Ottomar Ladva has seized victory in the €25,000 NL II, picking up his third European Poker Tour win.
The 27-year-old emerged triumphant from a field of 60 entries to add €439,400 to his live tournament career earnings which now stand at around $1.5 million.
Estonian Ladva is a chess grandmaster who switched disciplines in 2019 and is now starting to make waves in the high-roller scene.
The €25,000 NL II took a long 13 hours to complete with stacks of elite talent fighting over the prize pool.€1,440,600.
Although Ladva does not yet have the profile of his more illustrious peers, dealing with the likes of Patrik Antonius, Sam Greenwood , and Mike Watson shows that his raw talent is more than enough to compete at this level.
Action Recap
There were worries come the scheduled start time for the €25,000 NL II. Only five players had taken their seats and the tournament was in danger of becoming a damp squib.
Fortunately, when late registration passed we had 60 players grinding, besting the 46 we saw during the first edition of this event, last week.
Leonard Maue, champion of the €50k High Roller Second Chance, was the first player to race into a tangible chip lead, picking up an early double-up and then taking a chunk of chips from Jean-Noel Thorel.
But it wasn’t enough, and the German couldn’t catch a break, busting out just before the money.
Petrangelo has been coming up with the results during the EPT Barcelona but it wasn’t to be for him either with the American just missing out on another final table.
Patrik Antonius did make the final nine and then quickly faced the worst pre-flop nightmare of any tournament player.
The Finn raised to 65K from MP with K♠ K♥ and James Collopy three-bet from the hijack with A♠ A♣. Antonius bumped it up again and then Collopy jammed, receiving a quick call.
The board ran out J♥ 2♦ 8♥ 2♣ 5♦ and Antonius was on his way to the rail with no prize.
Short stacked Stoyan Madanzhiev, Michel Molenaar, and Biao Ding didn’t hang around much longer to leave five in it.
Sam Greenwood, a veteran of high-roller events, ended his day after jamming a dominated hand into Mathew Frankland.
Collopy was now making waves after Frankland busted, coming within the turn of one card to send Ladva home. The Estonian dodged that bullet and a few hands later picked up the rest of Collopy’s chips to leave only Artsiom Lasouski in his way.
Ladva started the heads-up battle with a significant advantage but Lasouski soon pulled back to leave the pair with equal size stacks.
That didn’t stop the duo from risking it all pre-flop, however, because only a few hands after Lasouski pulled back, we saw a pocket fours versus ace-jack race and Ladva was the latest EPT champion.
€25,000 No-Limit Hold’em II Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1 | Ottomar Ladva | Estonia | €439,400 |
| 2 | Artsiom Lasouski | Belarus | €288,100 |
| 3 | James Collopy | United States | €208,900 |
| 4 | Mathew Frankland | United Kingdom | €158,500 |
| 5 | Sam Greenwood | Canada | €122,500 |
| 6 | Biao Ding | China | €93,600 |
| 7 | Michel Molenaar | Netherlands | €72,000 |
| 8 | Stoyan Madanzhiev | Bulgaria | €57,600 |
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