Pedro Marques Scoops EPT Prague Main Event for €963,450

Portugal’s Pedro Marques has been crowned PokerStars’ EPT Prague Main Event champion after a heads-up  victory over Paul Runcan, with a deal securing both players €900,000+ paydays.

A record-breaking field of 1458 entries at €5300 apiece created a monster €7million plus change in the prizepool, and it would take six days of play to separate the champion from the rest of the field.

The money bubble on day two was the first port of call, with famous (or in some cases infamous!) names including Vanessa Kade and William Kassouf falling along the way.

The brutal bubble bustout of Bogdan Munteanu made the headlines…

🔊 Sound on…

AA vs KK sickness on the stone bubble of the #EPTPrague Main Event. 👇 pic.twitter.com/IDspvAMRJV

— PokerStars LIVE (@PokerStarsLIVE) December 11, 2024

…and for good reason, but luckily for the Romanian there was a simultaneous bustout elsewhere, Adi Rajkovic also falling, but ensuring a split min. cash worth €4,275 for each off them.

There were several former EPT Main Event champions still in the hunt for a double dip, but Lucien Cohen (178^th for €9850), Padraig O’Neill (148^th for €9850), Davidi Kitai (79^th for €15,000) would all fall short.

By day 6, only six players remained, with Nottingham-based Romanian Paul Runcan holding a massive chip lead, double that of Marques in second spot.

The most remarkable story of all six contenders is that of Sweden’s Anton Bergstrom. Never heard of him? Well, you might have from his hitherto anonymous online identity – “WhatIfGod”!

Bergstrom’s online poker alter ego, a multiple WCOOP and SCOOP champion, also took down both PokerStars’ EPT online Main Events during the pandemic lockdown, bagging $1million and $364,000 respectively.

Belarusian Siarhei Alontsau was first to depart when he ran aces into the flopped two pair of Marques, his shove snapped off and the board running out dry for the part-time poker player.

Bergstrom was next to follow, losing a race to Runcan thereby dashing his hopes of becoming the first-ever 3-time EPT champion. All the chips went in pre-flop…

Bergstrom: A♣ 10♦
Runcan: 4♠ 4♣

Flop: 9♠ K♦ 9♦

Turn: 2♥

River: 8♠

Barak Oz and Jaehyung Park were by now both short and it was the former, a data analyst from Tel Aviv, who fell first. Oz got it in good against Marques, but the Portuguese pro paired on the flop and that was that.

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Three-handed was epic, with Marques finding himself short and surviving one all-in against Runcan, then another against Park…

Marques: 4♠ 4♣
Park: A♥ K♣

Flop: 3♦ 9♠ 3♠

Turn: 8♣

River: 10♥

That was to be Park’s nearly moment, falling the very next hand with A♦ 6♠ against Runcan’s A♣ K♣ and leaving us heads-up for an EPT Main Event title.

After Marques had pulled back from 9:1 down to almost even, and with a massive pay gap between first and second place – €1,146,500 to €716,950 – both players decided that discretion was the better part of valour.

A deal locked up €900k each, leaving €63,450 and the trophy still to play for, and two hands later it was decided:

Victory ✌️

Pedro Marques is the winner of the record-breaking #EPTPrague Main Event. 🇵🇹

He takes home €963,450 and the magnificent trophy. 👏 🏆 pic.twitter.com/04818YScYd

— PokerStars LIVE (@PokerStarsLIVE) December 15, 2024

EPT Prague Main Event Final Results

*denotes a heads-up deal

 “It’s an amazing, special feeling. One of the best days of my life, for sure,” Marques told reporters, adding:  “Winning a Main Event is completely different from any of my other wins… it’s a really special moment.”

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Andrew Burnett

Professional Poker Journalist

An avid poker player, he dreams of one day playing the WSOP Main Event and has promised himself he will fold aces and kings if he gets them on the first hand to avoid front-page headlines. [more]