Thomas Santerne Wins Second High Roller Title at 2024 European Poker Tour Prague Festival

France’s Thomas Santerne has captured two high roller titles within a four-day span at the 2024 European Poker Tour Prague series. Santerne came out on top in the €20,000 buy-in on Dec. 6, earning $185,500. Then on Dec. 10 he emerged victorious in the €50,000 buy-in event, the highest-stakes event on offer at the festival. The latter triumph added another $408,869 to Santerne’s career earnings, enough to see him surpass the $5.1 million mark.

In addition to the two PokerStars spade trophies and the money, Santerne also secured 450 Card Player Player of the Year points with this pair of wins at the Hilton Hotel Prague. Prior to this series, he had recorded four final-table finishes and one win, taking down the €50,000 buy-in at EPT Paris in February for $960,638. He now has 2,702 total points, enough to move him into 115th place in the 2024 POY standings presented by Global Poker.

This event took two days to play down to a champion. Only the top five contenders would make the money to claim a piece of the $1,258,750 prize pool. Teun Mulder was knocked out on the bubble, running aces up into the broadway straight of Nikita Kuznetsov. The Dutch pro left empty-handed, while Kuznetsov locked up his fourth high-stakes cash of the series, having already placed third in both the €10,200 mystery bounty and €20,000 high roller events and fifth in the €25,000 buy-in.

Recent €25,000 buy-in event winner Espen Jorstad was the first to be eliminated inside the money. The 2022 World Series of Poker main event champion earned $119,780 for his fifth-place showing, surpassing $18.7 million in the process.

Kuznetsov lost a big preflop showdown with A-K against the pocket aces of 2024 WSOP main event third-place finisher Niklas Astedt during five-handed play. Kuznetsov hung around for a while, but was ultimately knocked out in fourth place ($148,400). His pocket eights lost a race against the A-Q suited of Santerne, which made top pair, top kicker. Kuznetsov now has nearly $5.4 million in lifetime cashes to his name.

Sergey Lebedev was also sent packing by A-Q, with his A-9 coming up short against the superior ace held by Astedt. Lebedev earned $204,580 for his third-place showing.

Santerne held roughly a 2:1 chip lead to start, but a double up for Astedt left the stacks more or less balanced. This parity prompted the final two to hash out a deal to redistribute the remaining prize money. Astedt locked up $377,122, while Santerne was assured of at least $382,369. They left the trophy and $26,500 to play for.

In the final hand, all of the chips got in with the board showing 93110. Santerne held K10 for top pair, while Astedt had A4 for the nut flush draw with one out to the ‘steel wheel’. The river was the 6, locking up the pot and title for Santerne. Astedt headed to the payout line to collect his latest big payday. The Swedish online poker legend now has more than $8.8 million in recorded tournament earnings.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

Photo credit: Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd. / Danny Maxwell.

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