Stanislav Zegal Wins World Series of Poker Paradise Main Event

The inaugural World Series of Poker Paradise festival reached its climax on Thursday, Dec. 14 with the conclusion of the $5,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event. The $15,000,000 guaranteed tournament attracted 3,010 total entries, but only one player would walk away with the championship bracelet and the top prize of $2,000,000: German online qualifier Stanislav Zegal.

The poker pro from Berlin has been playing for a living since 2016. This was not only his first bracelet win, but it was also his first live final-table finish.

“It was somewhat exhausting and needs to settle,” Zegal told PokerNews live reporters after closing out the victory. "You always make plans for when stuff like this happens, but then when it happens it’s so overwhelming.”

In addition to the title and the money, Zegal also secured a massive haul of Card Player Player of the Year points for this win. His 2,400 is good for 154th place in the 2023 POY standings, which are presented by Global Poker.

This event featured four starting flights and three more days of tournament action. The top 447 finishers earned a share of the prize money, with several big names running deep. Among those who cashed and came close to a final-table berth were bracelet winner Sam Greenwood (39th), four-time bracelet winner David Peters (35th), Kevin Martin (25th), bracelet winner Timothy Adams (20th), bracelet winner Bryce Yockey (17th), bracelet winner Vitor Dzivielevski 912th), 2023 WSOP main event third-place finisher Adam Walton (11th), and bracelet winner Mikita Badziakouski (10th).

The last men standing!

Only seven players remain in the WSOP Paradise MAIN EVENT CHAMPIONSHIP, with $2M and the coveted WSOP bracelet to compete for.

All the action will be streamed until a winner is crowned, starting at 15 min (3 PM EST).

Link: https://t.co/SNVAMotV7v pic.twitter.com/NrLpNJgmbt

— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) December 14, 2023

The final day began with just seven players still in contention, with Australia’s Daniel Neilson leading and Zegal tied for second chip position with Gabriel Schroeder. Matt Glantz scored the first knockout of the day. His pocket fours won a preflop race against the K-10 of Montgomery McQuade (7th – $300,000) to narrow the field to six.

Schroeder lost a huge flip with A-K against pocket queens for Michael Sklenicka to slide to the bottom of the leaderboard. The Brazilian was unable to recover from that hit to his stack and was eliminated in sixth place ($400,000).

Sklenicka’s surge up the leaderboard continued thanks to his A-Q queen holding against the Q-9 suited of Rui Sousa. The flop gave Sousa an open-ended straight draw, but he failed to improve any further and was knocked out in fifth place ($510,000).

Glantz’s run in this event came to an end when his KQ ran into the AQ of Neilson. Neither player connected with the board and Neilson’s ace high was enough to earn him the pot. Glantz, who famously drew the $1,000,000 envelope in the 2022 WSOP million dollar bounty event, took home $685,000 for his fourth-place showing. He now has more than $8.3 million in recorded earnings to his name.

Neilson lost the majority of his stack with top pair, top kicker against the top two of Zegal. He was soon all-in with 7-4 suited against the 10-9 of Sklenicka, who flopped two pair. Neilson picked up a gutshot straight draw, but the turn or river did not deliver the required eight. Neilson, who finished runner-up in the $3,000 six-max event earlier this series, earned $900,000 as the third-place finisher. e now has more than $3.5 million in lifetime cashes.

Heads-up play began with Zegal holding 94,100,000 to Sklenicka’s 32,500,000. Sklenicka got all-in with A-J leading Zegal’s A-9 suited and was well positioned to double, but the runout brought an ace, a pair on the board, and a king to give both players aces and fours with the same kicker for a chop.

Not long after that, Sklenicka raised from the button to 2,700,000 with 73. Zegal defended his big blind with J4 and the flop came down 1042. Zegal check-called a 4,000,000 continuation bet and the Q rolled off the deck. Both players checked and the 5 appeared on the end. Zegal checked again and Sklenicka announced an all-in for 16,000,000. Zegal went into the tank, but eventually made the call for about 13 percent of his remaining chips. Fourth pair was good enough to earn him the pot and the title.

Sklenicka was awarded $1,200,000 as the runner-up, by far the largest score of his career. He now has more than $2.5 million in lifetime earnings.

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

Winner photo credit: WSOP / Tomas Stacha.

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