22-year-old Andrey Pateychuk has won the record-breaking World Poker Tour Prague, moving him one monumental step closer to completing poker’s triple crown. The inaugural WPT Prague was a massive success, and now holds the esteemed honor of attracting the biggest field in a WPT Tour Event in Europe. With 571 runners, the €3,200 + €300 re-entry tournament presented by bwin.com had a total prizepool of more than €1.7 million, which allowed Pateychuk to scoop a first prize of €468,200 including the $25,500 seat into the 2012 WPT World Championship at Bellagio in Las Vegas.
An epic heads-up battle featured two players hungry for the WPT title. The chips bounced back and forth between the pair, but in the end Pateychuk took a giant leap closer to becoming Russia’s first triple crown winner. The red-hot Pateychuk recently won EPT San Remo and also ran deep in the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event, finishing 15th.
“This was a very tough final table, with many good online players,” said Andrey Pateychuk. “The heads-up went on for ages, but the structure was so good, it allowed us to make a lot of three and four bets. It also seemed that I got a bit of luck tonight.”
The talented multinational final table featured WSOP bracelet winner Sigurd Eskelund and online whizz Russell Carson. 23-year old runner-up Adria Balaguer from Barcelona really enjoyed the action and added, “It was a very fun final table, very swingy! I went through a lot of ups and downs in a very short period and it was even more challenging to pick the right spots.”
Pateychuk moves into a tie for third-place in the race for WPT Season X Player of the Year, enters the exclusive WPT Champions Club and proudly seals his name on the legendary WPT Champions Cup. Pateychuk carried back home the WPT Champions Trophy and the sterling silver Tiffany & Co.® WPT Champions Award.
Final Table Standings
1st: Andrey Pateychuk (Russia): €468,200 including a $25,500 seat into the 2012 WPT World Championship at Bellagio in Las Vegas
2nd: Adria Balaguer (Spain): €238,000
3rd: Stanislaw Kretz (Germany): €158,000
4th: Benjamin Pollak (France): €104,000
5th: Sigurd Eskeland (Finland): €80,000
6th: Russell Carson (Canada): €63,000
