Will World Series of Poker Europe Be Another Record Breaker?
This week, the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event, a tournament with a guaranteed €5 million prize pool, will draw some of the world’s finest poker players to King’s Resort in Rozvadov, Czech Republic. Will the fifteenth edition of the annual Texas Hold’em competition be a record breaker, or will it fall short of its €5 million guarantee?
King’s Casino in Rozvadov, Czech Republic, will hope to more than cover its €5 million WSOPE guarantee this week. ©KingsCasino
In 2023, Max Neugebauer, a former professional basketball player from Austria, outlasted a record 817-player field to land the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event (WSOPE). His prize was €1.5 million. The inaugural WSOPE featured 362 players and was won by 18-year-old Annette Obrestad. The Norwegian remains the youngest person ever to win a WSOP bracelet.
WSOPE 2024: Big or the Biggest?
The WSOPE festival, featuring 15 World Series Bracelet events, began on September 18th with a €1 million guaranteed €350 entry Texas Hold’em tournament. The competition, won by little-known English player Przemyslaw Szymanski, surpassed its guarantee by €39,014. However, some subsequent events have narrowly failed to reach organisers’ expectations and have featured an overlay.
The 2024 WSOPE Main Event has a €5 million guaranteed purse. In 2023, the competition generated a prize pool of €7,761,500. It was the biggest purse in the competition’s history, and it has seen a steady increase in participants since 2017 – the year the tournament moved to the Czech Republic following spells in London, Cannes, France, and Berlin, Germany.
Previous World Series of Poker Europe Winners
| Years | Winner | Prize | Entries |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Annette Obrestad | £1,000,000 | 362 |
| 2008 | John Juanda | £868,800 | 362 |
| 2009 | Barry Shulman | £801,603 | 334 |
| 2010 | James Bord | £830,401 | 346 |
| 2011 | Elio Fox | €1,400,000 | 593 |
| 2012 | Phil Hellmuth | €1,022,376 | 420 |
| 2013 | Adrian Mateos | €1,999,999 | 375 |
| 2015 | Kevin MacPhee | €883,000 | 313 |
| 2017 | Marti Roca de Torres | €1,115,207 | 529 |
| 2018 | Jack Sinclair | €1,122,239 | 534 |
| 2019 | Alexandros Kolonoas | €1,122,238 | 541 |
| 2021 | Josef Gulas | €1,276,712 | 688 |
| 2022 | Omar Eljack | €1,380,129 | 763 |
| 2023 | Max Neugebauer | €1,500,000 | 817 |
The 2024 WSOPE has faced stiff competition from online poker site PokerStars. It started its 379 tournament World Championship of Online Poker on September 8th. Offering $80 million in guaranteed prize money, the PokerStars WCOOP series has three main events demanding $109, $1,050 and $10,300 entry. Combined, they carry $11 million in prize-pool guarantees.
€5 Million Vegas Freeroll to Combat WSOP in Paradise
Clashes are not uncommon on the poker calendar, and these are rarely coincidental. When the World Series of Poker announced a $50 million guarantee for its WSOP Paradise Main Event (taking place this December in the Bahamas), it was clear the World Poker Tour would probably suffer.
In 2023, the WPT placed a €40 million guarantee on the World Poker Championship’s $10,400 main event and was left with a massive hole in its balance sheet when the tournament failed to meet its guarantee by $2,417,000. However, the $1,100 buy-in WPT Prime Championship tournament at the same event did attract an astonishing 10,512 players to more than double its $5 million guarantee.
In a move apparently designed to soften the blow created by two major operators hosting valuable tournaments at the same time, the World Poker Tour has declared it will stage a $5 million freeroll with a $1 million first prize at the Las Vegas Wynn, during the World Poker Tour Championship. It will take place between December 13 and 15, the eve of the $10,400 WPT World Championship, meaning it will directly clash with the WSOP Paradise Main Event.
