Linaras, Di Nicola, and Liu Latest Champions Decided At World Series of Poker EuropeA Look At The Three Most Recent Bracelet Winners Crowned At King's Resort Rozvadov |
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The 2023 World Series of Poker Europe kicked off at King’s Resort Rozvadov in the Czech Republic just shy of two weeks ago. This year’s WSOPE is slated to span from Oct. 25 – Nov. 15, with 15 bracelet events and more than €15 million in total guaranteed prize money to be awarded along the way.
A total of six events are now in the books, with nearly $6.7 million paid out already thanks to the 9,795 entries made thus far. Below is a look at the results from the three most recent events to wrap up. A recap of the first three bracelet events can be found here.
€1,350 No-Limit Hold’em €2 Million GTD
The 2023 WSOPE €1,350 mini main event drew a sizable turnout of 1,729 entries, resulting in a final prize pool of $2,114,750 when rendered in USD. The largest share of that money went to Greece’s Sokratis Linaras, who walked away with €310,350 ($328,971 USD), and his first gold bracelet.
Before this big win, Linaras’ top payday on the live circuit had been a $104,325 score secured as the champion of a €5,200 pot-limit Omaha event held at the European Poker Tour Monte Carlo stop this spring.
Linaras’ two titles this year earned him 1,416 total Card Player Player of the Year points, enough to move him inside the top 350 in the 2023 POY standings presented by Global Poker.
2022 WSOPE main event champion Omar Eljach, who was just a handful of days removed from taking down the €550 pot-limit Omaha event at this series for his second bracelet, finished fourth for $109,551.
Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
1 | Sokratis Linaras | $328,971 | 1080 |
2 | Daniel Lehmann | $194,881 | 900 |
3 | Jamel Ghizaoui | $144,955 | 720 |
4 | Omar Eljach | $109,551 | 540 |
5 | Bayar Saran | $84,429 | 450 |
6 | Georges Chehade | $66,303 | 360 |
7 | Aleksej Grenz | $53,053 | 270 |
8 | Francis Klar | $43,407 | 180 |
9 | Matthew Davenport | $36,199 | 90 |
€550 No-Limit Hold’em Colossus €1.5 Million GTD
The next tournament to wrap was another large-field no-limit hold’em affair: the €550 buy-in ‘Colossus.’ With 3,436 total entries, the prize pool grew to $1,751,080, resulting in six-figure paydays for the top three finishers (when reckoned in USD). The largest payout of all was the $222,971 secured by eventual champion Ermanno Di Nicola.
This was the first bracelet win ever for the Italian, who came close in 2021 when he finished third in a €5,000 pot-limit Omaha event at that year’s WSOPE. Di Nicola now has more than $561,000 in recorded tournament earnings after this latest victory.
Poland’s Alain Saka earned $132,871 as the runner-up, while longtime poker player Tobias Peters of the Netherlands finished fifth for $65,328 to increase his lifetime earnigns to more than $2.1 million.
Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
1 | Ermanno Di Nicola | $222,971 | 600 |
2 | Alain Saka | $132,871 | 500 |
3 | Angelo Marrone | $103,191 | 400 |
4 | Alessandro Predaroli | $80,931 | 300 |
5 | Tobias Peters | $65,328 | 250 |
6 | Julien Loire | $52,099 | 200 |
7 | Xhavit Berisha | $42,771 | 150 |
8 | Juuso Luokkanen | $35,722 | 100 |
9 | Dennis Magro | $30,343 | 50 |
€5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha €500K GTD
The highest buy-in event held so far at the festival is the €5,000 pot-limit Omaha event that wrapped up on Monday, Nov. 6. With 202 entries the prize pool swelled to $966,222 USD. That meant that eventual champion Wing Po Liu walked away with $243,800 and his first bracelet after dragging the final pot.
The Hong Kong native had a dozen prior cashes in WSOP events, but had never made a final table prior to this tournament.
Liu had some stiff competition to contend with down the stretch, including two-time bracelet winner Oleksii Kovalchuk (9th), three-time bracelet winner Ansons Tsang (4th), and none other than Omar Eljach, who was at his third final table of the series. Eljach earned $150,308 as the runner-up, bringing his total earnings for the festival to more than $333,000.
Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
1 | Wing Po Liu | $243,800 | 720 |
2 | Omar Eljach | $150,308 | 600 |
3 | Kasparas Klezys | $103,456 | 480 |
4 | Anson Tsang | $72,981 | 360 |
5 | Marco Di Persio | $52,788 | 300 |
6 | Gergo Nagy | $39,114 | 240 |
7 | Wooram Cho | $29,786 | 180 |
8 | Li Tong | $23,320 | 120 |
9 | Oleksii Kovalchuk | $18,683 | 60 |
Photo credits: WSOP / Tomas Stacha.