April 6-8
The number of days since Ole Schemion's last WSOP bracelet victory.
- 1STOle Schemion€395,000
- 2NDSanttu Leinonen€260,000
- 3RD
Michael Moncek€175,000 - 4TH
Rasmus Larsen€121,000 - 5TH
Andreas Freund€86,000 - 6TH
Joachim Haraldstad€62,000 - 7TH
Dimitrios Michailidis€46,000 - 8TH
Arunas Sapitavicius€35,000 - 9TH
Sardor Shagulyamov€27,000
The World Series of Poker Europe crowned a winner in the early hours of Thursday morning in Event #9: €5,300 PLO European Championship.
Following the bloodbath of the money bubble on Day 2 yesterday, the 24 remaining competitors returned to the tables to play down to a winner.
After a hard-fought run to the final table, nine players remained: Ole Schemion, Santtu Leinonen, Michael Moncek, Rasmus Larsen, Andreas Freund, Joachim Haraldstad, Dimitrios Michailidis, Arunas Sapitavicius, and Sardor Shagulyamov.
The final table lasted nearly 10 hours, with Schemion claiming his second WSOP bracelet and €395,000 after defeating Leinonen heads-up.
"PLO has gone very well for me in recent months," Schemion said after the win.
"I couldn't bust the tournament. I was short, short and short again, but I couldn't bust. And I won in the end – it was a great experience. I had a lot of fun."
The rail did too, which was rowdy and included Martin Kabrhel.
The noise didn't affect Schemion, though, who said it gave him "really good energy."
'Texas Mike' Moncek had his eyes fixed on a third WSOP bracelet and held the chip lead at several stages. Unfortunately for him, he fell short of a third bracelet.
Fan favorite Michael 'Texas Mike' Moncek fell just short of a third bracelet. Unruly player DQ'd
The PLO European Championship brought about its fair share of contention.
Controversy hit late on Day 2, as Norwegian Birger Larsen was disqualified in 30th place after being given a one-orbit penalty. Larsen – who had been getting steadily louder through the day – took things too far and ended up slapping at the hands of a person who was trying to calm him down. The floor had seen enough, disqualified him and removed his chips from the tournament.
He was awarded 30th place prize money of €13,000. PokerOrg spoke with Larsen after the incident and he admitted that he'd been drinking. He didn't believe that he'd done enough to warrant a disqualification, but footage of the incident that circulated afterward vindicated the floor. We also spoke with respected TD Justin Hammer for his perspective, which you can read here.
