The best British player in poker history posted yet another fantastic result to further improve his chances of being name 2019 GPI Player of the Year as Stephen Chidwick won the EPT Prague Super High Roller for €725,710.
With a stacked final table, Chidwick defeated Bertrand ‘ElKy’ Grospellier heads-up to take the title but had plenty of tough competition throughout. The day kicked off with the swift culling of the other English player at the table. Ben Heath was all-in on his third hand of the final day, shoving with ace-queen, but Jean-Noel Thorel had called with pocket sevens and held on to eliminate a high roller regular.
Thorel was threatening to steamroller the table but lost a pivotal hand to the eventual winner and busted in 5th place soon after.
Thorel’s turned straight no match for Chidwick’s full house, made by the same card coming. They got it in on the ineffectual river card and Chidwick had a lead he would rarely relinquish during the remainder of the action, almost half the chips sitting in front of the popular Brit. Thorel would be unlucky again, this time in a hand against his countryman, Grospellier, ace-queen toppled by ElKy’s king-queen when the latter flopped a queen.
With four players remaining, Steve O’Dwyer would be eliminated by Chidwick after eating into his lead beforehand. Chidwick opened the action with pocket aces and had the easiest call in the world when O’Dwyer moved all-in with pocket eights, ‘the snowmen’ findings no luck, being shot down by Chidwick’s pocket rockets.
Adrian Mateos, who still leads the GPI Player of the Year race, would bust in third, as ‘The Matador’ was unable to dodge Chidwick’s outs. Mateos was all-in with the best hand of ace-ten, but Chidwick’s queen-jack met a jack on the turn to send Mateos home with his fourth cash of a fantastic EPT Prague that has so far seen him win over €500,000.
Heads-up began with Grospellier at a severe deficit, out-chipped at worse than a 1:4 ratio. Two double-ups, however, propelled the Frenchman back into fruition, including a straight flush over flush on the river.
Chidwick still held the lead and with the stacks becoming shallower, both stacks were pushed towards the middle with Grospellier holding ace-king. Chidwick had called Grospellier’s shove after opening the action himself with a suited queen-ten, and a ten on the turn won him the tournament and saw him win more than $13 million in a calendar year. Unlucky for his opponents.
EPT Prague Super High Roller final table results:
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1st | Stephen Chidwick | England | € 725,710 |
| 2nd | Bertrand Grospellier | France | € 501,590 |
| 3rd | Adrian Mateos | Spain | € 320,170 |
| 4th | Steve O’Dwyer | Ireland | € 245,460 |
| 5th | Jean-Noel Thorel | France | € 192,100 |
| 6th | Ben Heath | England | € 149,410 |
With just a couple of weeks to go, the current GPI Player of the Year Standings are very close, with Adrian Mateos’ results at the start of this EPT Prague festival helping him hugely in his pursuit of the prize.
GPI player of the year leaderboard:
| Place | Player | Points |
| 1st | Adrian Mateos | 3,504.71 |
| 2nd | Bryn Kenney | 3,478.06 |
| 3rd | Stephen Chidwick | 3,341.89 |
| 4th | Koray Aldemir | 3,266.11 |
| 5th | Stefan Schillhabel | 3,236.48 |
| 6th | Sergio Aido | 3,196.93 |
| 7th | Dan Smith | 3,180.30 |
| 8th | Ari Engel | 3,153.16 |
| 9th | Nick Petrangelo | 3,134.62 |
| 10th | Rainer Kempe | 3,086.76 |
