Omar Eljach Wins Record-Breaking WSOP Europe Main Event

Omar Eljach is the champion of the 2022 WSOP Europe Main Event. On Wednesday, Eljach finished atop the record-breaking field of 763 entries at King's Resort in Rozvadov, Czech Republic, to capture the €1,380,129 top prize.

For Eljach, the win was his first World Series of Poker gold bracelet victory. Prior to this result, he had two runner-up finishes in WSOP Europe events, with one back in 2019 and the other coming from earlier this series.

With the win, Eljach picked up 1,200 points for the PGT leaderboard and he now sits in 42nd place. The 2022 PGT season is in its home stretch. After all open events conclude, the top 21 players as ranked by the PGT leaderboard earn the right to compete in the season-ending PGT Championship which is a $500,000 winner-take-all freeroll tournament to crown the 2022 PGT champion.

2022 WSOP Europe Main Event Final Table Payouts

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1st	Omar Eljach	Sweden	€1,380,129
2nd	Jonathan Pastore	France	€852,949
3rd	Shaun Deeb	United States	€607,531
4th	Vladas Tamasauskas	Lithuania	€438,978
5th	Paul Adrian Covaciu	Romania	€321,838
6th	Armin Rezaei	Austria	€239,466
7th	Barny Boatman	Great Britain	€180,867
8th	Alexandre Reard	France	€138,702
9th	Timothy Adams	Canada	€108,024

The 2022 WSOP Europe Main Event drew a record-setting field of 763 entries. That field size topped last year's record-breaking field of 688 entries and the WSOP Europe Main Event has now increased in entries every year since 2015.

Coming into the final day of play, eight players remained. They were all guaranteed at least €138,702 in prize money, but it was the €1,380,129 first-place prize and coveted WSOP gold bracelet they were all eyeing.

Alexandre Reard was the first elimination of Wednesday's final table. He was busting in eighth place by Omar Eljach. Then it was Shaun Deeb taking out Barny Boatman in seventh place.

After that, Eljach busted Armin Rezaei in sixth place before Vladas Tamasauskas knocked out Paul Adrian Covaciu in fifth position.

Four-handed play was about the haves and the have-nots. Eljach and Deeb had most of the chips, then it was Jonathan Pastore and Tamasauskas as the much shorter stacks. Pastore ended up eliminating Tamasauskas in fourth to get a boost to his stack, but he was still a bit behind Eljach and Deeb entering three-handed play.

Pastore began chipping up to start three-handed play, then Deeb had a rough go of it for a level or so that caused his stack to lessen quite a bit. Deeb wound up losing a big one to Eljach when he tried to pick off his Swedish counterpart with ace-seven on a king-seven-two-eight-nine board. Eljach had king-two for two pair and scooped the large pot.

Later, Eljach jammed from the small blind with queen-three of clubs against Deeb's big blind. Deeb found ace-jack and made the call. Eljach flopped the best hand with a pair of threes and held from there to eliminate the American in third place.

Eliminating Deeb in third place allowed Eljach to take just about a 10,000,000-chip lead into heads-up play. Eljach had 43,050,000 in chips to Pastore's 33,250,000 to start the duel.

The heads-up battle was tense and competitive, with the lead swinging back and forth, several big pots, and even a hand that ivolved a 12-minute tank from Pastore. In the end, Eljach got the best of it and sealed the deal with pocket queens. Eljach's queens were up against Pastore's ace-eight. Pastore flopped an eight but that's all he could muster. Eljach's queens proved best to give him the 2022 WSOP Europe Main Event title and his first WSOP gold bracelet.

Photo courtesy of WSOP.

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