GPI Player of the Year Denied Bracelet by WSOP Rookie in GGMillion$ High Roller
The crowning of Marius Kudzmanas as WSOP Europe Main Event champion on Friday did little to slow the momentum at King’s Casino at Hilton Prague, where four more bracelet winners emerged before the festival reached its conclusion.
David Wintersberger took down the €2,750 The Closer Turbo Bounty, Richard Geyer etched his name into the history books by winning Europe’s first-ever PLO Double Board bracelet event, and Nikolai Ogoltsov claimed the €1,500 European Circuit Championship.
That left the €8,400 GGMillion$ High Roller as the final battleground of the series, with Christian Pedersen securing the last bracelet of the festival and putting the finishing touch on a new chapter of WSOP Europe.
He bested a 359-entry field to claim his bracelet, a GGMillion$ trophy and €600,000 top prize from the €2,872,000 prize pool, sealing the victory after defeating GPI Player of the Year Punnat Punsri in heads-up play.
WSOPE €8,400 GGMillion$ High Roller Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Christian Pedersen | Denmark | €600,000 |
| 2 | Punnat Punsri | Thailand | €400,000 |
| 3 | Miroslav Alilovic | France | €270,000 |
| 4 | Aliaksei Boika | Belarus | €185,000 |
| 5 | Zackary Estes | United States | €131,000 |
| 6 | Mario Diaz Quilez | Spain | €95,000 |
| 7 | Mike Watson | Canada | €71,000 |
| 8 | Jake Greenbaum | United States | €54,000 |
| 9 | Mehdi Chaoui | Morocco | €42,000 |
Pedersen turned professional in early 2020 after beginning his poker journey in tournaments before shifting his focus to online cash games.
"I started out playing MTTs, but then kind of got tired of the bad time schedule and having to play all night," Pedersen said. "So for the past couple of years I've mainly been grinding cash games online, but I still travel to stops like this to play live."
This victory also marked just his second WSOP cash and his first major live tournament title.
"I've never really dreamed about winning a bracelet," Pedersen added. "But I've dreamed about winning a big live tournament. It's a very nice feeling to finally do it."
Early Day Action
Seventeen players returned for the final day, and there was no shortage of action on the road to the final table. Jeremie Zouari was the first to fall, followed shortly by Eduard Anufriiev, whose ace-king ran into kings.
A huge confrontation soon unfolded between two of the big stacks, Mustapha Kanit and Zackary Estes. Kanit called a five-bet preflop, with the rest of the chips piling in on the turn. Kanit tabled queens, but Estes revealed aces to send the Italian to the rail in 15th place, despite starting the day fifth in chips.
Andre Marques, Alexandre Reard, Martin Hellmuth, and Boris Kolev soon followed, setting up the final table bubble, which lasted nearly two hours. There were dozens of all-in and calls but no eliminations, until a four-hand sequence saw Yuliyan Kolev lose his chips to Mike Watson, who entered the final table as chip leader.
Pedersen Cruises to Victory
Mehdi Chaoui began the final table with just over one big blind and was the first to fall, with Estes claiming another stack. EPT Main Event champion Aliaksei Boika then booked two early doubles, one of which left crypto social media influencer Jake Greenbaum with just half a big blind. Greenbaum was eliminated in eighth place on the very next hand.
Shockingly, Watson was the next to go. His chip-leading stack disappeared within ten minutes of play resuming after the dinner break. First, he ran queens into Pedersen’s kings.
"I've never sweat an all-in so hard in my life before. I was sweating that all-in more than sweating the all-in for the bracelet," Pedersen said. "I just saw all the nightmares of busting eighth again after having a good spot."
On the very next hand, the Triple Crown winner got his chips in against Estes, who held the superior ace, and Watson was suddenly out in seventh place.
From there, it became the Pedersen show. He calmly padded around in the complimentary hotel slippers as he took control of the action. Fresh off of decimating Watson, he steamrolled the table and sent Mario Diaz Quilez to the rail just a few hands later, continuing to dictate the pace with seemingly every move going his way.
Estes was eliminated in fifth place, with Pedersen once again acting as executioner to move to nearly two-thirds of the chips in play. Boika was next on his chopping block as Pedersen continued his relentless charge through the field.
Punsri then picked up his first elimination of the final table, sending Miroslav Alilovic to the rail in third place to set up heads-up play, where the Thai sensation trailed by more than two-to-one in chips.
"I didn't have nerves about playing Punnat, obviously he's a good player, but I was more nervous that I would make a blunder because it's been so long since I played heads-up," he said. "But when we got into it and I got in the flow, I felt like my brain remembered the spots."
Punsri was the established superstar, boasting more than $30 million in live tournament earnings and six Triton Super High Roller Series titles. Pedersen, meanwhile, was enjoying the deepest run of his career, though he had previously recorded two eighth-place finishes in $10K high roller events.
Punsri doubled with king-jack against pocket threes to make it even but failed to gain any momentum. On the second all-in and call, Pedersen had threes again. This time they held to bring the curtain down on the 2026 WSOP Europe fesitval.
"I've always had these big spots where I finished eighth or eleventh." said the Dane, rounding out his winner's interview. "So it's a very nice feeling to finally be able to run good in these spots."
With the final bracelet awarded, PokerNews coverage from the 2026 WSOP Europe at King’s Casino at Hilton Prague comes to a close.
Thank you for following along with us throughout the series, and be sure to keep it locked on PokerNews for coverage from the world’s biggest poker tournaments.