The EPT Prague Main Event was a record-breaking enterprise with 1,458 total entries, the largest ever in the history of this event. With the huge field size creating the massive seven-figure first place prize, the anticipation and interest of who was going to win this historic event only continued to build as the six-day tournament played on.
It is highly likely that many of the players in this huge field use the best poker training sites to improve their game, as it was a field dripping with poker talent and great players with many great stories to choose from.
Ultimately, the player who ended up conquering this mountainous field was Pedro Marques of Portugal who won the €963,450 first place prize overcoming a tough opponent in Paul Runcan heads up to confirm the win.
Marques and Portuguese Poker
Marques added to his growing legacy as one of Portugal’s best players. This win was his fourth career EPT title and the most lucrative of all his career titles. This was also the second largest cash of his career, only eclipsed by a PCA final table in The Bahamas in January 2023.
Overall it is his 10th career six-figure or better result and he now has over $5.7 million in career earnings. He is firmly in second place on the all time Portuguese career earnings list according to the Hendon Mob, now ahead of Pedro Neves by a comfortable $2.1 million margin. The only Portuguese player ahead of him now is renowned high-roller regular Joao Vieira.
On the whole, Portuguese poker seems to be on the rise recently which is appropriate considering the rumors of a potential soon to come EPT return to Portugal. These rumors coming thanks to the recent news of the cancellation of EPT Paris.
Final Table
The final table was once again a sign of just how diverse and widespread the game of poker is with the final table of nine having eight unique countries represented at it. Only Romania had more than one representative with two players at the final table.
After the final table of nine was cut down to six to end the penultimate Day 5 of action, Paul Runcan held a big chip lead with a deep 120 big blind stack. Marques has just slightly more than half that with 62 big blinds as the second largest stack entering the final day. This was key, as being the chip leader entering the final day is always critically important and significantly shapes later stage poker tournament strategy.
Anton Bergstrom of Sweden and Barak Oz of Israel had the middle stacks with 45 and 30 big blinds respectively, while the shorties were Siarhei Alontsau of Belarus and Jaehyung Park of South Korea,
Park ended up being the biggest mover on the final day of play as he was able to spin his shortest 14 big blind stack up to a third place finish, laddering up and more than doubling the sixth place payout.
Heads Up
Marques started to get closer to Runcan’s big lead throughout the final day but Runcan eliminated Park to once again take a hammerlock chip lead with 83% of the chips when heads up play began. Both players agreed to a heads up deal to even out make the gap between the first and second place payouts a little more even.
But Marques would not go quietly and he quickly turned things around by winning several big hands to pull close and eventually take the chip lead. Runcan battled back to make it a bit closer again before Marques was able to close out the win and deny Runcan what would have been his first title as he settled for second place and by far his largest career cash.
| Place | Player | Prize | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pedro Marques | €963,450* | Portugal |
| 2 | Paul Runcan | €900,000* | Romania |
| 3 | Jaehyung Park | €512,100 | South Korea |
| 4 | Barak Oz | €393,950 | Israel |
| 5 | Anton Bergstrom | €303,000 | Sweden |
| 6 | Siarhei Alontsau | €233,050 | Belarus |
| 7 | Tjenno Eskes | €179,250 | Netherlands |
| 8 | Siegfried Kapeller | €137,900 | Austria |
| 9 | Danut Chisu | €106,050 | Romania |