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Around 1,700 poker players from around 40 nations took part in the 32nd European Poker Championship at Casino Velden during the 13 tournament days from July 18 to 30. They all gathered for a total of 17 tournaments and played for seven European championship titles and prize money totalling almost 3 million euros. Some participants even bought in to different tournament variations, among them Ladies Poker World Champion and three-time European Champion Jessica Teusl.
The most popular tournaments of the series repeated their strong performances from previous years: Austria’s largest poker event, the “Showdown on Lake Wörthersee”, with a buy-in of 550 + 50 euros, attracted a record number of 816 players this year. Alexander Lanner from Carinthia prevailed in the final round and scored a whopping 57,000 euros in prize money.
The Wörthersee Poker Party (with a buy-in of 300 + 30 euros), which took place on the second weekend of the European Poker Championship, is comparable to this and is also extremely popular with the participants.
The big prize coveted by all the poker players was, of course, the European Championship title:
The Pot Limit Omaha European 8-handed Championship was won by Jonas Kronwitter, securing prize money of 52,350 euros for himself. In the NLH Ladies European Championship, Anca E. from Switzerland won 5,240 euros. The women’s side also set a new record with 57 tournament participants. The new European Seven Card Stud Champion is Nikolaus Grubmayr from Austria. He was able to prevail against 65 rival competitors to secure the prize money of 12,800 euros for himself.
High rollers got their money’s worth with a 5,000 + 400 euro buy-in. On the second tournament day, with a final field of 48 players, Daniel Lange from Germany beat Hubert Baran Osinski from Poland in exciting heads-up matches and celebrated his victory with 108,350 euros in prize money.
In the new tournament format – the NLH European 6-handed Championship – the prize money of 39,235 euros gave Liszewski from Poland great cause for jubilation. Rene Kükenbrink was more than happy when he scored the NLH Mystery Bounty European Championship title and the 24,600 euros that came with it.
One of the most important tournaments was of course the Main Event, the 2,500 + 250 euro European No Limit Hold’em Champion title. Out of 309 entries, only eight players made it to the final table. The first place and the 2023 European Poker Champion title went to Nicola Angelini from Italy, who won 154,385 euros.
The event came to a close on Sunday and once again demonstrated Casinos Austria’s high level of poker expertise. The date for next year has already been fixed. The 33rd European Poker Championship will once again take place at Casino Velden from July 16 to 28, 2024.