France’s Thomas Santerne has captured two excessive curler titles inside a four-day span at the 2024 European Poker Tour Prague sequence. Santerne got here out on high within the €20,000 buy-in on Dec. 6, incomes $185,500. Then on Dec. 10 he emerged victorious within the €50,000 buy-in occasion, the highest-stakes occasion on provide at the pageant. The latter triumph added one other $408,869 to Santerne’s profession earnings, sufficient to see him surpass the $5.1 million mark.
In addition to the 2 PokerStars spade trophies and the cash, Santerne additionally secured 450 Card Player Player of the Year factors with this pair of wins at the Hilton Hotel Prague. Prior to this sequence, he had recorded 4 final-table finishes and one win, taking down the €50,000 buy-in at EPT Paris in February for $960,638. He now has 2,702 complete factors, sufficient to maneuver him into a hundred and fifteenth place within the 2024 POY standings offered by Global Poker.
This occasion took two days to play right down to a champion. Only the highest 5 contenders would make the cash to say a bit of the $1,258,750 prize pool. Teun Mulder was knocked out on the bubble, operating aces up into the broadway straight of Nikita Kuznetsov. The Dutch professional left empty-handed, whereas Kuznetsov locked up his fourth high-stakes money of the sequence, having already positioned third in each the €10,200 thriller bounty and €20,000 excessive curler occasions and fifth within the €25,000 buy-in.
Recent €25,000 buy-in occasion winner Espen Jorstad was the primary to be eradicated inside the cash. The 2022 World Series of Poker principal occasion champion earned $119,780 for his fifth-place displaying, surpassing $18.7 million within the course of.
Kuznetsov misplaced a giant preflop showdown with A-Ok towards the pocket aces of 2024 WSOP principal occasion third-place finisher Niklas Astedt throughout five-handed play. Kuznetsov hung round for some time, however was in the end knocked out in fourth place ($148,400). His pocket eights misplaced a race towards the A-Q suited of Santerne, which made high pair, high kicker. Kuznetsov now has almost $5.4 million in lifetime cashes to his identify.
Sergey Lebedev was additionally despatched packing by A-Q, along with his A-9 developing quick towards the superior ace held by Astedt. Lebedev earned $204,580 for his third-place displaying.
Santerne held roughly a 2:1 chip result in begin, however a double up for Astedt left the stacks roughly balanced. This parity prompted the ultimate two to hash out a deal to redistribute the remaining prize cash. Astedt locked up $377,122, whereas Santerne was assured of at least $382,369. They left the trophy and $26,500 to play for.
In the ultimate hand, the entire chips obtained in with the board displaying 9
3
110. Santerne held Ok
10 for high pair, whereas Astedt had A4 for the nut flush draw with one out to the ‘steel wheel’. The river was the 6, locking up the pot and title for Santerne. Astedt headed to the payout line to gather his newest large payday. The Swedish on-line poker legend now has greater than $8.8 million in recorded event earnings.
Here is a glance at the payouts and POY factors awarded at the ultimate desk:
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
| 1 | Thomas Santerne | $408,869 | 306 |
| 2 | Niklas Astedt | $377,122 | 255 |
| 3 | Sergey Lebedev | $204,580 | 204 |
| 4 | Nikita Kuznetsov | $148,400 | 153 |
| 5 | Espen Jorstad | $119,780 | 128 |
Photo credit score: Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd. / Danny Maxwell.
