Born in 1997, Max Neugebauer is a professional poker player from Austria. He is best known for winning the 2023 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event.
He prevailed over a record-setting field of 817 players to earn the title, his first bracelet and €1,500,000 ($1,631,588) top prize. He did it in spectacular fashion, with an epic hero call against Eric Tsai that ensured his name would forever be etched in WSOP lore.
Before Poker
Neugebauer is a poker world champion, but his first career aspirations were in a different game. He was a professional basketball player before turning to poker, playing for BC Vienna in the Austrian first division. He also represented the Austrian Under-18 team. When his athletic career came to a premature end, poker seemed like a perfect avenue to funnel his competitive fire.
“I had huge knee problems. When I stopped playing basketball, I started playing poker as well. Just the competition part and the part about improving and working on your game were really important to me, and I felt like there was some void that needed to be filled. Poker was that for me,” he told PokerNews.
Neugebauer’s previous best tournament cash was for $27,000 in a tournament in Las Vegas in June 2023. He also cashed twice at the summer's 2023 WSOP. His total live earnings stood at just $84,000 before his Main Event win, and the first prize he earned dwarfed anything on his poker resume.
