EPT Prague: Matan Krakow Wins €5,300 Main Event For €778,255

How It Started

Seven returned for the fifth and final day of EPT action at the luxurious Hilton Prague in the Czech capital’s city centre. France’s Thomas Bazin and China’s Ding Fan were the first casualties of Final Table action the day before. Bora Kurtulus came into the day’s play with a substantial chip-lead, and had a stack of around 82 big blinds.

In second place was our eventual winner, Krakow, who had 65 big blinds. Krakow works as a poker manager for an online poker site, and he also helped his fellow countryman and poker legend, Eli Elezra, pen his 2019 autobiography, Pulling the Trigger. Rounding out the podium was Traian Stanciu, and he had 36 big blinds to play with at the start of the final table. Stanciu is a regular on the circuit, but this was his deepest run and biggest cash of his career so far.

Opening Exchanges

Krakow took the lead from Kurtulus early into the session, having got two streets of value with fourth pair on an ace high board. His nine-eight suited flopped best to crack Kurtulus’s sixes. Conor O’Driscoll, one of the shortstacks coming into the day, found a lifeline by doubling through home team representative Vitezslav Cech.

Krakow then extended his lead, taking more from Kurtulus. Krakow turned a straight, again with nine-eight suited, in a three-bet pot. Stanciu was then on the up, and he was the beneficiary of a cooler, as his aces found a customer in the form of Paawan Bansal, who had kings. Stanciu flopped top set, and Bansal was drawing dead on the turn and was left with a third of a big blind.

Somehow, Bansal wasn’t the next elimination. That was Cech, who came out worst in a three-way all in. Again, the deck was icey cold, as Cech’s jacks ran into Dimitiros Gkatazas’s aces, and Traian Stanciu’s queens. Stanciu was the covering stack, but was in danger of losing a monster pot to Gkatazas.

There were no miracles across the runout, and Gkatazas scooped a massive pot and helped Bansal ladder up the payouts. Bansal survived another pay jump, as O’Driscoll’s comeback run was halted by Kurtulus. O’Driscoll moved all in on A A 5 with K Q but ran into the trips of Kurtulus, who had A Q . The turn and the river were no help for the Irishman, but the runout was a big help for Bansal.

Bansal Bonanza Continues

Bansal’s comeback was well and truly on, as he tripled up with pocket fives versus Krakow’s ace-four off. Bansal held across a king-high runout, and Kurtulus let the table know he raise-folded a king to Krakow’s preflop three-bet.

Stanciu, who was left short from the three-way all-in that saw Cech depart, gained a double up through Bansal, who was nearing chip and a chair territory once again. Bansal’s journey eventually ended when he was eliminated in fifth, having been forced all-in from the big blind. Bansal couldn’t win a four-way limped affair, and Kurtulus took the pot with the flush.

Stanciu was then left on short-stack duties, he departed shortly after. His remaining chips went to Krakow in a small v big blind spot. Six-four offsuit was no good for Stanciu, and Krakow’s king-three offsuit king high was good enough to confirm Stanciu’s exit.

Deal? Or No Deal?

The trio agreed to a deal, leaving €74,655 and the PokerStars Golden Shard trophy to play for. Below are the numbers from the ICM Deal.

Krakow’s chip count kept on climbing, and he made trips to take a chunk from the stack of Gkatzas. Krakow got three streets of value with ace-jack offsuit across J 10 2 7 J against Gkatzas with 10 8 . The hand dented Gkatzas’s timebank stack, as he burned through five to make his decision. He then extended his lead, making a pair against Kurtulus, before the latter eliminated Gkatzas.

Gkatzas moved all in from the small blind with an offsuit king, and Kurtulus called with an offsuit ace, and his ace high was good across a paired board. This moved Kurtulus closer to Krakow at the top of the counts before heads-up commenced.

Heads Up

Krakow’s lead was narrow when heads-up play began, but quickly grew. He made a hero-call with ace high on the river and bested Kurtulus, who had ten high. Kurtulus slipped to sub 10,000,000, as his one pair holding was bested by Krakow’s two pair. Kurtulus managed to grab some back by applying three streets of pressure with pocket tens. Krakow bricked his draws and couldn’t do anything other than fold. After a short break, all the money was in the middle on the first hand.

Kurtulus three-bet pocket eights preflop, and Krakow called on the button. With the blinds at 150,000/300,000, Kurtulus bet 4,000,000 on K 4 5 . Krakow responded with all in. Kurtulus called, and he had outs to fade with his 8 8 . Meanwhile, Krakow had quite a few outs to hit with 7 6 . The A provided him a flush draw to boot, and the 4 gave Krakow the trophy, over three-quarters of a million euros, and EPT Main Event Glory.

Krakow said after his victory: “It’s more exciting than I can put into words. It’s a dream come true. It really is.”

EPT Main Event Payouts

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Matan Krakow		€778,255*
2	Bora Kurtulus		€757,400*
3	Dimitrios Gkatzas		€574,600*
4	Traian Stanciu		€349,650
5	Paawan Bansal		€269,000
6	Conor O’Driscoll		€206,900
7	Vitezslav Cech		€159,150
8	Ding Fan		€122,400

What’s Next?

The EPT may have wrapped up for the year, but there is still plenty of poker to come to see out 2025. There is still action from WSOP Paradise in the Bahamas, plus PokerStars Open Cannes runs December 16-21.

That’s all for now, folks. Until next time.