Botond Balázs Triumphs At 2014 Eureka4 Prague

Hungary’s Botond Balázs has triumphed at the 2014 Eureka4 Prague, after overcoming a huge field of 1,738 players on his way to capturing the title, and collecting the €206,948 first place prize.
The €1,100 buy-in event was held at the Hilton Hotel in the Czech Republic’s capital city and attracted a record-breaking field for the tour to create a prize pool worth €1,685,860. By the time the final table of ten had been reached, Botond Balázs was the second-lowest chip count at the table.
Greece’s Athanasios Xenodochidis (Q-Q) then eliminated Lucas Blanco (A-K) in 7th (€39,500), before later being dealt Q-Q once more and doing likewise to Viktor Velikov (A-3) in 5th (€65,440), followed by Jonas Mackoff in 4th for €81,100.
The three remaining players subsequently agreed a deal in which Balasz Botond received €186,948, Athanasios Xenodochidis €186,881, and Ayman Zbib €163,921, with the extra €20,000 going to the eventual winner. When play resumed, the action was decidedly looser and not long later Xenodochidis exited in 3rd, leaving Balazs Botond with 22 million chips and Ayman Zbib with 12 million to duke it out for the title.
The battle continued for some time before the deciding hand was played with Zbib all-in holding A-J, and up against the pocket sixes of Botond. The dealer then laid out a 4-5-Q-7-7 board to consign Zbib to a runner-up finish worth €163,921, while Botond was crowned the 2014 Eureka4 Prague champion.
Final Table Results:
1 Balazs Botond (Hungary)  €206,948
2 Ayman Zbib (Lebanon) €163,921
3 A. Xenodochidis (Greece) €186,881
4 Jonas Mackoff (Canada)  €81,100
5 Viktor Velikov (Bulgaria) €65,440
6 Atanas Malinov (Bulgaria) €52,050
7 Lucas Blanco (Spain) €39,500
8 Endre Sagstuen (Norway)  €28,100
Balasz “birs320” Botond is a 30-year-old Hungarian pro who previously worked in a Budapest department store before starting his poker career five years ago. Since then he has made a WSOP and a WPT final table and currently boasts more than $500,0000 in live tournament winnings.