The Prague stop on the 2009 European Poker Tour gave poker players another great opportunity to play poker in a classic, historic city.

Many players rose to the challenge; 570 in fact, all willing to risk 7,350 in U.S. dollars or its satellite equivalent in order to grab a piece of the nearly three and a half million dollar prize pool.

EPT 2009 in Retrospect: Prague EPT

The European Poker Tour continued to prove itself a rival to the World Poker Tour as it took advantage of a huge pool of poker players from all over the world. Once the eight player final table was reached, the Italians had something to cheer about, as there were three representatives from Italy seated, along with a Canadian, German, Spaniard, Finn and Greek.

However it was clear that every player was prepared to put on a good showing for their respective native countries.

The Final Prague Lineup

The nine players looking for EPT glory in Prague were chip leader Salvatore Bonavena with about 1.4 million in chips, followed closely behind by Alexiou Konstantinos.

Then Francesco Cirianni, Fredrik Nygard, Massimo Di Cicco and Nasr El Nasr. Sharing the short stack with 309,000 chips each were Raul Mestre and Andrew Chen.

Prague Final Table Action

Spain's chance at collecting an EPT title were dashed almost immediately, as the short stacked Raul Mestre was forced to make a move with A7 suited and ran into Nygard's two red nines. Mestre looked as if he might pull off a miracle suckout when an ace hit on the turn, but it also put three hearts on the board.

When the Qh fell on the river, Mestre was done. Not wanting to share Mestre's fate, Andrew Chen shifted things into high gear and began chipping up. Finally he collided with Nasr El Nasr's KJ suited. Chen held pocket tens however, and after the board ran out giving Chen a set and no flush for El Nasr, Chen had guaranteed himself at least a sixth place finish.

Chen then went on a tear, knocking out Nygard in sixth and Cirianni in fifth. Finally, after Konstantinos fell, Bonavena put an end to Chen's roll, making a straight with A6 against Chen's KQ. This ensured an Italian champion, and when Bonavena flopped top pair against Di Sicco's ace high, that champion became Salvatore Bonvaena, to the tune of 774,000 Euros.