EPT Prague 2010 Won By Roberto Romanello

UK’s Roberto Romanello has emerged victorious at the EPT Prague, after defeating a field of 563 players over six days to take down the tournament, and collect the €640,000 ($842,000) first place prize.
The 34-year-old Romanello has now taken his live tournament career earnings to around the $1.5 million mark and clearly delighted with his latest win commented:
“This means everything to me. I felt I had so much support here, and I would like to thank everyone who has given it. I feel like everyone wanted me to win and it feels so good to actually do it.”
A huge field of 563 players entered the €5,300 buy-in PokerStars sponsored tournament, and by the time the two Day 1’s were complete, just 294 remained. Day 2 saw the field further reduced to 93 survivors and then 23 players by the end of Day 3.
By the end of Day 4 the final table of eight had been set and included chip leader Marco Leonzio (5.075m), Peter Skripka (4m), Marcin Horecki (3.29m), Emilliano Bono (1.53m), Roberto Romanello (1.22m), Roberto Nulli (745k),  Manuel Bevand (615k), and a short-stacked Jan Bendik on 445k.
First to exit the final table was Roberto Nulli in 8th (€54,550) after shoving pre-flop with A-T and being called by Marcin Horecki holding pocket queens. A few minutes later and so was Manuel Bevand in 7th (€71,000) having pushied his short-stack with Kd-2d but having run into Romanello’s pocket tens.
The pocket pairs continued their winning form when Jan Bendik’s A-K failed to improve in a race against his opponent’s pocket nines and so he was sent to the rail in 6th for €100,000.
Marco Leonzio was eliminated in 5th (€130,000) and then Peter Skripka in 4th (€163,000) after losing three major pots before being forced to call his remaining chips off on the big blind with K-7 to his opponent’s Ks-Ts.
Marcin Horecki was the next to leave in 3rd (€247,000) after going all-in from the button with Ad-Jc only to be called by Emiliano Bono with Ah-Kc. With no help from the board Horecki was out and the heads-up phase of the competition was underway.
Roberto Romanello held a 3:2 chip lead as heads-up play commenced and after an hour of wearing down his opponent, Bono found himself all-in pre-flop and fighting for tournament survival with Ad-Jc to Romanello’s pocket tens. With the flop falling 10-4-4, Romanello had made a full-house and a 5 on the turn sealed Emiliano Bono’s fate who then collected €435,000 for his runner-up finish.
In the meantime, Romanello clinched his biggest victory to date and was so overcome with emotion that he left the room for a few minutes before returning and then thanking all his supporters.