The small Czech town of Rozvadov is home to the King’s Casino and the continent’s largest poker room, where 15 WSOP bracelets will be awarded from September 18 to October 8.
It may not be the height of summer, and Rozvadov may be over 5,000 miles from Las Vegas, but when the WSOP Europe kicks off this week the bracelets and prize money will be just as fiercely contested as anything that went down at the Horseshoe and Paris.
Even with a notably smaller schedule than its American cousin, the WSOP Europe offers players a good range of events for different buy-in levels. That’s why, in taking a look at everything taking place next week, we’ve divided up the 15 bracelet events by their cost of entry.
Events under €1,000
There are four events on the schedule in this category and each of them - as with every bracelet event - comes with a guaranteed prize pool.
For the very first event on the schedule, the €350 NLHE Opener (September 18-23), that guarantee is a cool €1M. The huge potential return on investment should see this prove popular and give players a reason to get to Rozvadov sooner rather than later. Last year’s event attracted 3,503 runners and surpassed the guarantee with over €1,048,000 in the prize pool. In the end Slovakia’s Lucas Pazma booked the win for over €120K.
Hold’em lovers who are comfortable at this price point should also consider the €550 NLHE Colossus (September 25-30), which has a huge guarantee of €1.5M, or the end-of-series €550 NLHE Closer (October 6-8) with its more modest €200K guarantee. Both events outstripped their guarantees in 2023 and could well do so again.
Omaha players also have an option at this level, with the €550 PLO 8-Max (September 20-24) carrying a €300K guarantee. WSOPE 2022 Main Event champion Omar Eljach took this one down last year for a win worth almost €66K.
Events from €1,000 to €10,000
The eight bracelets on offer in this bracket offer plenty of variety, none more so than the €2,000 8-Game Mix (October 2-3). This usually features one of the smaller fields in the series, and this year comes with a guaranteed prize pool of €100,000. Dainius Antanaitis won over €47K for his win in 2023, defeating the likes of Viktor Blom at the final table.
Viktor Blom enjoyed plenty of deep runs at the WSOP in Las Vegas this summer.For Hold’em players there are a number of twists on the variant to look forward to, including the €1,100 NLHE Mystery Bounty (October 1-2), the €1,100 NLHE Bounty Hunter (October 3), the €1,000 NLHE Turbo Freezeout (October 6), and the €1,650 NLHE 6-Max (September 30 to October 1).
Hold’em traditionalists, meanwhile, can look forward to the €1,350 Mini Main Event (September 22-28) with its guarantee of €1.5M. Last year’s Mini Main drew a total of 1,729 entries and awarded first-place prize money of over €300K to winner Sokratis Linaras.
Two frills-free PLO tourneys round-out this section, with €2,000 PLO (September 24-25) and €5,000 PLO (September 29-30) guaranteeing prize pools of €300K and €500K respectively.
Events over €10,000
The €10,350 Main Event NLHE European Championship (October 4-9) remains the series’ biggest event in terms of prize money. €5M is guaranteed this year, and if numbers are similar to 2023 the winner will be banking something in the region of €1.5M - the amount Max Neugebauer won last time out.
Former basketball player Max Neugebauer won the 2023 WSOP Europe Main Event.Then there’s the €25,000 NLHE GGMillion$ (September 30 to October 1), an event with €1M GTD that attracts elite players such as Daniel Dvoress, last year’s winner who took the €600K first prize for topping a field of 89.
If that sounds like an expensive buy-in, double it and you’ve got the €50,000 NLHE Diamond High Roller (October 3-4). Again, this one has a guaranteed prize pool of €1M and is likely to see the smallest field of the series. Santhosh Suvarna won €650K for victory last year, when he was the last man standing from 37 entrants.
It’s been 18 years since Annette Obrestad made history by winning the first European edition of the world’s most prestigious poker championship, and all at the age of 18. Obrestad banked £1M for the win - who will be taking home the biggest pile of Euros this year?
We’ll soon find out: the action begins Wednesday, September 22.
