Victory for Verbakel in WSOP Europe Event 2

Written by Jennifer Newell

Last updated on June 22nd, 2022

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Action at King’s Casino has been increasing daily as more players arrive for the 2021 WSOP Europe tournaments. On Day 5, three tournaments ran, with one of them awarding a bracelet. One of the others set its prize pool, and the Mini Main Event only completed its second of three flights.

Interestingly, Event 4 was the only one thus far not to exceed the previous WSOPE’s numbers. Even so, it set a prize pool more than double the guarantee.

Events 1 and 2 had already surpassed their guarantees and beat the 2019 WSOPE attendance. Event 3 is still setting its prize pool but appears to have already left the guarantee in the dust before the third flight even begins. Event 4, however, garnered 241 entries, while the corresponding event in 2019 brought in 271 entries.

For whatever reason – perhaps a different position in the overall WSOP schedule – only one of four events came in lower than the previous ones, though all more than met their guarantees. It is a very different story from that which is wrapping up in Las Vegas.

Event 2: €550 PLO

The final eight players returned to play the final table of the PLO tournament on Tuesday. Martin Kabrhel led the pack but quickly lost ground to Bjorn Verbakel, who jumped from second to first in the chip counts. Zhao Feng was the only other player to present much opposition after that, and he made it to heads-up with Verbakel. Feng was more than a two-to-one underdog and simply couldn’t make anything happen to change that.

Verbakel won his first bracelet after a fairly short heads-up match. He commented on Kabrhel’s early exit, saying that he is “just an annoying guy” but easier to play against when his mediocre hands are the target. While saying he is a “retired card player,” the 34-year-old now plans to stay for more of the WSOP.

 

🥇🏆🥇 Announcement of the Gold Bracelet #2 Winner 🥇🏆🥇
Our congratulations go to Bjorn J. Verbakel @bokkie87 from 🇳🇱 Holland 🇳🇱 , who has won the 2021 WSOP Europe Omaha 8-Max for €59,250 pay-day. pic.twitter.com/TWPmvpolev

— King's Resort (@PokerroomKings) November 24, 2021

Event 3: €1,350 Mini Main Event

Another very long day brought the second of two flights to a close with only 15% of the field left to bag their chips. They are all now in the money, but they will need to return on Thursday to play for bigger money and the bracelet. The first two days alone brought in 718 entries, though, just a few shy of the 766 in the 2019 Mini Main. Day 1C will put this year’s event well over the top.

 

Event 4: €2K PLO

As mentioned, this tournament didn’t bring in the same number of entries as in 2019, but a solid field created a €423K prize pool anyway. That was more than double the guarantee. And when the long night ended, only 44 players bagged chips. Ian Bradley leads the crew, but players like Richard Toth and Vivian Saliba remain in contention.