Despite the first half of December spoiling players for choice when it came to tournaments, the PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague Main Event ended up attracting a very respectable field of 1,224 entries, generating a prize pool of over €5.9 million. And when all the hands were dealt, it was Matan Krakow standing tall, claiming the victory in one of poker’s most prestigious tournaments.
There was actually a three-way ICM deal involved, so when the tournament was down to three players, they agreed to chop up a majority of the prize pool, leaving just over €77,655 and the trophy to play for. Matan outlasted his final two opponents, claiming the victory and picking up a total of €778,255 for his amazing run.
This marked an exciting finish to the final stop of the 2025 European Poker Tour. The Main Event featured the field of 1,224 entries (including 352 re-entries), and 184 players made the money, pocketing at least €5,565, getting at least their buy-in back with a couple of extra hundred on top.
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A Quick Final Table
The final seven players in the EPT Prague Main Event returned on Sunday to play down to the winner. It is always hard to predict how the action will go down at a major final table, but this time around, the action was quite fast and furious. It took only about four and a half hours to crown the champion.
Krakow came into the final table second in chips and was already guaranteed his biggest live tournament cash. While the Israeli player is no stranger to tournament poker, with his Hendon Mob results dating all the way back to 2011, his biggest cash prior to Sunday was €65,068. By making it into the final six players of the EPT Main, he was already guaranteed to more than double that amount.
He did, however, have support from Eli Elezra, a member of the Poker Hall of Fame, whose autobiography Pulling the Trigger he co-authored. It was perhaps that support and encouragement that helped him seal the deal at one of poker’s biggest stages.
As mentioned, when the tournament got down to three players, an ICM deal was agreed, and it was actually the eventual runner-up, Bora Kurtulus, a self-proclaimed amateur from Turkey, who got the biggest piece of the pie, pocketing €757,400.
Krakow locked up €703,600, but when the play got down to heads-up, he was able to control the situation and use the experience he gathered years ago, playing heads-up sit and gos on PokerStars, to come out ahead and pick up the remaining prize money and the trophy.
EPT Prague Main Event 2025 Final Standings
| Finishing Position | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Matan Krakow | Israel | €778,255 |
| 2 | Bora Kurtulus | Turkey | €757,400 |
| 3 | Dimitrios Gkatzas | Greece | €574,600 |
| 4 | Traian Stanciu | Romania | €349,650 |
| 5 | Paawan Bansal | India | €269,000 |
| 6 | Conor O’Driscoll | Ireland | €206,900 |
| 7 | Vitezslav Cech | Czech Republic | €159,150 |
Another EPT Season Wraps Up in Style
With the EPT Prague ending, another season of PokerStars’ largest and most successful live tour comes to its natural conclusion. Once more, Prague came through, gathering players from all over Europe and beyond for one final festival of poker before the holidays kick in.
There is now a short break in action, but it won’t be long before the European Poker Tour is back in full swing. Things will kick off with EPT Paris in February, and this festival will also be the home to the Spin & Go Championship Live. After that, the action moves to Monte Carlo at the end of April.
As always, there are many different ways to qualify for the upcoming EPT events playing online at PokerStars, and plenty of time to figure things out!
