Jack Sinclair Captures 2018 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event Title

Jack Sinclair finished eighth in the 2017 World Series of Poker main event for $1,200,000. Just a year and a few months later, the British poker pro found himself at another WSOP main event final table, this time in the 2018 WSOP Europe €10,350 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event. The second time was the charm for Sinclair, and he emerged victorious with the title, his first bracelet, and the €1,122,239 ($1,290,575 USD) top prize.

“I wasn’t thinking about it,” Sinclair told WSOP reporters when asked if the 2017 WSOP main event in Las Vegas was on his mind in this event. “It was a completely different tournament. Vegas was huge for me but it’s in the past now and I don’t think about it now. Vegas was my first ever time playing a $10k and the first time in Vegas in general. The whole thing has been so surreal from the start of my poker career until now. I’m not used to it really, but… I don’t want to get used to it!”

This event attracted a total of 534 entries to just surpass the €5 million guarantee. After five full days of action that sea of players was narrowed down to just six, with Laszlo Bujtas as the chip leader, 2013 WSOP main event champion Ryan Riess in third chip position and Sinclair in fourth.

Ihor Yerofieiev was the first to hit the rail, losing a preflop race against Milos Skrbic to finish sixth for €175,965 ($277,976 USD). Skrbic ran pocket queens into Sinclair’s pocket aces not long after that to fall to the short stack. He was eliminated not long after that, getting all-in preflop with the K J and failing to overcome the A Q of Laszlo Bujtas. Skrbic took home €241,718 ($277,976 USD) as the fifth-place finisher.

Riess was trying to follow in Phil Hellmuth’s footsteps and become the second player to ever win both the WSOP main event and the WSOP Europe main event. Riess’ quest for glory was cut short in fourth place when he ran 7 7 into the A A of Krasimir Yankov preflop. The board came down 9 8 4 9 2 and Riess was knocked out in fourth place. He was awarded €337,778 ($388,445 USD) for his deep run.

Yankov may have knocked out Riess, but even after that hand, he was still the shortest stack among the remaining three players. That said, he had over 40 big blinds when his final hand arose. Yankov raised to 500,000 from the button with the pocket fives. Sinclair called from the small blind holding pocket sevens. Bujtas had also picked up a pocket pair with the pocket deuces and made the call.

The flop brought the Q 7 5 to give Sinclair set-over-set against Yankov. It checked to Yankov, who bet 650,000. Sinclair check-raised to 2 million. Bujtas folded and Yankov made the call. The K hit the turn and Sinclair checked. Yankov bet 2,300,000 and Sinclair moved all in. Yankov quickly called for his last 8 million or so with his set of fives, only to see he was drawing to one out going into the river. The 6 was no help and Yankov was eliminated in third place, earning €480,028 ($552,032 USD).

With that cooler Sinclair took a slight lead of just a handful of big blinds into heads-up play against Bujtas. The two battled back and forth, but Sinclair made two pair on the river against a missed straight draw for Bujtas and picked off his opponent’s bluff to take the decisive lead and never relinquished it from there on.
By the time the final hand arose Bujtas was down to just over 10 big blinds. He moved all-in from the button with the J 7 and Sinclair made the call with the Q 9. The board ran out K Q 3 6 7 and Sinclair paired his queen to take down the pot and the title. Bujtas earned €693,573 ($797,609 USD) as the second-place finisher.

Sinclair was awarded 2,100 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win. This was his third final table and third title of the year, and it was enough to see him move into 40th place in the overall 2018 POY race standings. Ryan Riess earned 1,050 points for his 11th final-table showing of the year, and as a result moved into 25th place in the rankings.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

Place Player Earnings (USD) POY Points

1 Jack Sinclair $1,290,575 2,100
2 Laszlo Bujtas $797,609 1,750
3 Krasimir Yankov $552,032 1,400
4 Ryan Riess $388,445 1,050
5 Milos Skrbic $277,976 875
6 Ihor Yerofieiev $113,030 700
7 Koray Aldemir $202,360 525
8 Bulcsu Lukacs $149,903 350
9 Stoyan Obreshkov $86,780 175

2018 WSOP Europe Awards Ten Gold Bracelets

Although the €5 million guaranteed main event was the centerpiece of the whole 2018 WSOP Europe festival, there were plenty of other massive events that took place during the series that ran from Oct. 9 – Nov. 5 at the King’s Casino Rozvadov in the Czech Republic.

There were a total of 10 bracelets awarded throughout the festival, with four of the bracelet events featuring seven-figure guarantees. The first of these headlining events was the €550 WSOP ‘Colossus’ no-limit hold’em bracelet event. The tournament featured a €1 million guarantee, which was easily surpassed when 2,992 total entries built a €1,435,412 ($1,663,311 USD) final prize pool. In the end it was Israel’s Tamir Segal who came out on top, winning his first gold bracelet and €203,820 ($234,393 USD).

The second €1 million guarantee was the €25,500 no-limit hold’em bracelet event, which drew a sizable turnout of 133 entries to create a final prize pool of €3,158,750 ($3,592,530 USD). Australian poker pro emerged victorious with the top prize of €848,702 ($976,007 USD) and his second gold bracelet, having won his first by taking down the $2,620 no-limit hold’em ‘Marathon’ event at this summer’s WSOP in Las Vegas.

The third seven-figure guaranteed tournament of the series, and the last outside of the main event, was the €5 million guaranteed €100,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em super high roller bracelet event. The tournament drew 95 total entries to build a prize pool of €9,025,000 ($10,378,750 USD). Czech native Martin Kabrhel captured his second bracelet and €2,624,340 ($3,017,991 USD) as the champion of this prestigious event.

Here is a look at the complete list of 10 bracelet winners from the 2018 WSOP Europe:

Event Champion No. of Entries Earnings (USD)

€550 No-Limit Hold’em Colossus €1 Million GTD Tamir Segal  2,992 $234,393
€1,650 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Max Deepstack Asi Moshe 221 $368,574
€550 Pot-Limit Omaha Hanh Tran 572 $68,365
€1,100 No-Limit Hold’em Turbo Bounty Hunter Mykhailo Gutyi 387 $70,150
€1,100 Monster Stack No-limit Hold’em Timur Margolin 666 $154,568
€1,650 Mixed Pot-Limit Omaha/No-Limit Hold’em Norbert Szecsi 241 $99,585
€2,200 Pot-Limit Omaha Anson Tsang 187 $105,489
€25,500 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller Michael Addamo 133 $976,007
€100,000 No-limit Hold’em Super High Roller Martin Kabrhel 95 $3,017,991
€10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event Jack Sinclair 534 $1,290,575