First Two WSOP Europe Events Easily Break Guarantees

The third day of the 2021 WSOP Europe was a busy one but only a precursor of what is to come. The Mini Main Event starts one of several flights today (Monday) and will deliver many more players to the tournament area.

Meanwhile, the Opener played down to a manageable three tables, while the PLO event hosted its second of two flights to round out its numbers. With that one recorded, both of the first two events on the 2021 WSOPE schedule exceeded their guarantees, not to mention their 2019 corresponding numbers. The United States may have had its issues with attendance for a variety of reasons, but King’s Casino has been attracting them in impressive numbers.

Could it be because all of the staff was vaccinated? Or could it be that King’s allowed PCR tests, antigen tests, and proof of Covid-19 recovery as alternates to vaccine proof? It could also be due to the sincere desire to return to live poker without traveling to America, which, incidentally, could only have happened on or after November 8 anyway. The positive turnout so far may be a combination of all three.

With two events playing out on Sunday, let’s take a quick look at the results of that action.

Event 1: €300 NLHE Opener

The second day of play for everyone started with 379 players but played into the money so the top 269 could be paid. Defending champion Renat Bohdanov finished this one in 229^th place for €531, and players like Tobias Peters and Danny Covyn followed. Jan Bendik took home €664 for 176^th place, and the action took the survivors into four-figure payouts. Original chipleader Marc Meden cashed for €1,112 for 69^th place, and the 21^st place elimination of Nicolaj Dantoni for €2,399 stopped play for the night.

The goal of finding a final table on Day 2 fell by the wayside in favor of 20 players who will move on to Day 3 on Monday.

Event 2: €550 PLO

The second of two starting flights brought the field into focus. It more than doubled the entries on the first day and boosted the prize pool well past the guarantee – almost €100K past it, actually. It was a good result. While that was impressive, no one actually listed the payouts, so we don’t know exactly how many players have been paid and will be paid, nor what the winner’s take will be. Regardless, we do know that 62 players will return on Monday to play to a final table, one that will find its winner on Tuesday.

Bracelet Event #2 WSOPE Pot Limit Omaha smashed the the €200K GTD. A massive starting field of 623 players created €295,925 Prize Pool. pic.twitter.com/pfGqzbx5fC

— King's Resort (@PokerroomKings) November 22, 2021

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— King's Resort (@PokerroomKings) November 22, 2021