Philippe Ktorza

A businessman turned poker pro, Paris-born Philippe Ktorza has emerged as one of the stronger poker players to come out of France in recent years. Although he has always been unfortunate in the heads-up showdowns for major titles, Ktorza has had multiple six-figure scores in the live tournament scene. The largest of these came in 2012 at the WPT $25,000 No Limit Hold’em Championship in Las Vegas, where he finished in second-place for $805,310, narrowly missing out on the seven-figure payday and WPT title. However, Philippe outlasted the likes of Michael Mizrachi, Nick Schulman and Steve O’Dwyer in an insanely competitive final table that proved just how capable the Frenchman was of hanging with the best pros around.

Ktorza threw himself into high roller events and continually demonstrated his ability in them. A few months after his deep WPT run, he final-tabled the €10,000 No Limit Hold’em High Roller 8-Handed EPT event in Prague. Despite an equally tough line-up once more, Philippe managed to take fourth for $126,657 by getting through veterans of the game like Jason Mercier and Eugene Katchalov.

In 2013, the Frenchman picked up another six-figure score at a high roller event – this time at the EPT Berlin €10,000 No Limit Hold’em High Roller Re-Entry event. He set a new personal best in EPT events by finishing third for $188,758 – unfortunately pipped to the trophy by Canadian pro Griffin Benger. One year on, Philippe made his third EPT high roller final table at the 2014 €2,000 No Limit Hold’em FPS High Roller event in Monte Carlo. On this occasion, he avenged his past loss to Benger as the Canadian finished in seventh – a place behind Ktorza.

Philippe’s live tournament earnings have surpassed the $1,750,000 mark as he continues to play poker events on an international scale.