Jordan Saccucci Gets Early Christmas Present of More Than €900K at EPT Prague
The Mississauga, ON, Canada resident tripled his lifetime earnings with a heads-up deal in the record-breaking EPT Prague Main Event. The series saw more than €25 million with more than €6.8 million in ME prizes alone.
EPT Prague is now complete, and the record Main Event ended up with a prize pool of more than €6 million. The largest share of that record-setting prize pool went to Canadian grinder Jordan Saccucci who bagged the biggest win of his live career by far. According to Hendon Mob, Saccucci’s total lifetime earnings to date were $367,870, so the €913,250 first-place prize was easily his biggest live poker score ever.
Saccucci had to battle French legend Antoine Saout heads-up for the prize, and the two players agreed to a deal that saw them even out the final prizes a bit. Saout, who has more than $8 million in live earnings, grabbed €800,000 for second place while the Canadian won €913,250 for first.
In addition to the French crusher Saout, Saccucci faced fellow Canadian Parker Talbot on the final day. Talbot is known for his live and online poker exploits, with more than a million dollars in live earnings and more than $3 million online but he had to settle for €278,450 for 5th place.
Final Table Results for 2022 EPT Prague Main Event
| Position | Name | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jordan Saccucci | Canada | €913,250* |
| 2 | Antoine Saout | France | €800,000* |
| 3 | Istvan Pilhofer | Hungary | €470,500 |
| 4 | Jun Obara | Japan | €361,950 |
| 5 | Parker Talbot | Canada | €278,450 |
| 6 | Luigi D'Alterio | Italy | €214,150 |
| 7 | Petar Kalev | Bulgaria | €164,750 |
| 8 | Javier Gomez | Spain | €126,700 |
| 9 | Paul-Adrian Covaciu | Romania | €97,450 |
More Than €25 Million in Prizes at EPT Prague
When the dust settled at EPT Prague for 2022, it was clearly a success. Aside from the nearly €1 million Christmas present for the Main Event winner, the series as a whole capped €25 million in total prizes over more than 50 events.
A solid chunk of those prizes were awarded in the record-breaking Main Event that saw 1,267 entries for a massive prize pool of €6,144,950. That was the biggest prize pool of the series, but the most entries came in the Eureka Poker Tour games.
Sponsored by PokerStars, the Eureka Poker Tour is a regional tour in Central and Eastern Europe that regularly runs alongside EPT Prague as well as elsewhere. The €1,100 Eureka Main Event started on Dec 8th, and drew an astonishing 4,017 entries for a prize pool of €3,856,320, more than half the size of the full €5,300 EPT Main Event’s prize pool.
The Eureka Main Event was the biggest field and second-biggest prize pool of the whole series, but another Eureka event, the €2,200 Eureka High Roller, also had a strong showing for third place in prizes. That game also bagged third place in the field size race with 1,534 entries for a total prize pool of nearly €3 million.
Outside the EPT Main Event, it was Eureka for the win across the series. The second biggest field of the whole series also went to a Eureka event, Event 12 – €440 Eureka Cup. While the prize pool of that one was smaller due to its smaller buy-in, 2,304 entries gave the game second place in the field-size standings and it still placed 5th in total prizes.
EPT Prague Series Highlights
- EPT Prague
- Dec 7 – 18, 2022
- Total Entries: 14,174
- Total Prizes: €25,589,154
- Events: 52
- Event 20 – €5,300 EPT Main Event
- Date: December 12-18, 2022
- Entries: 1,267 (inc. 349 re-entries)
- Prize pool: €6,144,950
- Winner: Jordan Saccucci, Canada, €913,250 after HU deal
- Event 5 – €1,100 Eureka Main Event
- Dates: December 8-12, 2022
- Entries: 4,017 (inc. 2,034 re-entries)
- Prize pool: €3,856,320
- Winner: Pieter Theelen, Netherlands, €496,760
- Event 17 – €2,200 Eureka High Roller
- Dates: December 11-12, 2022
- Entries: 1,534 (inc. 593 re-entries)
- Prize pool: €2,945,280
- Winner: Sander Ostlyngen, Norway, €463,850
- Event 12 – €440 Eureka Cup
- Dates: December 10-12, 2022
- Entries: 2,304 (inc. 970 re-entries)
- Prize pool: €884,736
- Winner: Naim Amri, France, €127,000
- Event 43 – €1,650 NLH Mystery Bounty
- Date: December 16-18, 2022
- Entries: 612 (inc. 237 re-entries)
- Prize pool: €881,280 (inc. €306,000 in bounty pool)
- Winner: Kemal Aslan, Turkey, €80,000
- Event 3 – €10,200 NLH Mystery Bounty
- Dates: December 7-8, 2022
- Entries: 68 (inc. 18 re-entries)
- Prize pool: €659,600 (inc. €340,000 in bounty prize pool)
- Winner: Rodrigo Seiji, Brazil, €95,880 + €27,500
- Big Bounty: Steve O'Dwyer, Ireland, €117,500 total inc. €100k big bounty
