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Marek Uharcek Goes Wire to Wire for First Tournament Win
After starting the final day of the €1,500 PLO Championship as the chip leader, Marek Uharcek knew he still had work to do in order to earn 2026 King's Million European Poker Championship Royal Scepter.
Uharcek had come close in major events in the past, including a final table exactly a year ago to the day at King's Resort, but remained at the top of the leaderboard all day to close out his first tournament win.
"I'm not really a tournament player," Uharcek told PokerNews after defeating Lucas Giebing in a lenghty back-and-forth heads-up battle to earn a career-best score of €95,000. "I play maybe ten tournaments per year, I prefer cash games, but this is my first."
The tournament drew 286 entries across a pair of starting flights, with the largest piece of the €500,000 prize pool waiting for Uharcek at the end of almost 12 hours of action.
€1,500 PLO Championship Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marek Uharcek | Slovakia | €95,000 |
| 2 | Lucas Giebing | Germany | €62,600 |
| 3 | Anonymized (GER) | Germany | €42,700 |
| 4 | Jan-Peter Jachtmann | Germany | €29,800 |
| 5 | Volodymyr Kokoulin | Ukraine | €21,375 |
| 6 | Danail Zhelev | Bulgaria | €15,700 |
| 7 | Davit Mikhanashvili | Georgia | €11,800 |
| 8 | lakiseeb | Germany | €9,100 |
| 9 | Markus Bachman | Germany | €7,200 |
Day 2 Action
The final day 44 players return to action, having each locked up €3,525 for bagging an opening flight. Uharcek started the in the lead after topping the counts on Day 1b. He continued to sit among the top stacks as the field was almost trimmed in half before the first break of the day.
"Obviously when you're a chip leader, you have a lot of hopes. But many times in these tournaments you need to run good to achieve good results. So being chip leader helps, but also there is the day which you need to close. I tried to apply pressure in some situations, trying to take some chips of short stacks. But mainly just just making decisions one at a time."
As he got closer to a spot among the last nine players, Uharcek tried to draw on the experience of deep runs in recent years, including his eighth-place finish last year on the very same felt. The Pot-Limit Omaha specialist also posted a pair of European Poker Tour final tables in the last three years.
"I think the most important is when you have some bad luck, like I had in heads-up when an opponent hit a four-outer on me. So maybe the best thing to do is to try to stay calm, not rush into quick judgment."
Conquering the Final Table
Uharcek entered the final table with the lead, as he had for much of the day. He also scored the first knockout, earning a quick pay jump while securing his position at the top of the chip counts.
"There were some very experienced tournament players at the final table. I mean there was Jan-Peter Jachtmann, who is a bracelet winner. So I don't think I had an advantage, I tried to make good decisions."
Uharcek knocked out Jachtmann in fourth place after holding with the better two pair, and took a slight lead into heads-up play shortly after.
The four-outer that Uharcek referenced came when Giebing was all in and down to his final two cards, making a straight on the turn to flip the heads-up battle on its head.
Uharcek doubled back a short time later, and had Giebing at risk again with the title in his grasp. This time, Giebing missed the straight draw and Uharcek could celebrate his first tournament win.
"It was a relief," Uharcek described the final hand. "It was a relief because we were all in when he hit a four-outer on me. That's when I was pretty, not upset, but disappointed with the final cards. He had also a lot of outs at the final hand, so it was a big relief."
That concludes our coverage of the €1,500 PLO Championship, but the action doesn’t stop here. Stay tuned as our live reporting team continues to bring you inside the ropes at the 2026 King's Million European Poker Championship.