The final table of the 2022 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event is set and it is Sweden’s Omar Eljach who enters Wednesday with the chip lead. Eight players remain, battling for the bracelet and the €1,380,129 first prize.
Anything can happen at a final table – and anything usually does – but at the outset, it looks like a two-man race between Eljach and five-table WSOP bracelet winner Shaun Deeb. Eljach has 19.480 million chips going into the final table, while Deeb – he of the $100,000 Powerball pool – has 16.580 million. Nobody else has over 10 million.
That is not to say that nobody else has a chance. Almost every remaining player has plenty of chips to be scary. Jonathan Pastore is in third with 9.925 million, followed by Paul Adrian Covaciu with 9.125 million. In the next tier, there is English legend Barny Boatman with 7.730 million chips, Vladas Tamasauskas with 5.590 million, and the previous day’s chip leader, Alexandre Reard, with 5.300 million. The short stack at the table is Armin Rezaei with 2.205 million chips.
And it is a truly international final table, as seven different countries are represented by the eight players.
Eljach took a while to build his lead and he was, in fact, the recipient of one of the bigger heartbreakers of a hand you’ll ever see. Onur Unsal was all-in pre-flop with A-J and Eljach raised with 9-9 to get the rest of the players to fold. The flop was J-K-9, giving Unsal a pair, but Eljach a set and a 96.5% chance to win the hand. Another Jack on the turn gave Unsal trips, but of course that also gave Eljach a full house. The case Jack then fell on the river and Unsal had the miracle runner-runner quads to double-up and stay alive. At that point, Eljach only had 2.200 million chips, far from the 19+ million he finished with.
Day 4 began with 42 players remaining, but it wasn’t until half were gone that Eljach really started advancing. After a couple tussles with Unsal, he finally got some back to approach 6 million chips, then binked the river against Unsal to climb to 7.450 million.
He then eliminated Henok Mariam in 17th place when his Tens sucked out on Mariam’s Jacks, growing his chip stack to 10.400 million.
From there, Eljach built his chip lead. He was actually up over 21 million at one point before falling back.
The 2022 WSOP Europe Main Event final table is just getting under way at King’s Resort in Rozvadov, Czech Republic. We will know the name of the champion by the end of the night.
2022 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event – Final Table Chip Counts
- Omar Eljach – 19,480,000
- Shaun Deeb – 16,580,000
- Jonathan Pastore – 9,925,000
- Paul Covaciu – 9,125,000
- Barny Boatman – 7,730,000
- Vladas Tamasauskas – 5,950,000
- Alexandre Reard – 5,300,000
- Armin Rezaei – 2,205,000
