Andre Winkler has added another trophy to a breakout season, winning the €2,000 EPC Masters at the King's Million festival in Rozvadov. The German took home €99,600 after a heads-up deal with Italy's Marco Giordano, and he did it at the end of a 12-hour final day that he described afterwards as tiring but "really great."
The result is the latest chapter in a year that has quietly turned Winkler into one of the better-known names on the European live circuit. It also gives us a useful case study in how modern final tables are won: with short-stack survival, well-timed deals and a willingness to pick the right spots live rather than grinding online.
The EPC Masters at a glance
The EPC Masters drew 346 entries at €2,000, building a prize pool of €602,040 at King's Resort, the Czech poker complex that has hosted the European Poker Championship series for years. For a mid-priced buy-in in October, that is a healthy field, and it shows how much appetite there still is for deep, well-structured live tournaments in central Europe.
The nine-handed final table paid out as follows:
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Andre Winkler | Germany | €99,600* |
| 2 | Marco Giordano | Italy | €118,400* |
| 3 | Tobias Peters | Netherlands | €58,100 |
| 4 | Pasquale Casella | Italy | €39,900 |
| 5 | MajikMike | Italy | €28,200 |
| 6 | Fatih Sen | Turkey | €20,300 |
| 7 | Catalin Moraru | Romania | €15,100 |
| 8 | Paul Craciunas | Romania | €11,450 |
| 9 | Sebastian Kotowicz | Poland | €9,050 |
*Heads-up deal
The asterisks matter. Giordano actually collected more money than Winkler (€118,400 versus €99,600), but Winkler walked away with the trophy. That is the signature of an ICM-based deal, where the players divide the remaining prize money according to chip counts and then play on for the title and a small amount of leftover cash. If you want to understand why that split looks the way it does, our explainer on what ICM is walks through the maths.
The hand that kept Winkler alive
Every title run has a moment where the tournament could have ended, and Winkler's came with 13 players left. Down to roughly eight big blinds, he got his chips in with K-3 against MajikMike's pocket eights. It is the kind of coin-flip-minus spot short stacks routinely have to take, and it went the right way: a king arrived on the flop, and Winkler survived to fight on.
There is a strategic lesson buried in that hand. At eight big blinds, a hand like K-3 is not a hand you would ever want to play deep-stacked, but with a short stack and the blinds closing in, fold equity disappears quickly and any ace or king becomes a legitimate shove candidate. The player who waits for a "good" hand at that stack depth usually blinds out. Winkler took his shot, got there, and then converted the extra life into a trophy. Players who want to sharpen their short-stack decisions can start with our poker strategy hub and the pot odds primer.
A breakout year in context
What makes the win more interesting is where it sits in Winkler's season. According to PokerNews' coverage of the event, 2026 has already delivered his first WSOP ring in May and a victory in a €590 tournament in July worth more than €420,000. The EPC Masters win also earns him a Royal Scepter trophy, one of just ten in existence.
Three significant wins across five months, at very different buy-in levels, is not a fluke streak so much as evidence of a player who is comfortable in multiple formats. It is also a reminder that variance in poker tournaments cuts both ways: a €590 buy-in turning into a six-figure result is exactly why so many amateurs keep firing at big-field events, and exactly why such results should not be treated as typical.
From online grinding to live
Perhaps the most telling quote from Winkler concerns where he plays. He said he enjoys live poker "way more" and that he has "already stopped playing online." That is a notable statement at a time when online poker traffic at the biggest sites is hitting records, and it reflects a broader divide in how serious players split their time.
Online poker offers volume, multi-tabling and a constant stream of edges. Live poker offers physical reads, softer fields in many mid-stakes events, and a lifestyle some players simply prefer. Neither is objectively better; the right choice depends on your skills, bankroll and schedule. If you are weighing the two, our comparison of online vs live poker lays out the trade-offs in detail.
What this means for players
There are four practical takeaways from Winkler's win.
First, deals are a skill. The heads-up deal that gave Giordano the larger cheque and Winkler the trophy is standard practice at the end of big live events, but not every player negotiates well. Know your ICM numbers before you sit down at the final table, and do not be afraid to ask for a calculation rather than agreeing to a round-number chop. Winkler ended up with a trophy that carries more than just prestige, and the Royal Scepter is a collectible in its own right.
Second, short-stack play wins tournaments. Not every champion is the chip leader on day two. Several of the most memorable European titles in recent years were won by players who sat on single-digit big blinds with a dozen runners left. Learn your push-fold ranges and practice them.
Third, mid-priced live events remain good value. A 346-entry field at €2,000 is large enough to build a meaningful prize pool and small enough that you are not fighting through thousands of runners. If you are looking for events where your edge can matter, browse our tournaments page for formats and schedules to target.
Fourth, protect your bankroll. Winkler's results look glamorous in a headline, but the underlying reality of tournament poker is long losing stretches punctuated by rare big scores. Our bankroll management guide explains how many buy-ins you should hold for events at this level.
The bigger picture at King's
King's Million has been a busy festival, with the EPC Masters sitting alongside the EPC Monsterstack and the High Roller, each producing its own storyline. We have already covered Kyriakos Kesidis winning the Monsterstack and the mystery winner of the High Roller. Together the three results show a festival delivering varied winners: a Greek recreational player, an anonymous high-roller champion and now a German pro who has found his groove in live poker.
For anyone planning a trip to Rozvadov, the combination of deep structures, generous guarantees and a poker-only environment remains hard to beat in Europe. And for readers who simply enjoy following the results, Winkler's year is a good reminder to keep an eye on the names rising through the live ranks rather than only the household-name stars.
Whether Winkler adds to his collection before the end of 2026 remains to be seen, but based on his own comments about focusing on live play, we expect to see him at plenty more final tables.