Thomas Santerne Lands Highstakes EPT Double in Prague

Frenchman Thomas Santerne bagged top spot in the PokerStars’ EPT Prague €50k, a deal with Sweden’s Niklas Astedt securing both players more than €350,000 as the highroller festive fun continues…

With a huge chunk of the SHR player pool currently in either Vegas for the WPT World Championship or the Bahamas for the WSOP Paradise festival, there were only 20 players involved in the battle of the big guns in Prague.

They mustered a total of 25 entries creating a prizepool of €1,187,500, with seven spots paid, and some huge names despite the small field.

Controversial Czech crusher Martin Kabrhel, former WSOP champ Espen Jorstad, Russian beast Nikita Kuznetsov and Irish legend Steve O’Dwyer have all played and won at the highest stakes.

Relative newcomers to the nosebleed stakes were present too; Yauheni Tsiareshchanka was hoping to add to his Cuatro KO scoop of event #3, while fellow Belarusian Artsiom Lasouski has been crushing live and online this year.

Brutal Blow on the Bubble

As ever, the money bubble was the first hurdle for those looking for a festive bonus, and it was Dutchman Teun Mulder who would leave empty-handed in a brutal encounter…

Kuznetsov: K♣ Q♦

Mulder: A♣ J♣

Mulder’s pre-flop raise was called by Kuznetsov on the button…

Flop: A♥ 10♦ 5♣

The Dutch pro then check-called both flop and turn…

Turn: J♥

River: 3♥

…but his river check was met by a shove. The call came and along with it the bad news. For the remaining five it meant €113,000 locked up.

2022 WSOP Main Event winner, Espen Jorstad, fell in 5^th after running his short stack into Santerne’s big slick, and he was joined on the rail by Kuznetsov. The Russian had lost a couple of big pots to Astedt and was finished off by Santerne, pocket 8s unable to hold up against A♠ Q♠

Heads-up a Done Deal

Down to three and the other short stack, Sergey Lebedev, quickly fell, losing with A♥ 9♠ to Astedt’s A♠ Q♣ leaving us heads-up, a deal done soon after Astedt equalised the stacks.

Thomas Santerne: €360,725
Niklas Astedt: €355,775

That left €25,000 and the EPT Spadie trophy for the winner, and the Frenchman eventually prevailed:

Niklas Astedt: A♠ 4♠

Thomas Santerne: K♣ 10♠

Astedts’s pre-flop aggression continued after the flop…

Flop: 9♥ 3♠ 2♠

…and then with a shove on the turn…

Turn: 10♥

Astedt needed to hit one of his many outs on the river, but it bricked…

River: 6♣

…and Thomas Santerne had just won his third EPT title of the year, and second of the week after taking down the €20k as well.

EPT €50k SHR Final results

*Denotes heads-up deal

All eyes are now on the €5300 Main Event, with just over 200 players left of an initial 1458. The prizepool sits at a whopping €7,071.300. We’ll bring you the best of the action right here on VIP Grinders so be sure to check in regularly. In the meantime, if you fancy a few hours at the tables yourself, check out our great deals below!

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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]