2024 review: A year in PokerStars live events
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When the final side-event wrapped at EPT Prague on December 15, another years of live events concluded for PokerStars. But it was a cracker. Another five EPTs were in the books, which featured a much-loved poker veteran landing a famous triumph, while the PokerStars Live operation also returned to Las Vegas for another NAPT.
There was the Women’s Winter Festival in London, a Lex Live meet-up in Barcelona, and numerous other events scattered across the world.
Let’s take a look back at 2024 in PokerStars live events.
JANUARY/FEBRUARY
Poker fans and player of all generations celebrated as one as British veteran Barny Boatman secured an incredible victory in the EPT Paris Main Event. The return to the French capital was already greeted with jubilation and the event was a roaring success at its new venue inside the Paris Palais des Congrès. Then Boatman taking down the big one made this one of the best events in living memory.
Barny Boatman’s success was celebrated by all
Boatman’s brilliant victory was one for the ages: he delved deep into his bottomless box of tricks to chat, strategise and bamboozle his way to a career-best €1.3 million score, tossing bon mots hither and thither as he raked in the chips. At 68, Boatman became the EPT’s oldest champion, and arguably its most popular winner of all time. He was quickly elevated to PokerStars Team Pro.
The 4,149-entry FPS Main Event went to Dutchman Mateusz Moolhuizen, who denied Slovenia’s breakout star Blaz Zerjav a first major title and turned a €1K buy-in into €470,830.
Meanwhile another young player making a name for himself in 2024, Thomas Santerne, took down the Super High Roller, beating a 62-entry field. By the end of the year, Santerne would have another €50K title, won in Prague.
Thomas Santerne was only just getting started
Paris was also the venue where Germany’s Oliver Weis got the ball rolling on his exceptional year. His €10K High Roller success, which earned him €970,200, was only just the beginning…
MARCH
The highlight of live action in March was the return of the ever-popular Irish Open. How popular? Well, there were 3,233 entries to the Main Event, which built a prize pool of more than €3.1 million. It’s pretty popular.
The craic and Guinness flowed as freely as all stereotypes would suggest and the hero was Tero Laurila, of Finland, whose €292,735 first prize, after a three-way deal, was the biggest of his career. Ireland’s Ninh Van Hiep was the official runner-up, although his chip lead during deal negotiations earned him €335,636, the biggest share of the prize pool.
Tero the hero
Other events:
Eureka Rozvadov
Main Event entries: 1,526
Prize pool: €1,449,700
Winner: Robert Röhlich, Czech Republic – €243,500
Estrellas Poker Tour Madrid
Main Event entries: 629
Prize pool: €603,840
Winner: Fouad Rabahie, Lebanon – €105,000
APRIL/MAY
The second European Poker Tour stop of the year was in Monte Carlo, where the usual flood of PokerStars players filled the Salle des Etoiles and enjoyed the opulence of Europe’s most celebrated gambling destination.
A 1,208 entry field in the Main Event put close to €5.6 million in the prize pool and promised a €1 million score for the winner. And with two days left, the last player to win a €1m first prize in Monaco, Adrian Mateos, was still involved and seemingly cruising to another famous success.
But Philipp Wenzelburger coolered Mateos out of the way in 11th, and clearing the way for Derk van Luijk to land a surprise first place, more than doubling his career earnings to that point with his seven-figure win.
Derk van Luijt came from nowhere to triumph in Monte Carlo
American attorney Rania Nasreddine finished third. We’d be hearing more from her in due course.
Patrik Antonius led an all-star cast at the €100K Super High Roller final, and duly snared the €1,967,440 first prize, ahead of Christoph Vogelsang. Atanas Malinov took down the FPS Main Event, which kicked off this stop, and earned the Bulgarian €303,190.
Other events
LAPT Panama
Main Event entries: 263
Prize pool: $315,260
Winner: Johnny Sandoval, Costa Rica – $65,000
Belgian Poker Challenge
Main Event entries: 716
Prize pool: €1,183,791
Winner: Rayane Benounnane, France – €200,000
JUNE/JULY
With World Series action sucking many poker players into the blistering heat of the Las Vegas desert, many hundreds of smart PokerStars players opted for the more comfortable surroundings of Malaga, Hamburg and Barcelona.
A trip to remember for Damiano Aloi
The former two locations hosted the Estrellas Poker Tour and Eureka Poker Tour, respectively, it was the online streaming community who flooded to Barcelona for the latest Lex Live meet-up. With socialising higher on the agenda than anything else, and the chance to meet eponymous hero Lex Veldhuis, there was nonetheless a €400 buy-in Main Event as well.
Damiano Aloi, who came all the way from Adelaide, Australia, made his trip worth it with the win.
ESPT/UKIPT Malaga
Main Event entries: 947
Prize pool: €1,100,160
Winner: Artus Giménez, Spain, €145,000
Eureka Hamburg
Main Event entries: 567
Prize pool: €584,250
Winner: Khossein Kokhestani, Ukraine, €110,070
Lex Live Barcelona
Main Event entries: 442
Prize pool: €172,380
Winner: Damiano Aloi, Australia, €25,500
AUGUST
The storied Hippodrome Casino played host once more to the London leg of the UKIPT, and the final table line-up demonstrated just how international this tournament (and this city) really is. Both the UK and Ireland had a player each, but otherwise there were three Italians and players from Bulgaria, the United Arab Emirates and Spain.
The 725-entry tournament ended in a heads-up deal between Gaspare Sposato, of Italy, and that London-based Bulgarian Atanas Pavlov, who has become very well known to PokerStars over the years. He’s a former PSPC Platinum Pass winner, and he was only one card away from landing this UKIPT Main Event.
Gaspare Sposato beat friends and countrymen to the title
However, Sposato was not to be messed with and cheered on by his friends and countrymen, who busted in third and fourth, Sposato was able to overcome fatigue to land this one. It came with £107,660 prize, while runner-up Pavlov won £99,340.
Later in the month, it was a much more partisan affair down in Mexico City, where the Latin America Poker Tour (LAPT) gathered. There was a 632-entry field and six Mexicans among the last nine remaining. Oscar Dorantes took the $133,457 first prize.
SEPTEMBER
The European Poker Tour celebrated its 20th birthday back where it all began, Barcelona. And while numerous famous faces from two decades past were tempted back, it was one of poker’s most brilliant young guns who prevailed from a field of 1,975 entries.
Stephen Song hit the high notes in Barcelona
That man was 29-year-old Stephen Song, who became the first American in nearly a decade to win on the EPT. He put on a devastating show to outdo Britain’s Andrew Hulme and bank €1,290,386, the largest EPT prize of the year.
Rania Nasreddine made the final table again, having also done so in Monte Carlo. She finished fourth for €518,600 only a couple of months since her third place in Monte Carlo was worth €442,900. The back-to-back achievement was one of the most impressive of the year — although Kayhan Mokri’s defence of his Super High Roller title was another incredible standout.
Back to back EPT Main Event finals for Rania Nasreddine
Mokri beat a field of 41 entries in the €100K buy-in event, beating Seth Davies heads up for a €1,372,420 score. Mokri did the same in 2023.
There was, of course, also a massive Estrellas Main Event, won by Sylvain Berthelot for just shy of half a million dollars after a three-way deal. (PokerStars Ambassador Parker Talbot finished fourth.) Former PCA champion Mike Watson claimed the spoils in the €10K High Roller, although Italy’s Enrico Camosci translated his heads-up chip lead into the bigger payout when they negotiated a two-way deal.
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER
The North American Poker Tour (NAPT) returned to Las Vegas after its highly successful top-dipping exercise last year, following its long absence. This time, there was once again the anticipation of some Big Game auditions, plus a sizeable portion of players in the field who had won their way there through the Power Path.
But this tournament turned out to be all about one person: the UK’s Nick Marchington, who romped to victory in the Main Event in double-quick time. Marchington, who has previously made the final table of the WSOP Main Event, marched through the 895-entry field and banked $765,200. He made it look easy, but with a last four featuring Marchington alongside Marco Johnson, Jeff Madsen and Joel Micka, it was anything but.
Nick Marchington: A Brit conquering America
While Marchington was beating the Americans on home soil, a UK-based Iranian Arian Hassankashani found himself top of the charts on the UKIPT in Nottingham. A 1,282-entry field sent this prize pool comfortably past its £1 million guarantee, and put £210,900 into Hassankashani’s bankroll after he beat two British stars Philip Joyce and Chris Brammer into second and third.
They got it done just in time as an unseasonable blanket of snow fell on Nottingham that night. Rumour has it that some players and staff, trapped in Dusk Till Dawn, are still there playing cash…
And more…
Also in the UK, PokerStars also hosted the inaugural Women’s Winter Festival at the Hippodrome. This event showcased the skills of the many hundreds of women players who regularly take to the felt in tournaments, with one of the absolute best, Argentina’s Maria Lampropulos, taking down the £400 buy-in Main Event and £20,000.
Lampropulos also made the money in the first Women’s High Roller held at the event, though she ultimately could only made it to fifth behind other PokerStars stalwarts Ivonne Oviedo, Soraya Estrada, Jenny Steele and tournament winner Charlie Waters.
Former PCA champion Maria Lampropulos won at the Hippodrome
Cyprus made its second appearance on the EPT schedule, where Oliver Weis pulled off a remarkable second major victory of the year. The German won the High Roller in Paris in February, but showed just how comfortable he is in any sized field with a barnstorming performance in the EPT Main Event.
Oliver Weis added Main Event to High Roller success
Weis was a runaway chip leader at the final table, and even though local hope Georgios Tsouloftas built up from the shortest stack to claim the heads-up chip lead over Weis, the seasoned pro used all his experience to dig himself out of the hole and take it down at the end. From a final table that also boasted two-time hope Anton Wigg alongside crushers Andriy Lyubovetskiy, of Ukraine, and Russia’s Mikhail Shalamov, Weis was ultimately unbeatable and won $1,030,000.
Britain’s Leo Worthington-Leese burnished his reputation with victory in the 2,803-entry Eureka Main Event, worth $314K. Meanwhile Mikalai Vaskaboinikau, a supposed amateur player from Belarus, was the unstoppable force in the High Rollers. He won $601K in the $50,000 Super High Roller, beating Artur Martirosian and Adrian Mateos into second and third, and then also chopped a $10K event for another near $200K and another trophy.
Leo Worthinton-Leese took down a massive Eureka event
Other events:
FPS Aix-les-Bains
Main Event entries: 660
Prize pool: €633,600
Winner: Zine Benrebai, France – €122,150
APPT Manila
Main Event entries: 416
Prize pool: ₱ 9,922,720
Winner: Trong Hieu Ngo, Vietnam – ₱11,610,000 ($200,936 approx)
DECEMBER
The EPT rolled into Prague for its regular pre-Christmas showdown, and players once more arrived in their droves. Both the Eureka Main Event and the EPT Main Event broke venue attendance records, while the Prague Hilton also hosted the first ever live Spin & Go tournament. That brought all the speedy three-handed fun to a brick and mortar setting.
Pedro Marques became the third Portuguese player to win a Main Event, and the first since Antonio Mathias won on home soil in 2009, after overcoming Paul Runcon’s enormous chip lead. They chopped it heads-up, but Marques landed the €963K first prize.
Pedro Marques sealed an emotional win
The Eureka Main Event went to Martin Tsvetanov of Bulgaria, who worked his way through a field of 4,732 entries to earn nearly €450K, also after a heads-up deal. Meanwhile, Thomas Santerne, who flashed on to the scene in Paris, won three High Roller events at one festival. An incredible achievement.
As the event approached its end, PokerStars live events chief Cedric Billot discussed the future of the tour amid a whirlwind of gossip about the EPT’s 2025 schedule.
Read more about PokerStars Live Events on the official PokerStars Live page
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