The festival of poker unfolding in Prague has produced another three champions from Eureka, EPT Super High Roller and Open Face Chinese events.
Hungarian professional player Balazs Botond started the final day of the Eureka Prague event as the low stack but came back with a vengeance to take the main prize after a three way chop with Ayman Zbib and Athanasios Xenodochidis at the three-handed stage of the game.
This year’s Eureka Prague has proved to be the biggest yet, with 1,738 entries generating a prize pool of Euro 1,685,860, ensuring that 255 players cashed.
The final table was an international affair, featuring Botond from Hungary; Lebanese player Ayman Zbib, Ayman Zbib, Athanasios Xenodochidis from Greece, Canadian Jonas Mackoff, Viktor Velikov and Atanas Malinov of Bulgaria, Lukas Blanco from Spain and Norwegian Endre Sagstuen.
Down to just three survivors, a chop was arranged which left Euro 20,000 on the table for the winner.
When Xenodochidis busted out in third for Euro 186,881, Zbib and Botond went at it in the heads up, with the Hungarian eventually winning to claim a main prize of Euro 206,948, leaving his able Lebanese opponent with the runner up’s Euro 163,921.
It was Botond’s biggest live tournament win to date, although that is likely to change in the years ahead given his obvious talent.
The competition was the last in the Eureka series for this year; the fifth season of this popular series is scheduled to start at Kings Casino, Rozvadov in the Czech Republic in February 2015.
There were 51 entries in the Euro 50,000 buy-in European Poker Tour Prague Super High Roller, which saw Leonid Markin claim the top honours and Euro 771,360 after a tough back-and-forth heads up against Paul Newey.
The final table line-up was impressive, including the two finalists and Stephen Chidwick, Juha Helppi
Ivan Soshnikov, Vladimir Troyanovskiy and Brian Roberts…all guaranteed at least Euro 128,565 for making it through a very tough field.
Three handed action was a prolonged affair involving Markin, Newey and Chidwick, with the latter exiting in third for Euro 355,070 after a three-hour grind of generally cautious play.
Heads up action started with some true drama as Markin and Newey faced off almost immediately in a big pot, with Newey coming back into the game strongly after a huge double up that gave him a more than 2 to 1 chip advantage.
Another prolonged series of exchanges followed as the hours ticked by with both players showing determination and skill as the lead repeatedly changed hands until Markin was able to establish superiority and take the game.
Final table pay-outs looked like this:
Leonid Markin Euro 771,360
Paul Newey Euro 557,090
Stephen Chidwick Euro 355,070
Juha Helppi Euro 269,360
Ivan Soshnikov Euro 208,150
Vladimir Troyanovskiy Euro 159,170
Brian Roberts Euro 128,565
The growing popularity of Open Face Chinese poker was again demonstrated in Prague, with 102 entries in TonyBet’s inaugural Euro 1,000 buy-in Open-Face Chinese Poker World Championship, in which Norwegian pro and online ace Mikal Blomlie was declared main event winner.
Blomlie was awarded a very fancy winner’s belt and the Euro 35,000 main prize after a notable heads up against German pro Jan Hendrik Tapken, who took home Euro 21,000.