Arnaud Mattern, 28 from Prague, has won the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Prague event collecting €708,400 for his victory beating Italian Gino "El Diablo" Alacqua at the Golden Prague Casino in the Czech Republic capital. Mattern, a top-flight backgammon player called his opponents all-in raise in the final hand with A-K, hitting a king on the turn to send Alacqua and his Q-10 to the rail.
Mattern was thrilled with his victory. "This is the best result I've ever had," he said. "I did win the French Backgammon Championship but that was only €5,000! It was a very tough final table and, during the heads-up, Gino picked up a lot of good cards but I just picked my spot and my good hands stood up."
Mattern also won a seat to the EPT grand final in Monte Carlo.
Runner-up Alacqua, who is 46 and from Milan, has only been playing poker for 18 months. He lifted €407,300 for his efforts. Kristian Kjondal, the 21-year-old Norwegian was third.
The Prague event was the busiest of the EPT so far attracting 555 players from 36 countries.
Conrad Brunner, PokerStars' head of communications, EMEA, said, "For a new event, the Prague EPT has been an outstanding success. Europe's top players have put on a real show, and great credit must go to Mattern for winning against a top class field. Mattern's victory in Prague catapults him to the top of the French EPT leader board."
The final table payouts at the tournament were:
- Arnaud Mattern (France) – €708,400
- Gino Alacqua (Italy) – €407,300
- Kristian Kjondal (Norway) – €235,300
- Juha Lauttmaas (Finland) – €182,200
- Marcus Golser (Austria) – €151,800
- Nedzib Suman (Sweden) – €119,000
- Dag Palovic (Slovakia) – €93,600
- Mikael Norinder (Sweden) – €63,200
- Johannes Strassman (Germany) – €39,200
