A new city, a record-breaking field, and a champion nobody saw coming.
After years at the King’s Resort in Rozvadov, Czech Republic, the series moved to a larger stage in Prague. The shift had been coming, as the event outgrew its original home. Rozvadov played a key role in building WSOP Europe into one of the top stops on the global circuit – one of the top ten tournaments in the world. But Prague offered something different for this year, including an easier travel path for many of the international players who seek to take a shot at the event.
The flagship WSOP championship event held each year in Las Vegas attracts most of the attention, and for good reason. This year, however, WSOP Europe didn’t feel like a little satellite that orbits the famous summer series. Instead, it has developed its own identity as a premier place for incredibly skilled poker players from all over the world to compete on a global stage.
The 2026 WSOP Europe schedule again featured a full slate of bracelet events, including Mystery Bounty Opener, COLOSSUS NLH, and PLO Double Board Bomb Pot tournaments. Across the entire series, more than €39 million was awarded, with players from over 80 countries taking part in the competition. The numbers alone pushed this year’s event into a new category.
Everything was anchored by the €5,300 Main Event. This game drew in many more participants than last year, partially thanks to the new location. In 2025, there were only 659 entrants. At the end of that tournament, Germany’s Daniel Pidun was the last man standing, and he took home over a million euros as his prize. In contrast, the 2026 Main Event was much larger, drawing more than 2,600 entries. This was the largest field in WSOP Europe history, and led to a very sizeable €13,085,000 prize pool.
Of course, what made this main event special wasn’t just the size. It was what happened after the size of the field stopped mattering.
WSOP Europe 2026 Final Table
At the beginning of the main event final table, here’s where things stood and each player’s chip count:
- Hengtao Zhu (Finland) — 36,300,000
- Thomas Eychenne (France) — 25,825,000
- Brandon Sheils (United Kingdom) — 20,850,000
- Chris Hunichen (United States) — 19,300,000
- Marius Kudzmanas (Lithuania) — 18,050,000
- Nikolay Bibov (Bulgaria) — 17,625,000
- Akihiro Konishi (Japan) — 14,525,000
- Antonio Guimaraens (Spain) — 11,925,000
- Joona Nyholm (Finland) — 7,775,000
Zhu was sitting pretty as the chip leader, but didn’t have enough advantage that he could overlook Eychenne or Sheils as rivals. Surprisingly, none of these three would win the tournament. It was a dangerous group, and there was plenty of high-stakes experience among the players. By the end, another competitor would rise up from underneath the leaders and topple everyone.
Early Eliminations and the Cost of Being Behind
Joona Nyholm was the first to fall, and it happened in a spot that looked playable (until it wasn’t). He was dealt KT and committed an all-in bet on an A-7-7 board holding a flush draw. He got called by Hunichen, who held pocket eights. The turn added a little more equity to Nyholm’s hand by advancing his flush draw. The river, however, took it away, and he was out in ninth place with €140,000.
Brandon Sheils followed him to the rail. His exit was quite simple. He held AQ and decided it was good enough to stake all his chips on. Unfortunately, Bibov held AK and called the bet. The runout couldn’t save Sheils, and he left the tournament with €185,000.
The Turning Point: Kudzmanas Lays a Bad Beat on Eychenne
As these hands played out, Kudzmanas was making all the moves he could, even bluffing with King high on a dry board to scoop up a few million in chips. The big move would come with a massive amount of luck. He was dealt pocket nines and got in a preflop skirmish with Eychenne. Kudzmanas decided it was a good spot to put pressure on an opponent, and went all in for 25M chips. Eychenne was holding pocket kings and was all too happy to call. It should have been a huge jump up in the standings for him. But the poker gods were cruel that day. The flop came instantly with a nine, giving Kudzmanas a set. Eychenne got no help on the turn and river, and was eliminated. Kudzmanas started taking over after that, thanks to his newfound 26M in chips.
The Chip Leader Has a Great Fall
Hengtao Zhu’s exit also changed the tournament.
Zhu had been putting on the pressure, using one of the largest stacks at the table to his advantage. When he was dealt AsKd, he put in a standard raise preflop and got a caller in Kudzmanas. The flop came Jd9s4s, giving Kudzmanas a bottom pair with his 5c4c. He checked to the preflop raiser, and Zhu put in a continuation bet, which Kudzmanas called out of position.
The turn came 3d, and Kudzmanas again checked. Zhu checked back, and the dealer laid down a 3s for the river card. Kudz woke up a bit and put in a small bet. Zhu, sensing weakness from the timid betting pattern, decided to go all in with his remaining 11M. Kudzmanas made a bold hero call and bounced Zhu in 6th (which carried a prize of €320,000).
In a later hand, Kudzmanas would again slap a rough beat on a competitor. Bibov went all in preflop with AQ, and Kudzmanas called with AJ. He had him dominated. That is, until the flop showed a jack, and it was clear that Lady Luck had chosen her favorite player for the day. Bibov took fourth and won €575,000.
Three-handed play between Kudzmanas, Hunichen, and Konishi was short-lived. Hunichen wound up all in preflop with 87o and got eliminated by Konishi’s KJ. That left us with two players:
Marius Kudzmanas and Akihiro Konishi.
Kudzmanas:
Lithuania’s Marius Kudzmanas has quickly become one of the more intriguing figures in modern tournament poker. Like many, he built his skills online before he started making headlines with big wins. He has now become a regular in high-stakes games. He is best known to many for victories in World Series of Poker online events. He has multiple bracelets to his name, including a 2023 $1,000 Double Chance title worth $145,523.
At live poker, he’s just as lethal. He has had success at Triton high roller events and was the runner-up at the 2022 €10,300 EPT Prague High Roller tournament, where he scooped a prize worth €339,830. It’s fair to say that he’s a hybrid talent, showing comfortable, controlled poker skills at tables in the digital world and the real world. His playstyle is flexible, and he could turn up with any two cards. He shows no fear when it’s time to put on pressure or take a big, calculated risk.
Konishi:
Akihiro Konishi represents something a touch different. He’s been grinding for ages and built his career through travel, volume, and steady deep runs across the international circuit. Based in Tokyo, Konishi showed up on the live tournament scene around 2018 and quickly became a familiar face at major stops. He’s stacked chips at the World Series of Poker, World Poker Tour, and Asia-Pacific festivals, logging cashes from Las Vegas to Cambodia.
He plays with an aggressive, resilient style, showing no trouble breaking through large fields and keeping cool in high-pressure spots. Players at final tables in APPT and WPT events know him well, and he has multiple wins and podium finishes in Taiwan and Southeast Asia. Before WSOP Europe 2026, Hendon Mob listed him at around $1.6M in earnings, which was good enough to put him on the verge of making Japan’s top ten all-time poker player earnings list.
Heads-Up Play Between Kudzmanas and Konishi – Who Would Rise In Prague?
The two players were no strangers to high-pressure situations, and they went to work immediately.
Kudzmanas picked up 76o and called a preflop raise from Konishi, who was holding KK. The flop came with another 7 to make a pair and an open-ended straight draw for Kudzmanas. After some betting and raising, the pot was at 20M. Konishi had seen enough and went all in with his premium overpair. Kudzmanas considered his chances and decided that the odds were sufficiently favorable to make the call. It might sound like he was in bad shape, but he was roughly a 46% underdog there.
The hand was basically a coin flip.
Kudzmanas’s incredible luck showed up once again immediately, as a seven fell on the turn. This made him a set and put Konishi at a 5% chance of winning. He would need another king to survive, but the river came with a jack. Kudzmanas had won the main event. He took home €2,000,000 in prize money, leaving Konishi with €1,200,000.
The two hugged as Kudzmanas’ fans began to sing a song of celebration. Kudzmanas pumped his fists and broke into a big grin as he was wrapped in the Lithuanian flag. Then, he flashed his newfound bracelet – a fine trophy to take back to his home country.
WSOP Europe 2026 Final Results
1. Marius Kudzmanas – €2,000,000
2. Akihiro Konishi – €1,200,000
3. Chris Hunichen – €800,000
4. Nikolay Bibov – €575,000
5. Antonio Guimaraens – €425,000
6. Hengtao Zhu – €320,000
7. Thomas Eychenne – €245,000
8. Brandon Sheils – €185,000
9. Joona Nyholm – €140,000
Team Ignition’s Xuan Liu Returns to the European Stage
While the main event was the centerpiece, Ignition partner Xuan Liu also made her mark on the series.
Born in Tianjin, China, but raised in Canada, she attended the University of Waterloo, where she was introduced to poker by friends. She came up during the online poker era, building the foundation of her skills through the computer, where volume, pattern recognition, and discipline matter more than table presence.
That background in the fundamentals of playing winning poker has carried over quite well to live play. After building comfort with live poker tournaments through smaller events, she broke through in 2011 with a 3rd-place finish at the EPT San Remo Main Event for $534,564, then followed it with a 4th-place finish at the 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event, which earned her $600,000.
From there, she continued to show her skill at higher and higher stakes. She added a WPT Fallsview Poker Classic title in 2017 and has routinely made deep runs across WPT, WSOP, and international events. Her most impressive win thus far came at the $25,000 WPT Global Slam at Triton Montenegro, where her overall victory made her the first woman to win a Triton poker title.
She’s showing no signs of slowing down. At this year’s WSOP Europe series, she cashed right behind Shaun Deeb at the 28th position in the Super High Roller €20,800 buy-in event, earning €41,000.
If you want to know more about the highs, the heartbreaks, and the grind of life of a professional poker player, check out her YouTube page, where you can see her take on a billionaire, play from paradise, and even hear the struggles that occur when things don’t go her way.
Other Events at WSOP Europe
Beyond the Main Event, the 2026 WSOP Europe produced several other standout results, starting with the €1,500 European Circuit Championship. Nikolai Ogoltsov outlasted a huge 2,628-entry field to win €455,000. The sheer size of the tournament made it one of the defining events of the series. With a prize pool exceeding €3.5 million, it wound up being a serious endurance test, rewarding only those players who could maintain consistency as the hands ground along.
At the other end of the spectrum, there were also some games designed to move quickly. The €2,750 Closer No-Limit Hold’em Turbo Bounty saw Austria’s David Wintersberger taking the title and snagging a prize of €140,000. With rapidly-increasing blinds, Wintersberger had to make decisions fast and find opportunities no matter where they might be.
Among the other bracelet events, the €8,400 GGMillion$ High Roller delivered one of the most high-profile finishes of the series. Denmark’s Christian Pedersen overcame a 359-entry field to capture his first WSOP bracelet and win a €600,000 prize. Mostly, Pedersen is a cash game player online, so this is a big breakout for him and his largest tourney win. He took out runner-up Punnat Punsri in heads-up play. This was no small feat. Punsri is one of the most accomplished high-stakes players on Earth, with tens of millions in publicly-recorded earnings.
Another impressive result came in the €565 COLOSSUS event, where France’s Gilles Silbernagel outlasted the field of 2,662 entrants to capture his first WSOP bracelet and €165,000. Silbernagel’s victory now has him pushing past $700,000 in lifetime earnings from public tournaments and gives him his first big win since 2020. He took the title by defeating eight-time bracelet winner Shaun Deeb in heads-up play.
