The 2018 European Poker Tour € 5,300 No Limit Hold'em event held in Prague has been won by Germany's Paul Michaelis, making him €840,000 ($953,646) richer.
The 27-year-old poker player outlasted a 1,174 player field to claim his very first EPT title. This win is his best live cash so far in his poker career. His previous best score was $189,818 for winning the 2015 WSOP $1,500 pot-limit hold'em event.
Michaelis started the fourth day of this event as one of the shortest stacks, but he fought his way to the chip lead before the night ended. He then returned to the 6th and last day of the event at the top of the leaderboard with only six players left.
When there were only three players left at the final table, they decided to make a deal after battling it out for some time. The deal entails dividing the remaining prize pool into:
Michaelis, as chip leader, would be guaranteed €770,000 ($877,800 USD)
Alexandr Merzhvinskii, as second in chips, would get €631,500 ($719,910 USD)
Artem Kobylynskyi would have €571,910 ($651,977 USD)
With that settled, that meant they would continue playing in order to win the cash prize worth €70,000 ($79,800 USD), the title, and the $30,000 Platinum Pass.
Even though Alexandr Merzhvinskii was second in chips when the deal was made, he finished third place after he was sent to the rail by Michaelis.
After that, Michaelis had a 2-to-1 lead upon entering a heads-up match with Artem Kobylynskyi. By the time the final hand was up, Michaelis further extended his lead to around 6-to-1.
Michaelis got a pair of Jacks
Kobylynskyi had a pair of 10s
The board ran K-Q-5-9-7, thus making Michaelis the winner of the event.
He said after he won, "It feels pretty unreal. It's an unreal amount of money. Obviously due to swaps and backing, I only get to take a portion of this but it's still an unreal amount of money."
Michaelis got the lion's share of a 3-way arrangement, taking home the trophy, a total cash prize of €840,000 ($953,646) plus a Platinum Pass to the 2019 PokerStars Players No-Limit Hold'em Championship worth $30,000.
EPT Prague Main Event details
Entrants: 1,174
Buy-in: €5,300
Payouts: 175
Prize Pool: €5,693,900
Final Table Results
|
|
Player
|
Country
|
Prize (EUR)
|
Prize (USD)
|
|
1
|
Paul Michaelis
|
Germany
|
€840,000
|
$954,677
|
|
2
|
Artem Kobylynskyi
|
Ukraine
|
€571,910
|
$649,987
|
|
3
|
Alexandr Merzhvinskii
|
Russia
|
€631,500
|
$717,712
|
|
4
|
Laurynas Levinskas
|
Lithuania
|
€316,000
|
$359,140
|
|
5
|
Carlos Branco
|
Portugal
|
€242,560
|
$275,674
|
|
6
|
Parker Talbot
|
Canada
|
€179,360
|
$203,846
|
|
7
|
Liviu Ignat
|
Romania
|
€136,720
|
$155,385
|
|
8
|
Diego Zeiter
|
Argentina
|
€97,420
|
$110,720
|
Source:
https://calvinayre.com/2018/12/19/poker/pokerstars-ept-prague-round-paul-michaelis-wins-main-event/
