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Tsuf Saltsberg Completes Comeback for First Trophy in €3,000 PLO High Roller
Another long day at the 2026 King's Million European Poker Championship has come to an end, and it was worth the wait for Tsuf Saltsberg. After reaching a deal during heads-up play, Saltsberg flipped his way to victory to claim his first live tournament win in the €3,000 PLO High Roller.
After more than 15 hours of play, Saltsberg came back from a big deficit against Oliver Tot before agreeing to an ICM deal to adjust the top two payouts, and played one last hand to decide the King's Resort Royal Scepter. Saltsberg came out on top to earn his first poker trophy.
"I'm playing like ten years," the champion told PokerNews. "In the last five years I'm playing almost just PLO, PLO tournaments and cash games. I'm playing most of the time online poker, so yes, it's my first time I win a live big event. I like it, I like the moment."
The two-day tournament saw a flurry of late registrants to reach 142 entries, all battling for a piece of the €500,000 prize pool. A total of 60 new entries were recorded, and Saltsberg outlasted them all to take home €87,000 for the second-largest live score of his career.
The result comes just a few days after settling for an 11th-place finish in the €1,500 PLO Championship, one of many close calls Saltsberg has had over the last half-decade.
€3,000 PLO High Roller Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tsuf Saltsberg | Israel | €87,000* |
| 2 | Oliver Tot | Slovakia | €96,800* |
| 3 | raketrap | Poland | €47,900 |
| 4 | Paul Haus | United Kingdom | €33,100 |
| 5 | Alessandro De Michele | Italy | €23,700 |
| 6 | Antoine Vranken | Netherlands | €17,700 |
| 7 | Eran Carmi | Israel | €13,700 |
| 8 | Bastian Bluem | Germany | €11,100 |
| 9 | Michael | Germany | €9,400 |
*Denotes heads-up ICM deal
Day 2 Drama
The final day began with 28 players returning after bagging Day 1, and the entry desk was busy until the end of late registration.
Official payouts were soon confirmed, leaving the top 22 contenders earning at least €7,400. The action was fast and furious for the next couple of hours, as the dinner break hit just two spots off the money.
Shortly after play resumed, Oleksii Holubov cracked aces to send Viktor Wessman out on the stone bubble.
From there, the pace of knockouts was steady and the final table of nine was reached just before the stroke of midnight.
No Knockouts, No Problem
Play began to slow down after the final redraw, as another six hours would be needed to determine a champion. Saltsberg began the final table third in chips, but his stack was not the result of playing big pots. Quite the opposite, in fact, as Saltsberg was looking to avoid big confrontations. He record a knockout of 18th place, and did not eliminate a single player for the rest of the tournament.
"I'm trying to like get some pay jumps and it worked," Saltsberg explained as he recalled his strategy for the last few hours of action. He had come close several times in the past, including a runner-up finish here at King's during the 2024 World Series of Poker Europe. His deep run in the €1,500 PLO Championship this week provided some guidance for his plan of attack in this event.
"Just more focused, just more focused, and play my A game. That's all, and I think I did my best."
As he watched others hit the rail around him, Saltsberg hit a straight against Tot to stay alive and celebrate with his rail.
"When I doubled up, it was a big pot, so that was the moment." From there, Saltsberg had confidence in his mindset and remained patient. He faced more than a four-to-one deficit to begin heads-up play against Tot, and had a plan for that as well.
"Get him to attack me. He attacked and he was punished." Saltsberg overcame the deficit to take the lead, seeing the advantage go back and forth until a deal was made.
After winning the flip, the new champion was able to enjoy the moment with friends and explained how atmosphere aided his path to a first live win.
"It's helped a lot, every time that we go to a festival of poker, going with a lot of friends together, and it's helped, and support."
That concludes our coverage of the €3,000 PLO High Roller, but don’t miss the rest of PokerNews live reporting from the 2026 King's Million European Poker Championship in Rozvadov.