Omar Eljach Takes Down WSOP Europe Main Event for €1.380 Million

Omar Eljach from Sweden Wins €10,350 WSOP Europe Main Event for €1.380 Million

The first Day 1 flight of the 2022 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event kicked off last Saturday at the King’s Casino in Rozvadov, Czech Republic. It drew a good turnout, 514 players put up the entry fee just north of €10K. 343 of them advanced, including Rolando Camardese from the Netherlands who amassed the biggest stack, and poker player-influencer Paulina “Poker Bunny” Loeliger. Meanwhile, the likes of 2-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Fedor Holz and reigning WSOP Main Event champion Espen Jorstad parished.

The second Day 1 the next day brought the field up to 763 players, topping the record set the previous year when 688 people entered. Consequently, the €5 million guarantee was also surpassed, ballooning the prize pool up to €7.249 million. Many big names, such as Shaun Deeb, Danel Negreanu, Nick Petrangelo, Allen Kessler, Aaron Tsang, and Daniel Dvoress advanced from this flight.

Goncalo Peres from Portugal ended Day 2 in the chip lead, GGPoker qualifier Alexandre Reard from France was on top of the pack when Day 3 ended. The final table was formed by the end of Day 4. The Swedish Omar Eljach entered with the largest stack, followed by 5-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Shaun Deeb from the United States, and Jonathan Pastore from France.

Eljach and Pastore got to be the last two standing. Eljach had a small lead going into the final duel for the coveted title after knocking out Deeb in 3rd place. After an arduous, 6-hour heads-up battle, Eljach emerged victorious. It all ended when Pastore 4-bet shoved his remaining (still massive) 40 BB stack with A8 off-suit. Much to his chagrin, Eljach got pocket Queens and snap-called. The board brought a little help for Pastore with a flopped 8, but it wasn’t enough. It ran out 287 JJ, giving Eljach the WSOP Europe Main Event title, along with the €1.380 million first prize.

Phil Hellmuth may not be happy about it, but Northern Europeans can be really proud of their WSOP performance this year. Espen Jorstad from Norway won the WSOP Main Event back in June, while the WSOPE Main Event went for Eljach from Sweden just now.

Shaun Deeb’s Exceptional Performance at WSOP Europe 2022

Runner-up finisher Pastore cashed for €852,949 in the event. 3rd place finisher Shaun Deeb got himself €607,531. He had an outstanding run in Rozvadov this fall. This was Deeb's 7th ITM finish at this year’s WSOP Europe - and only 15 were played at the series altogether! He also finished 3rd in the €50K Diamond High Roller earlier this week, for which he earned an additional €313,919.

With the €1,000 No Limit Hold’em Turbo Freezeout event ending (Ukraine’s Andriy Lyubovetskiy finished first for €45,606, beating fellow Ukrainian Oleksii Kovalchuk heads-up for the title), the entire European leg of the World Series of Poker ended. If you want some WSOP action in the near future, there will be international Circuit events held in Australia, Uruguay, and the Netherlands in the next few months; as well as domestic Circuit events in Chicago, Illinois, Cherokee, North Carolina, and Los Angeles, California. If you’re only looking for “the real deal”, you’ll have to wait until next summer for the 54th World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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