Popular French Singer Wins World Poker Tour Event in Cannes

The world of poker is so diverse that sometimes competitions produce highly unexpected winners. This was the case with the Cannes main event of the World Poker Tour, held last weekend in full compliance with French gambling laws.

Bruno “Kool Shen” Lopes, a popular French rap star won the honors and EUR 100,500 for the first place. He managed to overcome a field of 338 participants at one of the most exquisite French poker rooms. It turns out that he can not only read rap tunes, but play some serious poker as well.

The WPT Cannes event was a $2,045 buy-in competition, held over three days. The final tablet gathered together alongside Lopes such prominent poker players as Louis Gorostis, Thomas Fara, Antonin Teisseire, Yannick Massa, and Robert Giordano.

France gambling news reports that once the tablet was down to two contenders, Lopes and Gorostis, the singer took the lead and never looked back, dominating the heads-up play. Louis Gorostis had to settle for the second place and EUR 70,500 which came with it.

It was not the first time the rapper showed off his amicable poker skills, back in January this year he won the Euro Finals of the Poker Diamond Championship taking home $127,514. He also placed fourth at this year’s Madrid event of the European Poker Tour collecting $183,660.

Poker and especially online version of the game is not enjoying the best of times in France at the time. Latest figures from ARJEL, the country’s regulator, reveal a drop in revenues across the whole industry. Some experts suggest the decline in popularity of the game is to blame for the profit drop, others put the draconian taxation levels in France as the main reason for stagnating poker revenues.