Tamir Segal Triumphs at 2018 WSOPE COLOSSUS for €203,820

The 2018 WSOP Europe has produced its first winner after Israeli player Tamir Segal overcame a huge field of 2,992 runners to take down Event #1: €550 COLOSSUS No-Limit Hold’em for a massive €203,820 ($234,252) payday.

Segal seems to have a pretty short record when it comes to playing tournaments, and prior to his victory had just $10,917 in earnings since his first live cash back in 2016. Now, however, the player has risen to number 37 on Israel’s ‘All Time Money List’, and also becomes just the 10th person to win a coveted gold bracelet for his native country.

History of Colossus Event

The $565 Colossus event was first added to the WSOP schedule back in 2015, and that year attracted a whopping 22,374 entries to create a prize pool worth in excess of $11 million. Granted that each year attendance in Las Vegas has slid and in 2018 that number was reduced to 13,070 players, but the Colossus event still attracts the largest fields of any of the live events featured at the WSOP.

The same story applies to the WSOP Europe Colossus, which during its first iteration in 2017 drew 4,115 entries, which has subsequently been reduced to 2,992 players this year. Nevertheless, the €550 ($637) Colossus still proves a popular draw, and this year offered a prize pool €435,412 in excess of its original €1 million guarantee.

€550 COLOSSUS

The €550 Colossus featured eight starting days, which was reduced to just 296 runners at the end of the Day 1 flights. Following 12 hours of play on Day 2 that number fell to just 10 finalists, and among the recognizable pros booking a cash along the way was Chris Ferguson in 150th (€1,515), Sanjay Sahijwani in 135th (€1,515), Allen Kessler in 52nd (€4,437), Sebastian Kos in 17th (€8,365), Jan Bednar in 16th (€8,365), and Netanel Amedi in 13th (€11,566).

Final Table

Poland’s Wojciech Wyrebski entered the final table as the chip leader on a 40bb stack, followed by Germany’s Hannes Neurauter (39bb), while eventual winner Tamir Segal was in 5th position (28bb), and Belgium’s Aksel Ayguen had the table’s second smallest stack.

Tamir Segal (5-5) then proceeded to eliminate Nelio Gatta (A-J) in 10th, before being dealt A-Q and getting lucky against Björn Bouwmans’ A-K to send him to the rail in 9th. Soon after, Segal was dealt pocket aces to see off Flavio Decataldo (K-K) in 7th, while Segal’s pocket twos were also good enough to eliminate Francesco Delfoco (A-10) from the competition in 6th.

During three-handed play, Segal (Kc-7c) called Aksel Ayguen’s (Jh-Jd) all-in preflop shove, and after making a straight on a 10d-Qd-8c-Ad-Jc board took a massive chip lead into heads-up play.

Heads-Up Recap

Tamir Segal started the final battle holding a 58.5m to 16.2m lead over Wojciech Wyrebski. Just two hands later, and the deciding hand was played with Wyrebski (A-Q) raising preflop, and inducing a shove from Segal holding K-10. Wyrebski instantly made the call, but was eliminated soon after following an 8-6-K-8-10 board.

While Wyrebski collected €125,966 ($146,000) for his deep run, Tamir Segal was awarded a top prize of €203,820 ($234,252), as well as a coveted gold winners bracelet.

Final Table Results (€/$)

1st: Tamir Segal (Israel) €203,820, $234,252
2nd: Wojciech Wyrebski (Poland) €125,966, $144,774
3rd: Askel Aygun (Belgium) €92,385, $106,179
4th: Dariusz Glinski (Poland) €68,331, $78,533
5th: Hannes Neurauter (Germany) €51,854, $59,596
6th: Francesco Delfoco (Italy) €38,349, $44,075
7th: Flavio Decataldo (Italy) €29,104, $33,449
8th: Krasimir Yankov (Bulgaria) €22,281, $25,608
9th: Björn Bouwmans (Belgium) €17,209, $19,778
10th: Nelio Gatta (France) €13,410, $15,412

Other WSOPE Events

There are two other WSOP Europe events currently underway at the King’s Casino Rozvadov in the Czech Republic. Event #2: €1,650 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Handed Deepstack attracted 221 entries, and is currently down to its final table of six. Currently leading the way is Israel’s Asi Moshe, who in 2013 won a bracelet at the WSOP $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event for $582,321, with other contenders including the UK’s James Bullimore, Italy’s Giuliano Bendinelli, Germany’s Robert Schulz, Hungary’s Viktor Katzenberger, and the Czech Republic’s Van Tiep Nguyen.

Meanwhile, Event #3: €550 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed drew a field of 230, and is currently down to just 21 hopefuls. Counted amongst their numbers are several notable pros, including Jason Gray, Dutch Boyd, and Chris Ferguson.