Teun Mulder Closes in on Top Spot of the Netherlands All-Time Money List
It's been quite the 24-months for Teun Mulder, and the Dutch star has added to his burgeoning legacy after securing another win on the PokerStars European Poker Tour.
His latest triumph has come at EPT's final stop of the year in Prague, a destination he's tasted success in before. This time around, he topped the 15-entry field in the festival's first €25,000 NL Hold'em event.
He defeated Lithuana's Paulius Plausinaitis in heads-up play, while online crusher Niklas Astedt rounded out the top three places. The trio were the only players to make the money and shared slices of the €360,150 prize pool.
With the €180,150 ($194,209) prize added to Mulder's extensive list of cashes, he finds himself within an inch of the Netherlands All-Time Money List leader Jorryt van Hoof, with less than $5,000 separating them.
Van Hoof currently sits at the top with $5,967,814 in recorded tournament earnings, while Mulder's tally now stands at $5,963,589 (includes $1.236M online win). It's also worth noting that Mulder has an additional seven-figure score in the online sphere, so there's a case that he should already be No.1.
What's impressive about Mulder's rise up the ranks is that a majority of his winnings have come over the last two years. On the live felt, 2022 saw him rack up $2,456,753 in prize money, and he's added a further $1,724,985 so far this year. With several events still to play out in the Czech capital, it seems a sure bet that Mulder will become the most successful poker player from his country of birth.
2023 PokerStars EPT Prague Payouts
| Rank | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Teun Mulder | Netherlands | €180,150 |
| 2 | Paulius Plausinaitis | Lithuania | €108,000 |
| 3 | Niklas Astedt | Sweden | €72,000 |
Tamas Adamszki Wins €10,200 NL Hold'em at 2023 EPT Prague (€117,150)
Action of the Day
Six players registered for the start, with the three cashers along with Tsugunari Toma, Dimitar Danchev and Ognyan Dimov kicking off proceedings.
After the first two levels, Kayhan Mokri, who has been on a meteoric rise to poker's highest stakes, hopped into the action. Yesterday's €10,200 NLH Hold'em winner Tamas Adamszki also took a shot for another chance at EPT glory to see the entry count rise to eight.
At the first break, Toma had the chip lead, and the field then split onto tables after the arrivals of Robbie Toan and fan favorite Ole Schemion.
When play resumed, Danchev became the first casualty of the day after his big slick fell to Toma's ace-three. His seat was then taken by Japanese player Masato Kashiwabara.
Toan then got in on the action and scored an early knockout after his pocket tens remained best against Dimov's suited ace-eight, which ended Bulgaria's representation in the tournament.
Kashiwabara's brief cameo was ended by Plausinaitis just before Bruno Volkmann got into the mix. However, his fate was similar to Kashiwabara and the Brazilian was eliminated 15-minutes after he sat down. Toma scored his second KO of the session as Volkmann, who also had ace-eight suited, couldn't get there against the former's sailboats.
Toma then made it hat trick bustouts after seeing off Toan. Coincidentally, Toma had the ace-eight this time, and he showed his opponents how to properly play it, as Toan was drawing dead on the turn.
Mulder's first major pot came at the expense of the chip leader, as the eventual winner doubled up with a set of eights to climb up the counts.
Schemion departed next as the final table formed and Adamszki soon followed him to the exit after Mokri set the trap with slow-played aces.
Steve O'Dwyer, Laszlo Bujtas and a returning Adamszki were the only players who bought in prior to late registration closing.
Toma claimed another scalp as he rivered Bujtas with ace-king, and Adamszki's hopes of back-to-back wins were dashed by Mulder. Take a guess at what Adamszki's last hand was. That's right, it was ace-eight.
What followed next was nothing short of extraordinary. A plethora of all-ins and calls took place, yielding zero eliminations. Toma booked a series of doubles and had more lives than a cat after finding himself in the lower end of the counts. O'Dwyer also found himself on the right side of lady luck for a brief period and amazingly spun up his last 2,000 all the way back up to the 100,000 starting stack.
Mokri and Astedt both commented that they had never seen anything like it, which added to the good nature of the table. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, and the finish line appeared to be miles away as stacks peaked and troughed.
However, someone had to give, and Mokri was the sixth-place finisher. Mulder flopped the nut straight against Mokri's queen-ten, which failed to fill up on the turn or river. Mulder won a flip and stacked O'Dwyer shortly after to bring around the money bubble.
Despite quadrupling up moments before, Toma was confirmed as the bubble boy and was the last player to leave empty-handed.
Three quickly became one as Mulder took out Astedt following an all-in preflop encounter. The Dutchman took a 3:1 chip lead going into heads-up, which he never relinquished. Mulder sealed the victory with two pair against Plausinaitis after the chips went in on the turn.
This marks the end of PokerNews' coverage of the event but be sure to return tomorrow as more high-roller action is scheduled.