This year’s EPT Prague Main Event has reached its conclusion after seven gruelling days of high-class poker action and Ramzi Jelassi has come out on top. The Swedish sensation who has come so close in big events on multiple occasions in the past, finally managed to break his major duck to take down the title along with the €835,000 first prize.
Taking place at the Hilton Prague Hotel in the Czech capital, the event saw 864-players stump up the €5,300 buy-in, each with hopes of taking down the title. With eight players remaining, Jelassi held the final table chip lead and with all of his previous end game experience he was the clear favourite, but there was still plenty left to do. Six eliminations later and after just under 14 hours, the final two was set with Jelassi holding a 2:1 chip lead over his opponent Greek player, Sotirios Koutoupas.
The heads-to-head match-up went on for 100 hands, with Koutoupas drawing practically level on multiple occasions but the Swede always managed to re-establish his initial advantage. The longer the battle lasted, the more Jelassi’s experience began to show and eventually with the blinds at 100k/200k a min-raise by Jelassi was three-bet to 1,000,000 by Koutoupas and Jelassi put the Greek all-in. Koutoupas made the quick call with T-9 only to see Jelassi turn over A-J. An ace on the flop made Ramzi even more of a favourite until a ten on the turn gave Koutoupas some hope. But the final card was a blank and Ramzi Jelassi was crowned EPT Prague Champion.
Here’s how the final table finished up:
1. Ramzi Jelassi – €835,000
2. Sotirios Koutoupas – €510,000
3. David Boyaciyan – €310,000
4. Ben Warrington – €250,000
5. DiegoGomez – €196,000
6. Sergey Kuzminskiy – €150,000
7. Aleh Plauski – €108,400
8. Mark Herm – €75,000
This year’s high-roller side event which cost €10,300 to buy-in, saw an exciting final table packed full of big name pros, but it was German superstar Marvin Rettenmaier who emerged on top after defeating Fabian Quoss heads-up in a battle that lasted over two hours.
The final hand saw both players go all in holding marginal hands, Rettenmaier showed A-2, while Quoss turned over K-10. An Ace on the flop was enough to win the German the hand and Rettenmaier was declared High Roller champion and the proud recepient of the €365,300 pay packet. Veteran Juha Helppi came in third earning €121,800, while Sorel Mizzi finished fifth and Jason Mercier was seventh.
