Miklos Zsuffa wins EAPT Bratislava (€37,000)

It has been six months since the re-launch of the Eurasian Poker Tour (now EA Poker Tour) in June, and the series has already made its way to several European destinations: from Rozvadov to Barcelona, from Milan to Bucharest and Bratislava. Up next is Madrid!

Throughout the series, which promotes itself as a "festival for mid-limit players," participants can compete for a dozen trophies in €100-€1000 tournaments. Buy-ins and tournaments may change from series to series, but one thing remains constant: the EAPT Main Event. The €560 buy-in tournament comes with a solid guarantee, e.g. in Bratislava players played for at least €180,000 in cash alone and an additional €20,000 was guaranteed in the form of EAPT Grand Final packages for the top four players in the Main Event.

It was also possible to play the EAPT Bratislava in another country. All you had to do was have an account on the GGPoker network and register for the Online Day. The Online Day is a full-fledged start to the main tournament. However, it does not require players to be present at Banco Casino. The Online Day runs until the ITM, after which everyone who survives to that stage will keep their chips for live play. 

At the end of all starting flights, the EAPT Bratislava Main Event attracted 389 players with a total prize pool of €190,000. A total of 59 players made it into the money. Each of them secured €850. The big payouts, of course, came at the final table, which took another 10 hours of play.

The final table of the EAPT Main Event in Bratislava was very international. There were players from Slovakia and Hungary, two Greeks, an Israeli, a Ukrainian, a Spaniard and a Finn. All in all, practically a full European Tour! All finalists were guaranteed at least €3,950, but first place was almost ten times that.

You can watch the action from the EAPT Bratislava Main Event Final on YouTube, where you can see the players' pocket cards:

- A quick recap of the final table

Spanish player Pelacho busted out first and took home €3,950. He was eliminated by Mario Alina with A Q > K J  . Seventh place and €4,925 went to Ioannis Giannakopoulos, who went all-in with A 10  but couldn't beat Rostyslav Sabischenko's A J . Sixth place went to Avraham Sisso, who went all in with Q 10  but was beaten by Rostyslav Sabischenko's pocket queens. Sisso was awarded €6,200.

Rostislav himself was soon eliminated in fifth place when he was dealt a dead cooler with ace-king to aces against Miklos Zsuffa for €8,525. Fourth place went to Mario Alina, who invested his last 5 blinds with J 9  but was unable to beat Vili Paeivaerinta's A 10 . Alina's prize was a total of €15,410.

The trio of medalists began with Vili Paeivaerinta. With 20 BB, he was dealt A J , and Christoforos Chrysochoidis was dealt J J . The players went all in and moments later, Vili was on his way to the cashier's room to collect his €20,600 prize. Miklos Zsuffa and Christoforos Chrysochoidis went heads-up, with the former holding almost a double chip advantage: 60 BB vs. 31 BB.

Zuffa's big lead quickly turned into a win. In the final hand, Chrysochoidis was left with a stack of 10 blinds, which went to the middle of the table, supported by K 6 . Miklos made an easy call with A A  and was celebrating his tournament victory already on the turn: 2 3 3 A 10 . Christoforos Chrysochoidis finished in second place with €27,450.

And the winner of the EAPT Main Event in Bratislava was Miklos Zsuffa from Hungary. He returns home with a handsome €37,630 cash reward and can start planning his May vacation on Cyprus - in addition to the prize money and champion's trophy, Zsuffa also won a package to the EAPT Grand Final, which will be held from May 2-12 at the luxurious five-star Merit Royal Diamond Casino Hotel in Cyprus.

The trip includes a $2,200 buy-in to the EAPT GF Main Event (this event comes with an incredible $2,000,000 guarantee), as well as hotel accommodations for the duration of the tournament and travel expenses. The total value of the Package is €5,000 and in addition to Miklos Zsuffa, Christoforos Chrysochoidis, Vili Paeivaerinta and Mario Alina have also received it.

The next stop of the EAPT is scheduled for February, with the series taking place in the Spanish capital from the 12th to the 19th of February. The Madrid festival has a total guarantee of over €250,000, with a minimum of €180,000 (and 4 more Grand Final Packages) up for grabs in the series' €560 Main Event.

Check out the full EAPT Madrid schedule here