Oliver Weis Continues Career Year With European Poker Tour Cyprus Main Event Triumph

This yr on the event circuit has been the very best one but for Germany’s Oliver Weis. The 32-year-old has recorded the 2 largest dwell victories of his profession in 2024, each for seven-figure paydays. He additionally secured his first World Series of Poker gold bracelet, taking down the $5,000 brief deck in the course of the WSOP Online sequence.

Weis’ most up-to-date triumph noticed him outlast a discipline of 1,284 entries within the 2024 European Poker Tour Cyprus $5,300 buy-in no-limit maintain’em major occasion. He secured $1,030,000 because the champion, which was $17,817 shy of a brand new prime rating. For now the $1,047,816 he earned because the EPT Paris €10,300 buy-in champion again in February of this yr will stay his largest payday.

This newest seven-figure windfall grew Weis’ recorded earnings to greater than $5.2 million. Roughly half of that prize cash has been earned in 2024.

“I’m very happy. This is a tough grind,” Weis informed PokerStars TV’s Joe Stapleton within the winner’s interview.

Weis now sits in thirteenth place within the Card Player Player of the Year race standings introduced by Global Poker. This newest win added 1,920 POY factors to his hail, bringing the whole on the yr to 4,940. He has two POY-qualified wins and two extra final-table finishes.

The sturdy turnout for this occasion resulted in a $6,227,400 prize pool. The prime 191 finishers made the cash, with huge names like two-time bracelet winner Artur Martirosian (99th), EPT champion Nicolas Chouity (forty eighth), Biao Ding (thirty ninth), latest WSOP Online major occasion fifth-place finisher Diogo Coelho (forty fifth), Victoria Livschitz (forty fourth), Fahredin Mustafov (thirty second), two-time bracelet winner Santhosh Suvarna (twenty first), Timo Kamphues (ninth), and 2023 runner-up of this occasion Andrea Dato (eighth) all operating deep.

The last day started with Weis within the lead and simply six contenders remaining. Sweden’s Anton Wigg was the primary to fall. The 2010 EPT Copenhagen champion misplaced a traditional preflop race with pocket tens in opposition to the A-Ok of Mikhail Shalamov to complete sixth ($208,720). This was the fourth-largest rating of Wigg’s profession. He now has practically $4.9 million in lifetime earnings.

Bobby James’ run got here to an finish when he ran Ok-Q into the A-J Georgios Tsouloftas. Neither participant related with the nine-high runout and James was eradicated in fifth place ($271,400). This was by far the biggest dwell event exhibiting but for the British poker participant.

Ukraine’s Andriy Lyubovetskiy was eradicated in fourth place when he made a hero name for his event life with a rivered pair of deuces. Weis had moved all-in on the top with prime two pair, which earned him the pot and the knockout. Lyubovetskiy headed to the payout window to gather his $353,100. This was his third-largest rating. The two-time bracelet winner now has greater than $2.9 million in recorded cashes to his title.

The subsequent huge showdown noticed Tsouloftas limp in from the small blind for 200,000 complete with A10. Russia’s Mikhail Shalamov moved all-in from the large blind for five,375,000 with A7 and Tsouloftas referred to as. The board got here down 10827Q and Tsouloftas received with a pair of tens and an ace kicker. Shalamov earned his first dwell six-figure rating ($459,000) because the third place finisher.

That arrange the prolonged heads-up showdown between Tsouloftas and Weis. The former began with 29,075,000 to play with, whereas Weis had 9,425,000 when playing cards obtained again within the air.

The two went on to battle for a couple of hours, with Weis in a position to shut the hole because the night time wore on. He then overtook the lead by choosing off a multi-street bluff from Tsouloftas. Weis then obtained skinny worth with third pair in opposition to king excessive earlier than choosing off yet one more bluff to go away Tsouloftas with simply 12 huge blinds.

The chips had been quickly all within the center with Tsouloftas’ Ok2 dealing with Q7 for Weis. The board got here down 74355 and Weis made sevens and fives to win the pot and the title. Tsouloftas earned $642,300 because the runner-up, a career-best for the Cyprus native.

Here is a take a look at the payouts and POY factors awarded on the last desk:

Photo credit: Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd. / Manuel Kovsca.