Estonian Ottomar Ladva has won the crown jewel of EPT Paris, claiming the prestigious €100K EPT Paris Super High Roller for €970,920. He beat 2025 GPI Player of the Year Punnatt Punsri in heads-up play to win over $1.14 million.
For Ladva, this is his second-career seven-figure score, having just won the $25,500 Onyx High Roller Series & Cash Game Festival Main Event for $1,150,000 just three weeks ago.
€100K EPT Paris Super High Roller action
There were 24 entries in the €100,000 showcase event, including many who bought in directly on Day 2. Only four players were paid, each earning at least a €271,000 min-cash.
Jean-Noel Thorel, who came in second place in the 2025 WSOP Paradise Super Main Event, finished in fourth place, sneaking into the money. Five-time EPT champion Teun Mulder finished third for €406,400.
Ladva went into heads-up play with roughly a 5:1 chip lead. However, heads-up play would last multiple hours, with Ladva and Punsri trading the chip lead. Punsri would end up taking a 5:1 chip lead himself before Ladva pulled off a miraculous comeback of his own.
Eventually, Ladva would come out the champion, making a flush in the final hand against Punsri’s top pair. Ladva held against Punsri’s on a runout.
€100K EPT Paris Super High Roller payouts
Kayhan Mokri, known to many as one of the best online cash game players on the planet, was the unfortunate bubble boy. Orpen Kisacikoglu, Alex Kulev, Aleksejs Ponakovs, and Adrian Mateos also made the final table but did not cash.
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (EUR) | Prize (USD) |
| 1st | Ottomar Ladva | Estonia | €970,920 | $1,143,025 |
| 2nd | Punnatt Punsri | Thailand | €609,600 | $717,658 |
| 3rd | Teun Mulder | Netherlands | €406,400 | $478,438 |
| 4th | Jean Noel Thorel | France | €271,000 | $319,037 |
Who is Ottomar Ladva?
Ladva, from Estonia, is a four-time Estonian Chess Champion and earned the title of Grandmaster at age 19. However, according to his FIDE profile, he has not played a game of standard chess since early 2019 and has very rarely played at all.
Ladva left chess right about at the same time as his first significant live score and second overall – a win in the 34-entry, €1,300 MPNPT High Roller for €13,466. A few months later, Ladva had a life-changing result in the €550 EPT Cup at EPT Barcelona, topping the 3,260-entry field to win a massive €223,870, about a quarter of a million dollars.
Ladva then transitioned into the online poker world during the COVID-19 pandemic, staying mostly inside for the next two years, crushing mid and high-stakes to build himself a massive bankroll.
He came back to the live game strong, winning the €25,000 EPT Barcelona High Roller in 2023 for €207,300, just days after finishing fifth in a similar event. In 2024, he came back to Barcelona and crushed again, winning another €25,000 High Roller, this time for €439,400, days after finishing fifth in €30,000 and €12,000 events.
2025 was Ladva’s breakout year, crushing EPT Barcelona once again before heading off to BSOP Millions to play the Super High Roller series there. In just five days, Ladva recorded three of his top-five cashes, winning over $850,000 and taking home a pair of trophies.
Ladva, of course, has started 2026 in even better form, recording the first two seven-figure scores of his career. With $6.6 million in earnings, Ladva is second on Estonia’s all-time money list, behind Victor “Gambledore” Korzinin.
What’s next?
EPT Paris will carry on until March 1st, with a ton of action still available for those with big holes in their pockets.
Today is Day 1B of the €5,300 Main Event, the second and final flight of the six-day event. There are a pair of €25,000 events on offer: Day 2 of the PLO High Roller and Day 1 of a €25,000 NLH Single Re-Entry event.
On Wednesday, there’s a €50,000 Super High Roller Second Chance event that will likely attract most of, if not all of the players who competed in the €100,000 Super High Roller.
The official EPT Paris €10,300 High Roller will commence on Friday, while two more €10,300 events will be available to players on Saturday and Sunday.
