Omar Eljach has overcome a 719-entry field and defeated Diana Volcovschi heads-up in Event #2: €550 Pot Limit Omaha 8-Max at the 2023 World Series of Poker Europe. Eljach earns his second WSOP bracelet, along with the €65,900 first-place prize here at King’s Resort in Rozvadov.
The victory comes fresh off of a breakout year in 2022, in which Eljach won the WSOPE Main Event — padding an already impressive poker resume that includes over €2,000,000 in live-tournament earnings.
Eljach entered the final table with more than twice that of his next closest opponent and put on a clinic in big-stack play by continually applying pressure to his opponents in the face of significant pay jumps. En route to his victory, Eljach claimed six final-table eliminations and at no point gave up the chip lead.
Winner’s Reaction
“I’m very happy to get my second [bracelet]. I was actually more excited for the bracelet than the laddering of the money, which has not been the case before,” Eljach said.
Eljach remained confident throughout the final table and explained how he was able to apply a lot of pressure to the medium stacks using his big stack.
“I knew I could apply a lot of pressure because there were a lot of short stacks. The stacks that were half my size couldn’t really move as long as the short stacks were there. It was a good spot for me to be able to steamroll the table.”
Eljach said he will be gunning for another bracelet during this year’s series, particularly in the upcoming PLO events.
“It’s my favorite game. I definitely consider myself more of a PLO player.”
Event #2: €550 Pot Limit Omaha 8-Max Final Table Results
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize (in EUR) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Omar Eljach | Sweden | €65,900 |
| 2 | Diana Volcovschi | Portugal | €40,700 |
| 3 | Roland Israelashvili | United States | €29,100 |
| 4 | Michael Rodrigues | Portugal | €21,000 |
| 5 | Ihar Pliashko | Belarus | €15,500 |
| 6 | Martino Cito | Italy | €11,500 |
| 7 | Patrik Jaros | Czechia | €8,700 |
| 8 | Anson Tsang | Hong Kong | €6,700 |
Final Table Action
Day 3 began with an unofficial final table of nine looking to claim WSOPE glory. The action started relatively slow, with the first elimination of the day occurring after Michal Mrakes found himself short and losing the rest of his chips to Eljach’s straight after getting all-in preflop.
Anson Tsang came into the final day second in chips but was unable to build any momentum and lost the majority of his stack after getting his aces cracked by Eljach, who claimed the rest of Tsang’s chips a few hands later.
After an extended period of action that saw Roland Israelashvili survive facing elimination six times, Patrik Jaros, Martino Cito, and Ihar Pliashko all fell in seventh, sixth, and fifth place respectively in rapid succession with Eljach claiming two more eliminations.
Michael Rodrigues remained relatively quiet throughout the table, but escalating blinds forced him to take a stand in a blind versus blind confrontation against Eljach that unsurprisingly went Eljach’s way.
Israelashvili, who was down to just 15,000 chips at one point, finally saw his good fortune come to an end after running into the nut flush of Volcovschi.
Volcovschi entered the final table as the short stack but managed to navigate all the way to heads-up play, which ended nearly as soon as it began. On the second hand of heads-up, Volcovschi found herself committing the rest of her chips against Eljach in a cooler wherein both players flopped a flush. With that, Eljach secured his victory in a convincing manner.