Padraig O’Neill Is the New PokerStars EPT Prague Champion

Another successful round of the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) has been put to rest, with 1,285 players showing up to play in the EPT Prague Main Event, and Irishman Padraig O’Neill walking away the winner following six days of high-level poker action in the Czech Capital.

The crowning jewel of another EPT season well and truly met all the expectations, as hundreds of players got to enjoy the city’s incredible holiday spirit and play one of the most exhilarating poker tournaments on European soil in 2023.

All said and done, the PokerStars EPT Main Event generated a prize pool of more than €6,000,000, with over a cool €1,000,000 going to the champion.

Along with the Main Event, the EPT Prague festival played host to a number of other thrilling events, including the €10,200 Mystery Bounty, the €1,100 Eureka Main Event, and several high roller tournaments that generated millions in prize pools and gave out some impressive top prizes in their own right.

With EPT Prague now in the books, PokerStars starts getting ready for 2024 and another exciting season of Europe’s biggest poker tour, which is scheduled to start with the Paris festival in February next year.

Padraig O’Neill Crowned EPT Prague Champion

When the final day of action in Prague started off, it was Jon Kyte who was sitting on a spectacular 229 big blind stack, a historic chip lead that he was probably quite sure would lead him to the EPT Prague trophy.

Having been the chip leader since Day 3, few would have bet against Kyte going into the final table, but each of the remaining players was certainly going to try and beat him to that coveted trophy and the €1 million that came with it.

Irish player Padraig O’Neill entered the final table as the short stack, and was very close to being eliminated early in the day, as his pocket Fours ended up all-in against Kyte’s AK.

Kyte will be lamenting losing that flip for a long time. Despite not hurting his stack too badly at the time, it would allow O’Neill to spin up a stack and eventually beat Kyte head up to complete one of the biggest comeback stories in EPT history.

The “Smidge,” as he is often called by his fellow Irish players, added a cool €1,030,000 to his bankroll, more than doubling his previous lifetime earnings, and putting his name in the poker history books once and for all.

Here is a look at the full list of payouts for the final nine players in the EPT Prague Main Event:

Place	Player	Nationality	Payout
1^st	Padraig O’Neill	Ireland	€1,030,000
2^nd	Jon Kyte	Norway	€643,300
3^rd	Umberto Ruggeri	Italy	€459,240
4^th	Cheng Zhao	China	€353,240
5^th	Adam Wagner	Czech Republic	€271,660
6^th	Grigorii Rodin	Russia	€209,000
7^th	Govert Metaal	Netherlands	€160,750
8^th	Marle Spragg	USA	€123,600
9^th	Vincent Meli	France	€95,000

Marle Spragg Makes the Final Table

It was a huge week for Marle Spragg, professional poker player, content creator for PokerStars, and the wife of one of the best online poker players of all time, Ben “Spraggy” Spragg.

Just a few months after winning the Ladies Event over at UKIPT London, Spragg made a super deep run in the EPT Prague Main Event, the biggest score of her live poker tournament career.

Marle, who has been creating some of the funniest content in poker over the last couple of years, made her way to the TV table well before the final day, and put on a show, playing some of the best poker of her life.

Unfortunately for all her fans, Marle ended up busting the Main in eighth place, taking home €123,600, despite much of the rail, which included her husband, rooting for her every step of the way.

Despite busting so deep in such a massive event definitely hurting quite a bit, Marle was quick to thank her supporters for all the kind words via Twitter and did not show signs of major disappointment.

Bust in 8th for €123.6k

What a run. Thank you all again for the support ❤️ https://t.co/Esrf0M5Ag2
— Marle Spragg (@MarleSpragg) December 16, 2023

With this deep run now in the bag, Marle will be looking forward to another year of grinding both live and online events and creating the content we have all come to love, with her quirky personality and amazing sense of humor making for some incredibly funny videos.

Alexander Tkatschew Continues His Hot EPT Run

While EPT Main Event was definitely the event that had the most eyes on it throughout the festival, the €1,100 Eureka Main Event was every bit as exciting, with more than 4,400 players signing up to play in that one, creating a prize pool of €4,226,880.

When all was said and done, it was Austrian Alexander Tkatschew who took home the trophy, €511,700 in cash, and the bragging rights for overcoming such a massive playing field at a major poker event.

Tkatschew, who was coming into EPT Prague fresh of his €25,000 High Roller victory at EPT Cyprus, was able to win one second biggest prize of the whole festival, despite quite a few events carrying significantly higher price tags.

Images courtesy of PokerStars

Joining him as big winners of EPT Prague 2023 were the likes of €50k Super High Roller champion Tamas Adamszki (€394,670), €25k High Roller champions Teun Mulder (€180,150) and Ole Schemion (€246,370), and €3k Mystery Bounty champion Gab Yong Kim (€214,678).

It was a particularly successful couple of weeks for Hungarian Tamas Adamszki, who also took down the €10k No Limit Texas Hold’em event early in the festival, adding another €117,150 to his bankroll.

They were joined by hundreds of others who made their trip to Prague profitable by cashing multiple events, making final tables, and winning big after qualifying for the events through affordable PokerStars satellites.

New EPT Season Around the Corner

EPT Pragye has become a traditional crowning jewel in the EPT crown, with each season of the Tour now ending with a festival in this exceptionally attractive European location.

Now that the Prague stop is behind us and players are on their ways home, everyone will be thinking about the next year and another season of the biggest live poker series in this part of the world.

The new EPT season kicks off on February 17 in Paris, with Monte Carlo, Barcelona, and Cyprus stops already scheduled by PokerStars between then an October.

While not yet officially announced, EPT Prague will no doubt be making its return in December as well, and players are guaranteed plenty of opportunities to play high-end poker in Europe’s most attractive locations and finest poker rooms.

PokerStars will be running hundreds of satellite tournaments for the coming EPT season on the desktop platform and mobile app, so make sure to be on the lookout for those, as we bring you timely updates and announcements for each stop of the Tour in 2024.