March 31 – April 1, 2026
The number of runner-up finishes Shaun Deeb has in the WSOP – just one less than the number of bracelets he's won. If he'd converted them all, he'd be two behind Phil Hellmuth on the all-time list.
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1ST
Frank Koopmann
€123,879
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2ND
Shaun Deeb
€81,784
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3RD
Blaz Zerjav
€55,518
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4TH
Simeon Tsonev
€38,779
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5TH
Rishi Amin
€27,894
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6TH
Dario Sammartino
€20,682
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7TH
Dimitrios Michailidis
€15,820
Shaun Deeb’s Player of the Year defense got off to a flying start on Wednesday night, as he came agonizingly close to victory in Event #2 at the 2026 WSOPE.
He might not have won the first of 15 bracelets to be awarded in Prague, but he came as close as it gets, losing to quads in the final hand after flopping a king-high flush.
“Quads?” Deeb asked incredulously when Frank Koopmann turned over his hand. “Cooler. Congratulations,” he said before shaking Koopmann’s hand and walking off the stage.
Deeb’s pain was Koopmann’s pleasure. "Overwhelming" is how he described his first bracelet win after a “recreational” career spanning 20 years.
“It’s amazing to beat such a professional player like Shaun,” he added. “PLO is my love.”
Tale of the tape
Unlimited re-entries saw the €3K Mixed PLO/PLO 8/Big O event field grow to 181 on Day 1 – and the usual suspects firing at will. Michael ‘Texas Mike’ Moncek was involved in almost every hand as he looked to build a stack for Day 2.
There was controversy towards the end of the night, and, unsurprisingly, it involved Martin Kabrhel.
In the last PLO hand of late reg, Moncek potted blind and Kabrhel followed, re-potting blind. The big blind moved all-in, and Moncek and Kabrhel followed suit. At this point, Kabrhel, who had the covering stack, discovered that he had five cards instead of four.
The floor ruled his hand dead, but Kabrhel didn’t take it quietly. After a lengthy discussion, the ruling was adjusted, with Kabrhel forfeiting 18K rather than the full amount he had committed to the pot.
Moncek wasn’t happy with the delay – especially as the end result saw him eliminated.
Neither Moncek nor Kabrhel survived the night, with 42 players bagging up. Shaun Deeb – on a quest for back-to-back WSOP Player of the Year titles – was the overwhelming chip leader, with a stack of 696K, good for 174 big blinds at the start of Day 2.
How does he do it? He late regged the event and managed to spin his stack up 17x in the space of a few hours.
Benny Glaser sat sixth, while Viktor ‘Isildur’ Blom and Michael Mizrachi also made the cut.
End of Day 1 notable stacks
- 1st: Shaun Deeb (US) – 696,000
- 4th: Frank Koopmann (Czechia) – 320,000
- 6th: Benny Glaser (UK) – 258,000
- 7th: Blaz Zerjav (Slovenia) – 253,000
- 8th: Dario Sammartino (Italy) – 252,000
- 22nd: Viktor Blom (Sweden) – 131,000
- 24th: Scott Bohlman (US) – 129,000
- 29th: Christopher Hunichen (US) – 110,000
- 32nd: Steven Jones (US) – 105,000
- 37th: Michael Mizrachi (US) – 74,000
Bubble bursts, Mizrachi busts
Day 2 picked up at speed. Blom didn’t make the money, and it only took two hours on Day 2 to get the field down to 28, with Ryan Leng eliminated on the stone bubble.
He was forced all-in on the big blind and couldn’t find the winning hand in a three-way on the river.
Deeb kept accumulating, eliminating Mizrachi in a hand of Big O.
- Deeb:
- Mizrachi:
Deeb opened from the hijack, and Mizrachi defended his big blind.
Mizrachi bet the 
flop and called off his stack after Deeb raised.
The 
runout was no help for the 2025 Main Event champ, who fist-bumped his way around the table before departing.
That took the players to the first break of the day, with Deeb leading the 22 remaining players with a stack of 740K – over 110K clear of Frank Koopmann in second (626K).
Glaser was out in 21st. Steven Jones dropped in 12th. And by the time the final seven players were moved to the main stage, Deeb was still chip leader.
Koopmann finds quads at the double
It was a stacked top three. Blaz Zerjav, winner of the $25K High Roller at the 2025 WSOP, was second. Dario Sammartino was behind him in third.
And it was Zerjav who eliminated Sammartino in sixth in a hand of Big O.
- Zerjav:
- Sammartino:
The 
runout belonged to Zerjav, who continued his heater at the perfect time.
After Rishi Amin joined Sammartino on the rail, Zerjav was the big chip leader, and Shaun Deeb was the shortest of the three left after folding two pair on a 
flop.
Koopmann eliminated Simeon Tsonev with the same two pair – queens and sixes – rivering a queen to leave Deeb shaking his head. “I was not expecting to see that,” he said.
Final three stacks
- Blaz Zerjav: 3,010,000
- Frank Koopmann: 2,980,000
- Shaun Deeb: 1,250,000
It was a three-handed war of attrition until Koopmann found a monster hand – quad kings was more than enough to send Zerjav to the rail.
Deeb was looking for his ninth bracelet – Koopmann for his first and just his fourth lifetime WSOP cash.
It was Koopmann’s night.
On a flop of the money started piling in. Deeb made it 200K, Koopmann raised it to 500K, and Deeb called.
Koopmann carried on the aggression on the turn. He bet 800K and Deeb called.
The rest of the money went in on the river, and Koopmann turned over quads and started celebrating. Deeb had flopped a king-high flush and was left to rue a huge cooler on the biggest stage.
Images courtesy of WSOP.
