Stephen Graner entered the final table of the 2014 European Poker Tour (EPT) Prague Main Event with a commanding chip lead and in something of a surprise, led wire-to-wire to capture his first-ever EPT crown. The surprise is not that Graner won, it is that he never even came close to relinquishing his lead. We often see players go into the final table of major events with large leads, but seeing as poker is poker, the tide often turns, opponents double-up, and things get hairy even if the initial chip leader goes on to win. Not so this time for Graner he had little problem making it to the end, winning €969,000.
He started with 12.405 million chips, almost 5 million more than Anton Bertilsson. Per PokerNews.com’s report, he eliminated Bjorn Wiesler in sixth place to begin pulling further away from the field. Wiesler moved all-in pre-flop with pocket Nines and Graner made the call with A-K of hearts. An Ace on the flop did the trip and Graner was up to 15.890 million.
Graner also knocked out the fifth place player, Simon Mattsson. Again with a shove pre-flop, Mattsson had A-J and Graner held pocket Sevens. Once more a race, but the reverse of the last hand, it was the pocket pair that held up this time. Graner was now at 19.610 million.
It was on Hand 53 that Graner basically put the tournament away. With just T-6, he raised to 315,000 pre-flop and Bertilsson called with 6-5. On the flop of A-6-3, Graner bet 275,000 and Bertilsson called. The turn was a 5, giving Bertilsson two-pair and prompting him to bet 775,000 after Graner checked. Graner made the call to bring on the 10 on the river, which gave Graner a better two-pair. He checked, though, encouraging Bertilsson to bet 2.35 million. Graner check-raised to 5.3 million and Bertilsson called only to find out he was dominated. Graner now had 28.435 million, while his final two opponents didn’t even have 5 million combined.
From there, it was academic, he ended up heads-up against Bertilsson, who did manage to double-up once, but it really didn’t matter. Eventually Bertilsson was all-in with K-5 and lost to Graner’s 4-4.
This was by far the best cash of Stephen Graner’s career. Prior to this tournament, he had done well, having won almost $700,000 in live tournaments, but this cash was close to twice that, taking his career winnings up to $1,877,578.
2014 European Poker Tour Prague Main Event – Final Table Results
1. Stephen Graner – €969,000
2. Anton Bertilsson – €582,720
3. Jonathan Wong – €410,190
4. Fabio Sperling – €308,180
5. Simon Mattsson – €235,700
6. Bjorn Wiesler – €172,340
7. Remi Castaignon – €129,390
