The final event of the 2019 World Series of Poker Europe, the €550 Colossus, has wrapped up its multiple Day Ones and been able to exceed the guarantee that was placed on the tournament. As Day 2 action begins today, there’s a big prize pool out there to carve up and four men will be looking to capture the 2019 WSOP Player of the Year trophy.
Nine Day Ones Makes for 2738 Entries
There was a bit of worry around the King’s Casino when the first seven flights (Day Ones) of the Colossus failed to excite those in attendance. Only 1374 entries were received over the first seven flights, but the final two flights on Saturday exceeded expectations. In those two flights alone, there was nearly more entries (1364) than had come in during the previous seven flights.
The King’s Casino in Rozvadov had placed a €1 million guarantee on the final event of the 2019 WSOP, so they were quite happy to see the guarantee exceeded. Once the numbers were crunched, 2738 entries had been received to make for a prize pool of slightly more than €1.3 million. Some players through the Day One flights had already taken a payout, so the 313 players who came to the felt Sunday were already guaranteed a minimum €1120 payday. The big prize, however, will be the €190,375 up top with the final 2019 WSOP gold bracelet.
Four Men Remain for 2019 WSOP Player of the Year
What will be worth watching over the course of Sunday will be the battle between the final four men in the WSOP Player of the Year race. These men – Daniel Negreanu (3971.54 points), Robert Campbell (3857.97), defending POY Shaun Deeb (3710.64) and 2019 WSOP Europe Main Event final tablist Anthony Zinno (3270.33) – are the only ones who were able to find a bag at the end of the multiple Day Ones. Thus, they will be the ones who decide the eventual POY title.
For Negreanu, it’s pretty simple: just outlast the other three guys and he’ll make history as the only three-time WSOP POY champion. Campbell has to score at least 114 points more than Negreanu to win. That also holds true for Deeb, who would have to earn roughly 260 points more than Negreanu gets. Zinno’s task is the most difficult as the player with the most ground to make up. Zinno needs 701 points to pass Negreanu, meaning that he must win the tournament while Negreanu cannot finish better than seventh.
At the start of Day 2, Campbell is in excellent shape with his 374,000-chip stack, the largest of the four men in contention. Zinno will be sitting on a stack of 261,000 chips, closely pursued by Negreanu with 235,000. Deeb is bringing up the rear of the foursome, still a threat with his 215,000-chip stack.
In handicapping this battle, you can pretty much take Zinno out of the mix. While the two-time WSOP bracelet winner and three-time World Poker Tour champion is one of the best in the game, it might be a bit much to ask of him to win the event AND get Negreanu out of the way. Negreanu will be tough to contend with as he recognizes the history that he is about to make as the only three-time POY, so he’s going to fight to the bitter end. The wild cards are Campbell and Deeb, who will be keeping an eye on Negreanu to see what he does, then adjust accordingly to try to get ahead of him on both the tournament and the POY leaderboards.
The cards are in the air at this moment for Day 2 of The Colossus, with the tournament set to wrap up on Monday. By this evening in the U. S., we should have some questions answered as to who the true contenders for the Colossus title are, how many of the final four POY contenders will survive and perhaps who will win the POY outright.
