The 2024 Eureka Poker Tour Prague €1,100 no-limit hold’em main event was a historic one as it attracted the largest field in the history of the tour with a huge 4,732 entries, which increased last year’s field of 4,403 by over 300 players. That humongous turnout at the Hilton Hotel Prague created a prize pool of $4,793,024, with the top 707 players getting paid.
The monumental event produced an eventful tournament that would eventually end with Martin Tsvetanov coming out as the conqueror of the field to win the $475,976 top prize after he overcame Gerald Karlic heads up for his first major poker title.
Tsvetanov Wins
Tsvetanov is from Bulgaria and primarily a cash game player with his career earnings equalling $134,061 prior to this win, meaning that this victory betters his total career earnings four times over. This win will move him into the top 50 on the Bulgaria all time career earnings list for a country that has an impressive list of players for their size.
The Bulgarian was 25th in chips of 137 players entering Day 3, which would be a tremendous day for him as he ended the day as the chip leader with 14 players remaining. But while he entered the final day as the chip leader, he would not just easily cruise to victory as he was actually the short stack when it got to three-handed play.
But some key hands allowed him to overcome Ricardo Caridade of Portugal, who would finish in third place and eventually the much more heralded Gerald Karlic of Austria who he would defeat heads up after a deal was made. Tsvetanov had a slight chip lead heads up against the Austrian, who has nearly $2 million in career earnings. The two players decided on a deal that greatly evened out the payouts, leaving the two players left to play for $20,176 and the spadie trophy.
When Tsvetanov closed out the win, he also secured 1,320 Card Player Player of the Year points. This was his first POY-qualified score of 2024.
Final Day
The final day of the mega field had just 14 players when it began. Tsvetanov had the chip lead as players fell by the wayside one by one at a steady pace until the final table was reached.
The final table included players from seven different nationalities: Bulgaria, Austria, Portugal, United Kingdom, Greece, Malta and Denmark with two each from Greece and the UK.
Arguably the biggest name at the final table was Jack Sinclair, who has a World Series of Poker main event final table finish and a victory in the WSOP Europe main event on his illustrious poker career resume. But he would not be able to get anything going at the final table as he would bow out in eighth place for $66,738 after he was taken out by Caridade.
Tsvetanov and Karlic were the ones to eliminate the field for the rest of the way as they built towards the inevitable heads up clash with the lone exception to this being when Ryan Plant eliminated one of the two Greeks by taking out Theodoros Ampelikiotis in fifth place. But Plant himself would soon hit the rail in fourth after that when Tsvetanov ushered him out the door.
Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
| 1 | Martin Tsvetanov | $475,976 | 1320 |
| 2 | Gerald Karlic | $419,851 | 1100 |
| 3 | Ricardo Caridade | $247,892 | 880 |
| 4 | Ryan Plant | $190,683 | 660 |
| 5 | Theodoros Ampelikiotis | $146,672 | 550 |
| 6 | Matthew Micaleff | $112,826 | 440 |
| 7 | Alexantr Spatharis | $86,772 | 330 |
| 8 | Jack Sinclair | $66,738 | 220 |
| 9 | Mikkel Nielsen | $51,336 | 110 |
The rest of EPT Prague is still to come with several events left on the schedule which should gather massive fields and give out even more huge prizes in what will be an extremely exciting week of poker at the Hilton Prague.
Photo credits: Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd. / Danny Maxwell, Jules Pochy.