The European Poker Tour is dead. Long live the European Poker Tour! On Monday, Jasper Meijer van Putten won the last-ever EPT event, taking the crown in the EPT Prague Main Event. PokerStars, which operates the European Poker Tour, announced earlier this year that it will kill the EPT brand and convert the tour into two new ones: the PokerStars Championship and PokerStars Festival.
Meijer van Putten began the final table second-to-last in chips with 3.815 million, well behind the 9.710 million of chip leader Marton Czuczor. On just the second hand of the day, though, Meijer van Putten took a nice pot from Czuczor with top pair to grow his stack by about a million chips.
The very next hand, Samantha “Sam” Cohen was the first player eliminated. Czuczor raised pre-flop to 280,000 with pocket Tens, David Peters called with pocket Nines, and Cohen also called, for some reason, with Q-8. The flop, though, came down Q-8-2, giving Cohen top two pair. She checked, as did Czuczor. Peters bet 350,000, Cohen raised to 1 million, Czuczor folded, and Peters called after some thought. Unfortunately for Cohen, the turn was a 9 and she went all-in. Peters called with his set and Cohen wasn’t saved on the river. Peters was now in the lead with 13.4 million chips.
On Hand 22, Czuczor raised pre-flop with pocket Nines to 280,000. According to the PokerNews live reporting, Marius Gierse shoved for 2.94 million with pocket Fives. Everyone else folded, but Czuczor called. Gierse was unable to get any help and was gone in fourth place.
Sergei Petrushevskii was eliminated in fourth place. In his doomed hand, Meijer van Putten had pocket Queens and raised to 400,000 pre-flop. Czuczor re-raised to 1.5 million with just K-J and then Petrushevskii moved all-in for 3.77 with A-7 of clubs. Meijer van Putten went all-in over the top for 8 million, isolating himself against Petrushevskii. The flop of 9-T-J gave Petrushevskii a pair of Jacks, but that wasn’t too useful against Queens. The 8 on the turn gave Meijer van Putten a straight and since another Queen didn’t fall on the river, that was it for Petrushevskii.
The remaining chip stacks were fairly close: Meijer van Putten had 13.565 million, Peters had 11.365 million, and Czuczor had 10.815 million. The three men discussed a deal. It appeared that they had an agreement, but when Czuczor clarified that he didn’t want to give up as much money as the other two had thought, the deal fell apart and they continued play.
Meijer van Putten soared from that point, quickly amassing more chips than the other two players combined. It took a while, but Peters was finally knocked out in third place when he called off his stack pre-flop with Q-7 against Czuczor’s A-Q. Peters did flop a 7, but Czuczor found an Ace on the river to setup heads-up play against Meijer van Putten.
Meijer van Putten, though, had a massive lead heading into the pre-heads-up dinner break, 26.050 million to 9.7 million Czuczor must have had a hell of a meal because he came out of the break on fire, nearly evening up the match. At that point, the two men discussed another deal, eventually agreeing that Meijer van Putten would receive €649,300 of the remaining prize pool, while Czuczor would get €630,000. They would play for €50,000.
Czuczor couldn’t keep the momentum going, quickly falling way behind once again. Soon, out-chipped about threefold, he moved all-in with Deuces after Meijer van Putten raised with K-J of clubs. Meijer van Putten called, flopped a Jack, and that was it. The European Poker Tour is no more.
2016 European Poker Tour Prague Main Event – Final Table Results
1. Jasper Meijer van Putten – €699,300*
2. Marton Czuczor – €630,000*
3. David Peters – €397,300
4. Sergei Petrushevskii – €284,550
5. Marius Gierse – €203,800
6. Sam Cohen – €145,900
*Indicates final table deal
