White Russian succeeds in the historical

Mikalaj Pobal from Belarus wins the Main Event at the EPT in Prague. He is the first man to have two EPT Main Event victories.

The European Poker Tour in Prague ended with a historical event.

Mikalaj Pobal from Belarus won the Main Event with a buy-in of €5,300, making him the first man in EPT history to win the two Main Events. His first triumph came in August 2012 in Barcelona.

Apart from Pobal, only the British Victoria Coren Mitchell (2006 in London and 2014 in San Remo) has so far managed the feat of winning the Main Event twice.

Pokal collected prize money of 1,005,600 euros for the victory in Prague. This is the first time that a poker player in the Czech capital has won a seven-figure sum at an EPT event.

Pobal: “One million is not bad either”

“Being the first two-time champion at an EPT Main event is great. But a million euros isn’t bad either,” said the 35-year-old.

At the time of the EPT in Prague, Pobal, who lives in Minsk, had planned a holiday with his parents in the Czech metropolis. But instead of going to see the sights of the city together, he sat at the poker table for seven days.

Main Event instead of Sightseeing

This came about in a curious way. Pobal didn’t really want to take part in the Main Event. It wasn’t until he qualified online on PokerStars that he took the opportunity.

And how: An investment of 55 Euros on PokerStars has now turned into a profit of over a million.

Winner remains modest

Despite his second win at an EPT Main Event, the trophy remains modest. “Poker is just a hobby for me. I’m not planning on becoming a pro,” he said.

He beat Norbert Szecsi in the heads-up. Derr Hungary got 598.880 Euro as the second.

Best German in the field of 1154 entries, which provided a total prize pool of 5,590,600 Euros, was PokerStars qualifier Dietrich Fast in eighth place (96,100 Euros).

World champion Hossan in the money

Among the other Germans who played their way into the money was world champion Hossein Ensan.

The winner of this year’s WSOP Main Event was 28th, which earned him prize money of 23,560 euros.