The vast majority of poker tournaments, both live and online, are played in the Texas NLH format. This is not news, but considering this, one can understand why many players chose to specialize in this specific discipline. One could argue, however, that Mixed Games are more demanding in terms of a diversified skill set.
Mixed Games are growing steadily in popularity, and the fields in various multidisciplinary tournaments continue to expand. One player who’s proven time and time again that he masters many different poker games is Tobias Leknes. The Norwegian has a love and passion for poker that shines through his whole persona, and he’s been considered a very prominent Mixed Games player for many years. If there, against all odds, were players doubting Leknes’ skills, they’ve all been silenced by now. During the most recent 2025 EPT Prague, Leknes captured not one, but two Mixed Games titles, and he left the Czech capital roughly €100,000 wealthier.
One’s Not Enough
The 2025 EPT Prague was played December 3-14 at King’s Casino & Hilton Hotel, Prague. The event has been one of the most popular stops on the EPT for years, and the 1,224 entries in the €5,300 Main Event definitely vouched for this (which, by the way, was conquered by Israeli Matan Krakow.
The tour has featured a variety of Mixed Games for the last couple of years, and the newly finished Prague stop was no different. Seven out of the 70 events on the tournament schedule were various Mixed Games, where Event #50: €5,200 8-Game Mix was the one with the heftiest buy-in. This high roller affair attracted 20 entries, creating a total prize pool of €97,000. Mastering 8-Game is not an easy task; with so many different forms of poker, a player contending for the title in a tournament like this must have a diversified skill set. There were three payouts in the tournament, and ultimately, victory belonged to Leknes, who was awarded €48,500 for his features.
2025 EPT Prague – €5,200 8-Game Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Tobias Leknes | Norway | €48,500 |
| 2 |  Dario Alioto | Italy | €29,100 |
| 3 |  Imad Derwiche | France | €19,400 |
Leknes is no far from an unknown face on the poker scene, and he’s a good friend of poker.pro. The virtuoso has 13 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) titles to his name, which is an utterly ridiculous feat. Additionally, he holds 20 live tournament titles (according to his profile on The Hendon Mob), many of which are Mixed Games achievements. He’s also the president of the Norwegian Poker Federation, and his passion and drive to strengthen the Norwegian poker community are permeated by love. He’s beyond fond of Mixed Games, and together with fellow Norwegian Frode Fagerli, he organized the 2025 European Mixed Poker Championship last month.
The 2025 EPT Prague continued, and apparently, Leknes was still hungry. He entered Event #5: €2,200 10-Game Mix, and joined the competition amongst 62 other players. Two additional games would prove not to be too many for Leknes, who kept his momentum going. When the dust had settled, he was the only contestant remaining, claiming the €36,280 first-place prize, and with that, his second title during the very popular EPT stop.
2025 EPT Prague – €2,200 10-Game Mix Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tobias Leknes | Norway | €36,280 |
| 2 |  Claudio Gehrs | Germany | €23,590 |
| 3 | Pierre Morin | France | €16,750 |
| 4 |  Siarhei Narozhny | Belarus | €12,880 |
| 5 |  Menikos Paranyiotou | Cyprus | €9,920 |
| 6 | Thor Morstol | Norway | €7,620 |
| 7 |  Alexander Freund | Austria | €5,870 |
| 8 | Michael Schmitz | Germany | €4,540 |
| 9 |  Yannick Jobin | Switzerland | €3,510 |
Poker social media icon Václav “Lemon” Dušek, who lives in Prague, spent a lot of time at King’s Casino & Hilton Hotel the last two weeks, and he had a small chat with Leknes after his second tournament win. The ever-so-humble Leknes acknowledged that the cards were in his favour during the final table:
“The final table just had a very fortunate runout for me. I won some key pots in the beginning, and I managed to keep the remaining players at arm’s length. When we had only three players left, my opponents both tried to secure second place; they had between 5% and 10% of the chips each. They tried to outlast each other, and luckily for me, they were both equally stubborn. They engaged in a folding war, and their final hand was three Big Blinds each. All three of us were all in, and it was fun to win a tournament without having to play heads-up.”
It would be an incorrect statement to say that luck was the only factor behind Leknes’ win. He has stood the test of time, and time and time again, he has proven that he really is a Mixed Games master. In fact, he won the €5,200 8-Game during the 2024 EPT Prague as well, and the €66,800 he got from that tournament win is still his biggest cash from a Mixed Games tournament win. It’s worth mentioning he’s quite the Texas NLH player as well; his thirteenth-place finish for €5,200 Main Event during the 2025 EPT Barcelona is his best live cash (€99,763).
Leknes reflects on a very decent run during his recent Czech endeavors:
“It has been an insane run. I have been struggling a lot in these types of tournaments. I fired multiple bullets in the 8-Game, and in this tournament, I was down to one eighth of starting stack at one point. I was very fortunate to be able to run it up. I got very lucky in some hands, and hopefully, I did some good moves on my end.”
If he wasn’t already a contender for Mixed Games player of the year, Leknes surely is so now. Christmas is around the corner, but it’s an educated guess that Leknes hasn’t gone on holiday just yet. The 2026 Norwegian Championship will be played 5-15 March at Banco Casino, Bratislava, and being the President of the Norwegian Poker Federation, Leknes has some things on his plate.
On behalf of all of poker.pro, this journalist congratulates Leknes on his successful Prague trip. He’s an important part of the global Mixed Games community, and one simply must admire his thrive. It’ll be exciting to see what results he will score in 2026, and being a part of the organizational team of the Norwegian Championship, he and his federation colleagues will make sure all Norwegians are treated to a sublime live poker experience in Bratislava.
