Jack Sinclair Wins 2018 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event

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 from 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 wanna get used to it!”

This event attracted a total of 534 entries to just surpass the €5,000,000 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 KJ and failing to overcome the AQ 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 77 into the AA of Krasimir Yankov preflop. The board came down 98492 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 55. Sinclair called from the small blind holding the 77. Bujtas had also picked up a pocket pair with the 22 and made the call.

The flop brought the Q75 to give Sinclair set-over-set against Yankov. It checked to Yankov, who bet 650,000. Sinclair check-raised to 2,000,000. 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 J7 and Sinclair made the call with the Q. The board ran out KQ367 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:

Winner photo provided by WSOP.

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