If you joined a poker strategy forum this year, you might have heard about Black Friday and the banning of Internet poker in America. The rest of the world isn’t having much trouble with poker popularity, however. This can be seen in the recently hosted WPT Prague, an event recently taking place in the Czech Republic.

WPT Prague’s participation exceeded expectations as the tournament broke the record for the most entries in a WPT event in Europe. Many think that Martin Staszko’s success in the WSOP Main Event this year inspired many people to try their hand at tournament poker. An impressive 571 people paid €3,500 to play WPT Prague.

The first elimination of the final table was that of Russell Carson, who goes by ‘rdcrsn’ in online poker rooms. He was the victim of an early lost coinflip, which ousted him in 6th place. Sigurd Eskelund followed him not too much later after losing a flip to Andrey Pateychuk.

The fourth place elimination didn’t come for some time as the remaining players traded chips back and forth for quite a while. Benjamin Pollak ended up the 4th place finisher, though, when he went all-in behind and couldn’t bad beat Adria Balaguer.

This is when Pateychuk started building his stack. He turned up the aggression both before and after the dinner break. He also had luck on his side, though, as he bad beated Stanislaw Kretz to eliminate him in 3rd place.

Pateychuk started the heads-up match with the chip lead, and he lost it briefly to Balaguer after losing with AK against J4s. That was as far as Balaguer’s luck would take him, however. Pateychuk found a suck out with A6 against AJ, and then he found another suck out with A5 against QQ.

Congratulations to Pateychuk for winning WPT Prague! It’s safe to say that he is running good right now for he has won two major titles in 45 days. Poker fans might also remember that earlier this year, he just missed making the WSOP Main Event final table.

Not everyone can be as successful as Pateychuk, but you can get pretty close with lots of online poker practice. If you’re just getting started, you’ll need to build a bankroll. Be sure to pick rooms with great poker bonuses because they’ll really give your bankroll a needed lift.