It was a case of close but no cigar for England's Jack Salter, whose fantastic run at the EPT Grand Final in Monte-Carlo from 26 April-2 May faltered at the final hurdle.

It took more than 300 hands, nearly 18 hours of play, and seven eliminations on the final day before the 2014 PokerStars €10,600 main event finally came to a close.

The day was long, but eventful, and in the end it was Salter and Italy's Antonio Buonanno left to battle it out in what would prove to be an epic heads-up contest.

The two traded blows, double-ups, bluffs, and value bets into the breakfast hours in Monaco, but it was the Italian who captured the massive €1.24 million top prize.

After a failed float attempt followed by a long tank that resulted in a fold caused by the time clock running out on Salter, he was left with a 3-1 chip disadvantage and things were soon over.

On the final hand, Buonanno raised with the AS-4H and Salter shoved with KD-7D. Buonanno called and held as the board ran out a rather uneventful JH-9S-2H-QD-3S.

EPT Grand Final Monte-Carlo
1 Antonio Buonanno €1,240,000
2 Jack Salter €765,000
3 Malte Moennig €547,000
4 Mayu Roca €419,000
5 Magnus Karlsson €332,000
6 Sebastian von Toperczer €258,300
7 Kenny Hicks €188,500
8 Sebastian Bredthauer €128,800
9 Martins Seilis €102,000