into the final. But that didn't go any way near far enough to account for the day; a marathon session which ultimately crowned one of the two best players on the day, for the reality was this title could have gone either way.

Vadzim Kursevich

Paul Guichard

Kursevich had held a massive lead going into the heads-up, 23 million to 3 million, which left Guichard looking for a dose of luck. He got it - twice - as good as levelling the scores to set up a dynamite last hand that seemed to run contrary to everything that had come before it for excitement, Kursevich's flush and double-gutshot draw, against Guichard's flopped set, filling on the river, sending the Belorussian's friends into rapture, and the strong French rail into silence.

Kursevich and friends

He must have thought he'd let it out of his grasp, but Vadzim Kursevich becomes the new EPT Deauville champion.

"I can't really believe it," said Kursevich. "It's like a dream. A lot of times, you finish 28th, fifth, even second - and you think 'What do I have to do to be the champion' but when you are, it's the best feeling in the world."

Champion Kursevich

The final result:

1st. Vadzim Kursevich, Belarus, €875,000
2nd. Paul Guichard, France, €557,000
3rd. Vuong Than Trong, France, €328,000
4th. Yorane Kerignard, France, €260,000
5th. Bruno Jais, France, €200,000
6th. Olivier Rogez, France, €155,000
7th. Luca Pagano, Italy, Team PokerStars Pro, €110,000
8th. Mick Graydon, Ireland, €67,200

For those who follow European poker closely the story at the start of today centred around Luca Pagano, whose result today takes him back to the top of the EPT Tournament Leader Board. The Team PokerStars Pro was playing his seventh EPT final table, recording his 20th cash. But once more the Italian would fall at the last hurdle.

Earlier in the week Pagano had been pragmatic. It wouldn't matter, he said, if that elusive first EPT win didn't happen this time round. He would simply try again at the one next and the one after that. And he will.

Luca Pagano

But the look on his face as he tried to escape through the elasticated rail which stubbornly got in his way as he tried to escape the scene, suggested that, at least in a small way, this mattered so much more, certainly more than to stop the now repetitive question "how long until Luca Pagano wins an EPT?"

Pagano's departure was the last for some time, following the exit of short stacked Irishman Mick Graydon. The sun had gone down and some suggested Pagano would have been back in Italy before Olivier Rogez busted in sixth more than three hours later.

Olivier Rogez

Rogez had counted his winning a seat to Deauville as his greatest achievement as a player, but he topped that by some way today. His departure may not have had the flash bang of his story, coming as it did with a muffled whimper - all in with only a big blind - but nonetheless his achievement should be read as inspiration to others.

Bruno Jais had his own backstory, miss-clicking on a €500 satellite when really he'd only wanted to play a €10 MTT. The mistake left him with only a Euro in his PokerStars account. He can use some of the €200,000 he collected for fifth place to top that up.

Bruno Jais

After the dinner break the final four returned. It had taken eight-and-a-half hours to reach this stage and just as spectators dug in for another long session they were brought to life by a clash of the big stacks, Kursevich doubling through Trong with pocket kings against the Frenchman's ace-queen. It left Trong with four big blinds while arming Kursevich with the firepower he needed to seal his first title.

Trong would double through Kerignard leaving the San Remo finalist crippled and soon on his way to the rail. Kerignard is an obviously talented player with the talent to prove he can perform at the highest level. He did so this week. This was his second EPT final. Expect more.

Yorane Kerignard

For Trong and Guichard the task was simple. Somehow get the better of Kursevich who's stack towered over the others. France always does things a little differently and the appearance of 100,000 plaques was a novelty not seen before. A novelty for Kursevich perhaps. By the time it was three-handed the Belorusian has possession of all of them.

Vuong Than Trong

Trong and Guichard's old fashioned disk-shaped chips were no match. Trong made his inevitable move, but fell in third. Trong had looked like a winner for much of the afternoon, fitting the photo-fit required - young, aggression, intelligent and talented. On another day this title would be his, just not today. Kursevich, a former WCOOP main event finalist, became the first Belorusian to win an event on the tour. As Guichard found out a few moments later, despite something of a comeback, he was simply unstoppable.

Read back through all the posts from today at the links below, while the live coverage can be found here.

That brings another leg of the European Poker Tour to a close, another champion to grace the record books. The tour now packs up its gear and sets a course for Denmark where Copenhagen hosts the next leg of Season 8. As usual you'll be able to follow all the action, on and off the tables, right here on the PokerStars Blog, starting 20 February.

Casino Deauville

Until then, thanks for following our coverage from Deauville. For now, it's goodnight.

All photography © Neil Stoddart

Vadzim Kursevich now holds an enormous chip lead, staking his claim to the €875,000 EPT Deauville title. The Belarusian won a 17,540,000 pot crippling Vuong Than Trong in the process. Trong opened the button for 500,000 and Kursevich three-bet to 1,200,000 out of the small blind. Trong quickly moved all-in and the Belarusian made the call. Trong tabled [ah][qs] and Kursevich showed [ks][kd]. The board ran out [9h][9s][5c][4s][qh] giving Kursevich every single 100,000 blue plaque in play and putting the former chip leader in terrible shape with just 825,000 - less than four big blinds.

Two all-ins later, both times with queen-ten, both times with miracle rivers, Than Trong had got himself back up to 3,600,000. That put him in third above survivor Yorane Kerignard, the victim of his second double through, who was left with 1,725,000. Kerignard who had performed an incredible short stack display bust the next hand getting [qs][9s] in against Kursevich's [kc][js] leaving three just three players; Than Trong and Paul Guichard very short stacked. Kerignard pockets €260,000.

A few hands later and Trong shoved [kd][ts] for a little over three million and was called - and beaten - by Kursevich with [ac][jc] taking us heads up. Trong takes home €328,000

Kursevich - 23,145,000
Guichard - 3,365,000

This could be over very quickly. Follow the live updates as they happen.