WSOP Europe 2022 Festival Kicks Off with Flurry of New Winners

Rozvadov is the venue, the Czech-German border town the place to be for the next three weeks as players battle to become that most cherished of poker winners – the holder of a WSOP gold bracelet. With 15 events taking place in Rozvadov over the next fortnight or so, we’ve been following the action at King’s Casino – the largest cardroom in Europe. All three of the first events have been won by brand-new champions.

Fabio Peluso Wins Opening Event for $95,000

“I have been playing a lot more live poker in the past year.”

It didn’t take long for a surprise winner to be crowned inside the largest poker cardroom outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. With Event #1 costing $350 to play, The Opener saw a whopping 2,454 entries and battling for that $700,000 prizepool. With nine players reaching the final table, four of that number were Italian, which would include the eventual winner.

The first bust-out was Brazilian player Gabriel Baleeiro, who departed in ninth place for $8,809, before Simone Andrian busted in eighth for $11,254, his pocket sixes beaten by Dennis Wilke’s pocket aces. The only Czech player to reach the first final table of the series saw Miroslav Navratil leave in seventh place for $14,509 when his pocket tens lost to Carlo Savinelli’s ace-queen.

Gennaro Proscia busted in sixth for $18,875 when his pocket aces were unlucky to lose to Fabio Peluso’s ace-king, a king on the flop and river sending home one Italian at the expense of the other. Three German eliminations in a row saw Dennis Wilke (5^th for $24,773) followed from the felt by Kevin Fluegel (4^th for $32,801) and Stefan Vogt (3^rd for $43,813) before the heads-up duel for the bracelet began.

When the final duel started, Savinelli had the lead as his 31 million chips had built an almost 2:1 chip lead over his countryman Peluso with 17.5 million. Peluso used his recent impetus to turn the tide, however, and worked himself into a lead whereby he could risk a coinflip for the win. His pocket fives were good enough to hold when up against Savinelli’s suited ace-seven and Peluso became the first WSOPE bracelet winner, also taking home a $95,670 top prize with Savinelli exiting in second place for $59,032.

“I have been playing a lot more live poker in the past year,” Peluso told reporters after the event. “I used to play only online. I’ve now been playing [live] professionally for about two years. I have been studying a lot and discussing spots with my poker friends.”

Phung Claims Gold for Germany   

The second event of the 2022 WSOPE saw German player Helmut Phung claim gold and the top prize of $55,132. Event #2 was the $550-entry Pot Limit Omaha event which saw 566 entries. Just nine players made the final table, and it was the very vocal table talker Martin Kabrhel who was the next to go out, as he busted for $4,057.

After the eliminations of Bosnian player Misel Bosancic (8^th for $5,210), Bartlomiej Staszczak (7^th for $6,815) and Andreas Zampas (6^th for $9,078), five-handed poker saw the game level out and things switched around. French player Greg Sellam was the next one to go, losing his stack in fifth place for $12,310 before a previous chip leader, Jakob Madsen, ended up losing to Martin Almaas to bust in fourth place for $16,987.

Three-handed, two Germans made the podium places, but only one would reach the heads-up, with Pascal Foged the man to miss out. He lost to Phung to give his fellow German the advantage going into the heads-up match, with the aforementioned Foged saying “I hope I can win one time because I get very bad cards at the final table all the time,” before losing out. Phung saw out victory after a dominant performance from having a 4:1 chip lead closed it out against Almaas, with Phung’s $55,132 top prize dwarfing the $34,051 runner-up prize won by the Norwegian.

Savevski Wins First-Ever Bracelet in Fine Form

The third bracelet event of the 2022 WSOP Europe saw Macedonia’s Ilija Savevski win the massive top prize of $245,319 as he claimed gold in the $1,350 buy-in Mini Main Event. By the time the final table kicked off, there was still three-quarters of a million dollars on the line and in the end Savevski’s title gave him his first-ever golden bracelet.

French player Clement Cure busted in ninth place for $21,162 before Emaneule de Lemmi departed in eighth place for $27,109. Portuguese player Braz Fagundes Junior was the next to leave, with his result worth $35,124, a place behind South Korean player Yunho Choi ($46,027).

Once again, Germany was represented extremely well, as three of the final five hailed from the country. Jochen Kaiser was one of them, but he busted in fifth for $60,990 when his king-nine couldn’t hit a miracle against the two-pair or Savevski, which made a full house on the river. Kaiser was followed by Kamaras the Hungarian, as he busted with Dennis Magro. He himself busted next, leaving Schoss the only barrier to Savevski’s success.

With a lead of 78 million chips to Schoss’ 64 million, Savevski got the better of his opponent when king-four led king five on the K-8-4 flop and all the chips went in. Ilija Savevski achieved his dream, as the first-time bracelet winner took home $245,319 and Stefan Schoss received the runner-up prize of $151,554.