Finland’s Kai Lehto Conquers Huge PokerStars Open Cup in Prague (€162,000)

The 2025 PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Prague competition is in full swing, with greater than a dozen tournaments already crowning their champions. Finland’s Kai Lehto is amongst these winners, having triumphed within the monster-sized €825 PokerStars Open Cup for €162,000, which occurs to be the second-largest reside rating of his profession.

Together with re-entries, the €825 PokerStars Open Cup attracted a bumper area of two,140, creating a formidable €1,540,800 prize pool. The highest 321 finishers shared that princely sum, with such luminaries as Vincent Meli, Simon Higgins, and Pavels Spirins seeing a return on their investments.

By the point solely 9 gamers remained in rivalry for the title, €21,200 was the least any of these finalists might gather from the cashier’s desk.

€825 PokerStars Open Cup Ultimate Desk Outcomes

*displays a four-handed deal

Eire’s Dan Wilson, champion of the 2016 Irish Open, fell by the wayside in ninth and banked the aforementioned €21,200. Austria’s Gerald Karlic was the following to fall, his eighth-place end incomes him a €27,600 prize, bringing his lifetime earnings ever nearer to $4.1 million.

The 2024 EPT Cyprus runner-up, Georgios Tsouloftas, ran out of steam in seventh, a end good for €35,870, whereas fellow Cypriot Georgios Skaparis noticed his deep run in a sixth-place end value €46,620.

The ultimate 5 turned 4 after the demise of Onni Huttunen; the Finn scooped a career-best €60,620. Huttunen’s earlier largest reside poker match haul weighed in at €11,717 again in September 2023.

With solely 4 gamers remaining, the match director paused the clock to permit a deal to be mentioned. These discussions bore fruit, and the match resumed with gamers securing six-figure payouts for his or her efforts.

France’s Jean-Baptiste Pano was the principle beneficiary of the deal as a result of he crashed by the wayside in fourth. He walked away with €112,500 however would have gained €79,000 had there been no deal. That prize is value greater than 10 instances the Frenchman’s earlier greatest rating.

There was additionally a career-defining prize for third-place finisher Salvatore Falco. The Swiss grinder banked €136,000 as a part of the deal, eclipsing his earlier largest prize of simply $1,347!

Heads-up pitted Lehto in opposition to the UK’s Paul Grummitt in a battle for the title. Just like the now-busted deal-makers, Grummitt secured by far the biggest prize of his profession when he busted. The Brit took dwelling €145,000; his earlier largest prize was for $10,500 earlier this yr.

Lehto had outlasted an enormous area of two,140 entrants and claimed the €162,000 prime prize for himself. Had there been no deal and Lehto gained, he would have banked a career-best rating. Because it occurs, the €162,000 he gained is second solely to the €204,500 he was awarded when he completed second to Christopher Soyza in a €10,300 Excessive Curler on the 2018 EPT Barcelona competition.

Different 2025 EPT Prague Facet Occasions Outcomes

Lehto’s haul is the biggest of the 2025 PokerStars EPT Prague competition to this point, though the €154,400 that Joachim Haraldstad banked after successful the €10,200 Pot-Restrict Omaha 6-Max ran it shut.

Bulgaria’s Yulian Bogdanov (€147,000) and Italian Alain Stia (€123,860) additionally helped themselves to six-figure prizes, doing so within the €10,200 No-Restrict Maintain’em Thriller Bounty and the €5,200 Pot-Restrict Omaha occasions, respectively.

Bogdanov finds himself third in chips with solely 12 gamers remaining within the €1,650 PokerStars Open Principal Occasion. Play resumes at midday native time beneath the watchful eyes of the PokerNews reside reporting workforce. The Bulgarian is already assured €34,520 for his efforts, however might discover himself returning dwelling with the €583,000 prime prize in tow.

*payout after a deal

Observe the PokerStars EPT Prague Principal Occasion Motion at PokerNews

PokerNews’ industry-leading reside reporting workforce is on the bottom in Prague, bringing you reside updates of essentially the most thrilling occasions. At midday in the present day, December 8, the €5,300 EPT Prague Principal Occasion begins. Final yr, this match drew in 1,458 entrants, and Pedro Marques outlasted all of them. Marques banked €963,450 after a heads-up take care of Paul Runcan of Romania.

We even have protection of the ultimate day’s motion from the €1,650 PokerStars Open Principal Occasion from midday. Solely 12 gamers stay in rivalry for the €583,000 prime prize.

At 12:30 p.m. native time, a number of the world’s finest gamers will descend on the tournment space and battle it out within the two-day €50,000 EPT Tremendous Excessive Curler. Frenchman Thomas Santerne is the reigning champion, having defeated Niklas “Lena900” Astedt heads-up 12 months in the past. Santerne’s victory got here with €385,725 after a heads-up deal.

Matthew Pitt hails from Leeds, West Yorkshire, in the UK, and has labored within the poker {industry} since 2008, and labored for PokerNews since 2010. In September 2010, he turned the editor of PokerNews. Matthew stepped away from reside reporting duties in 2015, and now concentrates on his function of Senior Editor for the PokerNews.