Kolonias outlasted 540 other entries
Alexandros Kolonias won the 2019 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe Main Event on Thursday for the first WSOP gold bracelet of his poker career. The triumph earned Kolonias €1,133,678 ($1,264,476).
The tournament had a €5,000,000 ($5,576,875) guaranteed prize pool. There were 541 total entries in the €10,350 ($11,544) buy-in tournament, allowing it to just beat the guarantee, creating a prize pool of €5,139,500 ($5,730,799). Players were allowed to re-enter once before registration closed.
Claas Segebrecht made surprise charge
The champ entered Day 6 second in chips out of the six remaining players at the final table. With 12,150,000 chips, he and former World Poker Tour Player of the Year Anthony Zinno (16,845,000 chips) were well ahead of the other four players.
not the seasoned Zinno who made it to heads-up against Kolonias, but rather Claas Segebrecht
It was not the seasoned Zinno who made it to heads-up against Kolonias, but rather Claas Segebrecht, who began the final day with just 6,400,000 chips, the second-shortest stack at the table. Segebrecht made a run early, increasing his stack to more than 10,000,000 within the first half-hour.
From there, Segebrecht separated himself from the other players until just before heads-up play. Kolonias pulled to about even and after eliminating Zinno in third place, he went into his one-on-one match with Segebrecht, leading 31,100,000 to 23,000,000.
Heads-up ended in a blink
With blinds at 300,000/600,000 and a 600,000 chip ante, each player had decent stacks with which to play. It looked like there was a chance things could last a while. But heads-up play took only about thirty minutes to resolve.
Kolonias pulled away quickly, but Segebrecht doubled-up to get to within a manageable 5,000,000 chips. And then, just like that, it was all over.
On the final hand, Kolonias raised to 1,200,000 pre-flop and Segebrecht moved all-in for 23,200,000 chips. Kolonias called with A♠-K♠ and saw that Segebrecht put his tournament life at risk with 3♦-3♣. It was a coin flip.
The flop was K♣-Q♦-2♠, and Kolonias took the lead with a pair of Kings. The turn was the J♠ and the river was the 5♠, neither of which was of any help to Segebrecht. This improved Kolonias to a full house, giving him the WSOP Europe Main Event title.
Largest cash of Kolonias’s career
In addition to the WSOP Europe Main Event victory being Alexandros Kolonias’s first WSOP bracelet, it was also the first recorded live tournament win of his poker career.
He now has $3,733,113 (€3,344,035) in live tournament earnings. Before this win, his best cash was $930,117 (€805,900) for a runner-up finish in the High Roller event at the 2016 European Poker Tour Grand Final in Monte Carlo.
Kolonias has three other cashes of at least six figures. The five total six-figure cashes comprise the bulk of his career winnings, adding up to $3,187,802 (€2,855,558).