Neuens Scores Big for Luxembourg in €300 EUREKA Prague Cup
We received the following update from the European Poker Tour team, and thought it was too good not to share:
Prison warden Mike Neuens from Luxembourg has come close to winning his country’s biggest ever live poker tournament victory by taking down the first ever €300 Eureka Prague Cup. Neuen’s €78,400 prize increases his lifetime tournament winnings ten-fold and was only €2k short of the biggest ever live cash ever won by a player from Luxembourg. He has now jumped instantly from #17 in his country’s all time money list to the #2 spot.
Neuens, 34, beat 29-year-old Israeli international chess master Gaby Livshitz heads-up to take down the Prague Cup which attracted a staggering 1,546 entries over three start days. Luxembourg is a tiny land-locked country in the centre of Europe with a population of just over half a million; it has a close-knit online poker community but most players seem to head 150km north east to Namur in Belgium to compete in bigger live events. Neuen’s result is not only a personal best for him, it’s also the second biggest result ever achieved by any player from his country. Only Pit Hemmerling has had a bigger score – winning $100k in a $2,500 event in Cyprus five years ago. Neuens is also only the second Luxembourgian to win an EPT event of any kind after his fellow countryman Ken Geschwind won a €100 NL Turbo at EPT Vienna last season for €5k. Neuens’ biggest cash before today was runner-up in a €300 NL event at Kings Casino, Rozvadov nearly four years ago for €8k. A total of 231 players took a share of the €449,886 prize pool.