Thomas Santerne Claims Second EPT High Roller Title in €20,000 No-Limit Hold'em (€175,000)
Less than two years ago, Thomas Santerne was an unknown in the poker world without a single recorded cash on The Hendon Mob. Fast forward to today and you'd be hard-pressed to find a regular on the high-roller circuit who isn't aware of the French poker phenom, who has already amassed over $4 million in live-tournament earnings over that short timespan.
Santerne added to his stellar poker resume today in the European Poker Tour Prague at Hilton Prage after overcoming a 15-entry field and defeating Morten Klein heads up in the €20,000 No-Limit Hold'em. In addition to the title, Santerne was awarded the €175,000 first-place prize, which represents the lion's share of the €285,000 prize pool.
Santerne's win is his second of the year, including his Super High Roller victory back in February at EPT Paris.
EPT Prague €20,000 No-Limit Hold'em Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thomas Santerne | France | € 175,000 |
| 2 | Morten Klein | Norway | € 90,000 |
| 3 | Nikita Kuznetsov | Russian Federation | € 20,000 |
Tournament Recap
A muted start saw only a couple players register by the time the tournament was supposed to begin, which led to a small delay before the action got underway five-handed.
Niklas Astedt, who placed third in the WSOP Main Event earlier this year, began the day running hot and nearly doubled his stack through the first couple levels of play. However, it would be mostly down hill from that point on for the Swede.
Not long after, Astedt lost a large pot to Teun Mulder after running pocket tens into pocket kings. Astedt was then among the early eliminations along with Klein after getting all in preflop against Enrico Camosci, who caught a pair of kings on the river with Big Slick. Astedt and Klein both quickly reentered.
The 2022 WSOP Main Event champion, Espen Jorstad, was also among the early entrants but was unable to gain any momentum from the get-go. Jorstad ended up making a stand with ace-six against Mulder and busting after chipping down for several levels. Unlike Astedt, Jorstad declined to reenter.
Poker crusher Steve O'Dwyer joined the fray at the start of Level 7 and wasted little time putting his chips to work. Shortly after entering, O'Dwyer managed to double up holding aces against the pocket tens of Camosci.
Meanwhile, Klein busted and reentered two more times, first after getting short and running ace-nine into Camosci's pocket nines preflop, and then after running pocket kings into Camosci's pocket aces in a classic cooler. Klein reentered a third a final time (for a total of four bullets) just prior to late registration closing.
Astedt saw his tournament end after getting all in preflop with ace-king against Nikita Kuznetsov, who ended up ended up making a flush with ace-ten for the bad beat.
Klein's fortune would finally turn around after he was able to eliminate both O'Dwyer and Mulder. He first took out O'Dwyer with ace-queen against O'Dwyer's king-queen in a preflop collision and later faded a massive draw against Mulder for his second knockout.
The money bubble arrived after Camosci shoved jack-ten into Santerne's aces and failed to improve. With three players left and only two getting paid, Santerne made a move on Klein with unfortunate timing as Klein woke up with pocket kings to double through Santerne. At that point, the remaining three players agreed to give €20,000 back to the third-place finisher.
Kuznetsov, who had been nursing a short stack for a while, became the first "in the money" elimination after shoving prelfop with queen-six and getting called by Klein, who had ace-trey and held up.
Heads-up play between Klein and Santerne looked to be a short affair as just a few hands in, Santerne shoved on Klein with queen-trey and was snapped off by Klein, who held ace-six. Santerne caught a trey on the flop, but Klein paired his ace on the turn and was just one card away from clinching victory. Fate was on Santerne's side, however, as he caught a queen on the end to pull his stack to even against Klein.
A few hands later, Klein committed his stack against Santerne on the turn after flopping trip nines, but was up against Santerne's turned flush. The river bricked out for Klein and he was forced to settle for a second-place finish for €90,000 while Santerne claimed his second EPT title and €175,000 first-place prize.
That concludes PokerNews coverage of the event. Be sure to check out our live-reporting hub for continuing coverage of EPT Prague and other events around the globe.