BankrollMob Poker News

The 37-year-old French poker pro has won what's called the last ever PokerStars Championship held in Prague. Kalidou Sow from France has won the 2017 PokerStars Championship Prague €5,300 No-Limit Hold'em Main Event, winning €675,000 ($795,305) against a player field of 885 entrants.

The prize was actually an adjusted payout after he and Jason Wheeler made a heads-up deal that saw both of them lock up €570,000, so Wheeler has secured himself a massive payday even though he had to settle for second place in the end.

Sow will be the final champion on the short-lived PSC tour. The major tours hosted by PokerStars were combined under the PokerStars Championship name at the beginning of 2017; however, after just a year, the decision has been made to bring back the European Poker Tour, along with the Latin American Poker Tour and the Asia Pacific Poker Tour, and so the result would be that the PokerStars Championship name will be set aside.

Despite the undergoing changes of the branding of this PokerStars' event, this doesn't change the fact that this was a very huge tournament. The 885 player field built up a prize pool equal to almost $4.9 million dollars!

Sow started the final day of this tourney as the chip lead, with six players remaining, though he held less than one big blind more than American poker pro Jason Wheeler. Wheeler gave Sow only two options: play for it all, or leave €105,000 on the table and chop the rest evenly. When everyone expected a long match, it turned out to be quite short, reaching only about 20 hands. Sow almost won every hand and Wheeler just could not get any chance. On the final hand, Sow dominated with tens against ace-nine. Defeated in the end, Wheeler congratulated Sow with a handshake, went towards his girlfriend from the audience and proceeded to collect his augmented payout.

Kalidou Sow is a small to mid-stakes recreational poker player in France. He has won some events throughout the years in his bread-and-butter €1K and €2K events, but was usually unable to make it to the final tables of the bigger events he had joined in.

Now crowned the champ, Sow said he only plans to have a simple celebration: a couple of drinks with his friends and then a flight home to Paris. He expects his poker career to continue as if nothing big happened. He said he'll most likely get back to playing €150 dailies as always. But of course, his win at the PokerStars Championship will always mean something to him. He said, "I'm dreaming, this is incredible."

Final Table Results