David Laka has won $1.6 million at the live felt, but he now has one of the most prestigious online titles to his name – the first of the 2020 EPT Online Series titles, too! Winning $143,567 for taking down the online event, Laka rode out a frantic final day of action on PokerStars to triumph in fine style.  

With just 29 players kicking off the action, by the end of late registration just 15 players were assured of profit, as the money places included just that number. Three registrations were permitted, with Laszlo Bujtas busting all three of his without profit. Others to fall by the wayside before the money bubble burst included Fedor Holz, Anatoly Filatov, Timothy Adams, Christian Rudolph, Sergi Reixach, Joao Vieira and Steve O’Dwyer all unable to ride out the rollercoaster of EPT gameplay. It would be Guntis Aleskins who would bubble the event, busted by Pascal Lefrancois, who would take those chips and run all the way to second place by the end of the event.  

Plenty more would have to leave before the final table was reached and they included Austrian powerhouse Matthias Eibinger with Christoph Vogelsang, Parker Talbot and Andrey Zaichenko also missing out.  

American player Chris Oliver was the first to bust the final table, losing the majority of his chips to Lefrancois, before he was joined on the virtual rail by countryman Jon Van Fleet. Finishing in 5th place was Croatian player ‘zufo16’, who cashed for $51,736, around $15,000 less than Russia player Vyacheslav Buldygin, who came 4th.