After a year without the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) in 2020, post-COVID live poker returned with a bang in 2021. With some restrictions in place post-pandemic, the series of 15 events was held between November 19 and December 8. Before a week had elapsed, the Czech government declared a state of emergency in the country as a result of rising COVID-19 cases. The WSOP Europe continued, but starting November 25th, each day was forced to end at 10 pm local time to comply with the government-mandated curfew restrictions.
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Six Events and Six First Timers
With 15 events to play, attendance was up from 2019 by a noticeable margin as the poker world returned to the live felt, determined to enjoy the action while they could. The COVID restrictions didn’t negatively affect the poker boom at the festival at all and if anything, spurred players on to cram in as much poker as they could in the pursuit of gold and glory.
The opening event of the series was, as tradition dictates, a No Limit Hold’em tournament. Costing €350 to play, the ‘Opener’ had a whopping 1,789 entrants and saw 269 finish in the money. When it was over, it was Italian player Antonello Ferraiuolo taking the victory for €87,920, a superb return on his initial entry fee.
The big wins kept on coming, with Bjorn Verbakel winning his first bracelet in Event #2, the €550 Pot Limit Omaha 8-max event, and Swiss star Emil Bise winning the €1,350 Mini Main Event for over €260,000. It was quite an event, with a guaranteed prize pool of €600,000 more than doubled, with a grand total of €1.59 million divided between the 211 players who made the money.
Two Slovakians ended up battling for gold in Event #4, the €2,000 PLO event, with Samuel Stranak beating Alan Sabo to the top prize of €101,764. In the next event, the €550-entry Colossus, 1,916 battled for supremacy, as the Kosovan player Edmond Jahjaga scooped the top prize of $158,125 and the WSOP gold bracelet. As the smaller buy-in opening events ended, the Dutch player Antoine Vranken took home €113,000 for winning Event #6, the €1,650 NLHE/PLO Mix bracelet event.
A Double Martini
Event #7 of the 2021 WSOP Europe festival cost €5,000 to play and once again was in Pot Limit Omaha. With a huge prizepool of €830,000, Max Klostermeier won the bracelet and a top prize of €204,010. It was an epic heads-up battle, as the popular PLO expert Joni Jouhkimainen was eventually beaten, finishing second for €126,091.
Frenchman Julien Martini won the €2,500-entry Short Deck event for just over €60,000 when he outran his fellow bracelet winner in WSOP Europe 2021, Emil Bise, the Swiss player finishing two places short of his second bracelet in a week, coming third for €26,182. Wins for Sergiu Covrig in the Bounty Hunter event, Andriy Lyubovetskiy in the Platinum High Roller (€518,430), and Simone Andrian in the Six-Max (€158,616) events followed before an exciting 8-Game Mix welcomed mixed game players from around the world.
Costing €2,000 to play, a field of 61 entries put just 10 of the stars who took part in the money spots. Another cash for Roland Israelishvili followed as he made it to ninth place for €3,672, and the ‘Italian Pirate’ Max Pescatori finished one place higher for the same amount. Ole Schemion looked like the favorite to claim gold and made the heads-up battle, but Frenchman Julien Martini scored a rare double-bracelet win in the same WSOP festival, scooping the top prize of €33,910 at the German’s expense.
What The Double Meant
For Martini, it wasn’t just a unique double win in Rozvadov inside a week. His two victories represented bracelets two and three of four in his lifetime. Winning for the first time in Las Vegas in 2018 in Omaha Hi-Lo, Martini’s wins in Short Deck and 8-Game Mix in Rozvadov would be followed up by a fourth and recent victory in 2022 when he took down the $10,000 Razz Championship for $328,906. In winning four bracelets in four different variants of poker, Martini proved himself one of the best at mixing it up in poker. Additionally, since winning his third WSOP bracelet, he has held the record for most bracelets by a Frenchman.
The last event before the Main was a €10,000 No Limit Hold’em 6-max tournament. Only 73 players jumped into battle it out as the majority of players waited for the Main Event. Roland Israelashvili again made the money, finishing 10th for €18,049, while ‘EklY’ came close for the second time this series, earning €62,574 for 4th. In the end, it was Elky’s countrymen who dominated the field, with Romain Le Dantec (1st for €207,267) defeating Sonny Franco (2nd €128,096) to claim the bracelet.
One Home Country Hero Remains
While the final event of the 2021 WSOPE was the €3,000-entry No Limit Hold’em Closer event, won by Alessandro Pichierri for €148,008, the Main Event was the sole focus for many players as the 2021 WSOPE wound to a close. A total field of 688 entries competed for a €1.27 million top prize in Rozvadov as 104 players would make the money.
Sneaking into the money was the aforementioned Israelishvili (89th for €16,500) for his seventh cash of the series, with Polish player Dominik Panka (74th for €19,337), Austria’s Daniel Rezaei (59th for €22,154), German Ole Schemion (44th for €27,089) and Bulgaria’s Fahredin Mustafov (28th for €35,709) all making the money. Czech player Jan Bednar (17th for €42,133) and North Macedonian duo Ilija Savevski (8th for €125,052) and Aleksandar Trajkovski (6th for €217,054) all close but missed out on the latter stages of the final table.
Heading into the battle for the bracelets, five players from different countries were fighting for glory, with none of them having ever won a WSOP bracelet before. Slovakian player Stanislav Koleno was the player who departed in fifth place, cashing for €292,862 when his jack-ten offsuit failed to overtake Czech player Josef Gulas’ pocket kings at King’s Casino.
Guilbert Falls Just Short
Gulas may have won an important pot, but he lost the next hand, a full double up, to French player Johan ‘Yoh Viral’ Guilbert. The talented Guilbert, who would go on to find fame in the 2023 global poker phenomenon Game of Gold, had three times Gulas’ stack and had slid to the bottom of the chip counts. A long period of time elapsed before another exit, but when it came, it was the Greek player Athanasios Kidas who found himself on the wrong side of fate. All-in with king-queen, he lost to Gulas, who had been mounting a comeback, holding ace-jack, to leave in fourth place for €401,344.
Alexander Tkatschew had led with four players remaining but busted in third place for €558,505. The German shoved on the river of a board showing T-9-2-4-7 with three clubs, holding king-ten with the king of clubs. That shove was quickly called by Guilbert, however, as he turned over ace-deuce in clubs for the turned nut flush.
Heads-up, ‘Yoh Viral’ had 50.3 million chips to Josef Gulas’ 18.5 million, but a chip lead of almost 3:1 evaporated early in the final duel. Gulas had ace-king and doubled through Guilbert’s king-queen as two big hands clashed. The pot went the Czech player’s way to roars inside King’s Casino, and while both men traded the lead over the ensuing hour, it was eventually Gulas who took gold.
With a lead of 8:1, Gulas open-shoved with ace-eight and was quickly called by Guilbert with pocket deuces. A flop of K-J-3 kept the home crowd quiet, as did the seven on the turn. Guilbert was poised to get back into it; all he needed was to avoid an Ace or eight on the river, but it was the eight that landed, and it was all over. Josef Gulas was cheered to the rafters in Rozvadov as he claimed the top prize of €1,276,712, while Guilbert took home the runner-up prize of €789,031.
After winning the WSOPE Main Event in 2021, Josef Gulas continued to play in lower buy-in events and added a WSOP Circuit ring to his bracelet four months later. He then won once again in Rozvadov in a Monster Stack event for €89,250.
A year after live poker returned in 2021, the next WSOP Europe festival proved that poker was entering a new phase of popularity, as the whole world looked desperate to win gold.
| Player | Country | Prize | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Josef Gulas Jr | Czech Republic | €1,276,712 |
| 2nd | Johan Guilbert | France | €789,031 |
| 3rd | Alexander Tkatschew | Germany | €558,505 |
| 4th | Athanasios Kidas | Greece | €401,344 |
| 5th | Stanislav Koleno | Slovakia | €292,862 |
| 6th | Aleksandar Trajkovski | Macedonia | €217,054 |
| 7th | Thomas Denie | Netherlands | €163,434 |
| 8th | Ilija Savevski | Austria | €125,052 |
| 9th | Brian Kamphorst | Netherlands | €97,260 |
2019 WSOP Europe 2022 WSOP Europe
About the Author: Paul Seaton has written about poker for over 10 years, interviewing some of the best players ever to play the game such as Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Chan and Phil Hellmuth. Over the years, Paul has reported live from tournaments such as the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas and the European Poker Tour. He has also written for other poker brands where he was Head of Media, as well as BLUFF magazine, where he was Editor.
