When it comes to French poker royalty, names like Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier, Antoine Saout, David Benyamine, and Julien Martini ring out. But could the torch be passed to a new flag bearer for the tricolor? Enter Thomas Santerne, the meteoric talent who is taking the poker world by storm.
Less than two years ago, Santerne was an unknown entity, with not a single recorded cash on The Hendon Mob. Today, he’s a bona fide sensation, racking up over $4 million in live-tournament earnings and earning the respect of the high-roller elite.
Santerne’s latest triumph came in the 2024 PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague at the Hilton Prague, where he bested a 15-entry field to claim the €20,000 No-Limit Hold'em title. His victory over Morten Klein in a heads-up battle secured him the €175,000 first-place prize—an impressive addition to the €285,000 prize pool.
This marks Santerne's second major victory of the year, following his Super High Roller win at EPT Paris in February. With results like these, it’s no longer a question of whether Santerne belongs among the greats—but how soon he’ll join them.
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thomas Santerne | France | €175,000 |
| 2 | Morten Klein | Norway | €90,000 |
| 3 | Nikita Kuznetsov | Russian Federation | €20,000 |
A muted start saw only a couple players register by the time the tournament was supposed to begin, which led to a small delay before the action got underway five-handed.
Niklas Astedt, who placed third in the WSOP Main Event earlier this year, began the day running hot and nearly doubled his stack through the first couple levels of play. However, it would be mostly downhill for the Swede from that point on.
Not long after, Astedt lost a large pot to Teun Mulder after running pocket tens into pocket kings. Astedt was then among the early eliminations along with Klein after getting all in preflop against Enrico Camosci, who caught a pair of kings on the river with Big Slick. Astedt and Klein both quickly reentered.
The 2022 WSOP Main Event champion, Espen Jorstad, was also among the early entrants but was unable to gain any momentum from the get-go. Jorstad ended up making a stand with ace-six against Mulder and busting after chipping down for several levels. Unlike Astedt, Jorstad declined to reenter.
Poker crusher Steve O'Dwyer joined the fray at the start of Level 7 and wasted little time putting his chips to work. Shortly after entering, O'Dwyer managed to double up, holding aces against the pocket tens of Camosci.
Meanwhile, Klein busted and reentered two more times, first after getting short and running ace-nine into Camosci's pocket nines preflop, and then after running pocket kings into Camosci's pocket aces in a classic cooler. Klein reentered a third a final time just before late registration closed.
Astedt saw his tournament end after getting all in preflop with ace-king against Nikita Kuznetsov, who ended up ended up making a flush with ace-ten for the bad beat.
Klein's fortune would finally turn around after he eliminated O'Dwyer and Mulder. He first took out O'Dwyer with ace-queen against king-queen in a preflop collision and later faded a massive draw against Mulder for his second knockout.
The money bubble arrived after Camosci shoved jack-ten into Santerne's aces and failed to improve. With three players left and only two getting paid, Santerne made a move on Klein with unfortunate timing as Klein woke up with pocket kings to double through Santerne. At that point, the remaining three players agreed to give €20,000 back to the third-place finisher.
Kuznetsov, who had been nursing a short stack for a while, became the first "in the money" elimination after shoving prelfop with queen-six and getting called by Klein, who had ace-trey and held up.
Heads-up play between Klein and Santerne looked to be a short affair. Just a few hands in, Santerne shoved on Klein with queen-trey and was snapped off by Klein, who held ace-six. Santerne caught a trey on the flop, but Klein paired his ace on the turn and was just one card away from clinching victory. Fate was on Santerne's side, however, as he caught a queen on the end to pull his stack to even against Klein.
A few hands later, Klein committed his stack against Santerne on the turn after flopping trip nines but was up against Santerne's turned flush. The river bricked out for Klein and he was forced to settle for a second-place finish for €90,000 while Santerne claimed his second EPT title and €175,000 first-place prize.