Tom Fuchs Wins World Series of Poker Paradise $50,000 High Roller

German poker pro Tom Fuchs closed out his best year ever on the live tournament poker circuit with his largest victory yet. The friend of CoinPoker defeated a field of 130 entries in the 2024 World Series of Poker Paradise $50,000 no-limit hold’em event on Dec. 19, earning $1,292,000 and his first WSOP gold bracelet.

Fuchs now has more than $3 million in recorded tournament earnings after logging this, his first-ever seven-figure score. The vast majority of that total has been earned this year, with his five biggest paydays all coming in 2024. In addition to this marquee win, Fuchs also finished seventh in the Triton Monte Carlo $150,000 buy-in for $762,0000 back in November, and finished 13th in the $100,000 Triton main event earlier at the WSOP Paradise for another $296,500.

This was Fuch’s first title and fourth final-table finish of the year. He earned 1,222 Card Player Player of the Year points as the champion, bringing his haul to 2,147. That is food for 197th place in the 2024 POY race standings presented by Global Poker.

This event played out over the course of two days at Atlantis Paradise Island Bahamas. The strong turnout built a prize pool of $6.5 million that was paid out among the top 20 finishers. As one might expect, the list of those that cashed reads like a who’s who of the high-stakes tournament scene. Among those that ran deep were several Canadian bracelet winners in Timothy Adams (20th), Sam Greenwood (19th), Michael Watson (16th), and Daniel Dvoress (12th). Other notables who cashed but fell short of the final table include two-time bracelet winner Artur Martirosian (17th), recent pot-limit Omaha $100,000 buy-in runner-up Benjamin Tollerene (15th), four-time bracelet winner Adrian Mateos (13th), and three-time bracelet winner Alex Foxen (10th).

Two-time bracelet winner Fedor Holz won a preflop race to knock Punnat Punsri out in ninth place ($161,480). It was another coin flip that spelled the end of two-time bracelet winner Santhosh Suvarna’s run, with his pocket fours unable to hold against the A-K of James Hopkins. Suvarna earned $209,420 for his eighth-place showing.

Fuchs scored his first knockout at the final table with K-J outrunning the pocket nines of Felipe Boianovsky (7th – $271,590). He followed that up by eliminating Holz in sixth place. AJ held against KQ, narrowing the field to five. Holz earned $352,210 for his 131st recorded score. He now has nearly $49.5 million in lifetime cashes to his name, which is currently good for 10th on poker’s all-time money list.

Australia’s James Hopkins (5th – $456,760) was the next to hit the rail, with his Q-8 bested by the K-6 of Korea’s Moonho Seo. He was soon joined by Leonard Maue (4th – $592,340), whose pocket sixes couldn’t hold off the A-Q of a surging Fuchs.

The next big confrontation saw Fuchs shove from the button with Q9. Thomas Muehloecker woke up with AQ in the big blind and made the call. The K103 flop was safe for Muehloecker, but the A turn and J river gave Fuchs a backdoor flush to earn the pot. Muehloecker secured $768,170 as the third-place finisher. This was the second-largest payday of his career.

Heads-up play began with Fuchs holding 32,600,000 to the 6,400,000 of Seo. The shorter stack earned an early double up, but Seo was soon all-in and at risk again. His AK was racing against the 44 of Fuchs. The A10485 runout saw Fuchs flop a set of fours and hold from there to close out the victory. Seo earned $996,200 as the runner-up, by far the largest payday yet on his live poker resume.

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

Photo credit: WSOP / Pokernews, Regina Cortina.

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