Record breaker: Martin Tsvetanov tops huge field in Eureka Prague Main Event

Another record-breaking Eureka Poker Tour stop is in the books, as Bulgaria's Martin Tsvetanov claimed the title in the massive Eureka Prague Main Event on Monday. Tsvetanov claimed the top payout of €449,034 after a two-way chop with Austria's Gerald Karlic. 

Tsvetanov and Karlic were the final survivors of 14 players who remained in action at the start of Monday's Day 4 finale. Tsvetanov, a relatively unknown player, had only $134,000 in live-event cashes before his breakthrough title, and he was guaranteed a new personal best payday early in the day's action, which had been all but assured when he began Day 4 with a sizeable lead.

Karlic began the day in third place but ended up making it to heads-up play, where he ultimately took home €396,086 as the official runner-up. Four players took turns in the lead as the final played out, with the UK's Ryan Plant and Portugal's Ricardo Caridade also taking turns atop the counts. Caridade, who finished third, sent off the most famous player in the finale, the UK's Jack Sinclair, who ended up in eighth.

Jack Sinclair made the final table of the record-breaking Eureka Main Event.

Jules Pochy

All-in race tips tourney toward Tsvetanov

Caridade appeared poised to emerge as the victor after he built a sizeable edge during five-handed action when the players first talked about a deal but came to no agreement. Soon after, however, Karlic doubled through Caridade when his pocket sevens held up against Caridade's A-K, returning a favor from a short while earlier when Caridade doubled up against Karlic, Caridade's pocket eights winning out against Karlic's A-J. Meanwhile, Greece's Theodoros Ampelikiotis busted to Plant, who in turn busted to Tsvetanov, which returned Tsvetanov to the top spot.

After Caridade had his pocket queens cracked to exit in third, Tsvetanov and Karlic found themselves nearly equal in chips and in more of a mood to make a deal. Tsvetanov was slightly ahead and agreed to secure €430,000, with Karlic guaranteeing himself €396,086. That left the trophy and €19,034 in remaining prize money yet to be claimed. 

Down to two players and a deal was finally struck between Karlic and Tsvetanov.

Danny Maxwell Photography

Tsvetanov took down a large pot early in the heads-up duel to take a big lead, but Karlic doubled up to pull back to nearly even. Tsvetanov regained control from there, leaving Karlic with crumbs in a hand where he rivered a ten to make a better pair than Karlic's made pair of sixes on a board showing Q-6-3-2 through the turn. 

Karlic was all in with a modest 7-4 in the following hand, but he trailed Tsvetanov's J-9 and never improved on the runout. Tsvetanov ended up eliminating five of his final-table foes on his up-and-down ride to the win.

"The whole day was a rollercoaster," said Tsvetanov. "I lost half my stack in the first level, and then, in the last three, I was down to 10 bigs. But yeah, I never gave up or lost hope."

Main Event boasts record turnout

The Eureka Prague Main Event set new records for both total entries (4,732) and unique players (2,108). The final 707 players made the money and shared in the main event's €4,542,720 prize pool.

Eureka Poker Tour Main Event final-table finishers:

^{Images courtesy of PokerStars}