History of the WSOP Europe Poker Series
The regular WSOP Europe series has brought a lot of excitement and new gold bracelet winners. Since 2017, the tournament has been hosted by the King’s Resort Casino in the Czech Republic, but until then, WSOP Europe has travelled extensively around the world.
Overall, the story can safely be traced back to 2007, when the WSOP co-hosted with British gambling company Betfair to host 3 major events in London. This is the first time the World Series of Poker has left American soil.
And the first winner of this tournament is German poker player Thomas Biel. His total winnings at the time amounted to €70,875 in the HORSE tournament. And it was the most important win of the German’s career.
The next bracelet winner was Dario Alioto who took first place in Omaha for £234,390.
But probably the first series was remembered by many poker fans thanks to the victory of Annet Obrestad, a poker player from Norway. At the age of 18, the girl was the winner, beating out 362 entrants along the way. The prize pool was worth €1 million.
After that, the WSOP was held in London’s Leicester Square until 2010. As time went on, new events were added and more and more big names were added to the ranks of champions. The bracelet in due course received:
- Phil Laak.
- Barry Schulman.
- John Juanda.
How it was in France
Immediately after London, the tournament began in Cannes, and the series schedule now included 7 bracelets. And with that, the decision was made to count WSOP Series tournaments for the WSOP Player of the Year award. And the main event in 2011 saw the American player win the €1.4 million prize money.
In 2013, it was also decided that only in odd-numbered years would the WSOP Europe be held and in even-numbered years it would be the WSOP Asia. And already in 2014, this prestigious tournament was not held.
Berlin
After the Asian tournament took place, WSOP Europe migrated to the German capital. And it was a bigger event, with 10 bracelet events. And during the tournament, the Greeks stood out:
- Georgis Sotiropoulos.
- Makarios Avramidis.
- Pavlos Xanthopoulos.
But most memorable this year was American Kevin McPhee, who won the Zloty bracelet and the sum of 883 thousand euros.
Since 2017, the tournament has been held regularly again, with no interruptions. This is due to the signing of an agreement between the WSOP and the King’s Resort Casino, in the Czech town of Rozvadov. From then on, attendance increased and very seriously, primarily because the casino was very roomy and there was an 11th event on the schedule. The winner of the main event in 2017 was Marty Roca de Torres, who took home €1,115,207.
