Hokyiu Lee Denied Repeat Victory at the 2024 World Series of Poker Europe

2024 World Series of Poker Europe

The 2024 World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) has crowned the first three winners of the festival and among the newest owners of the coveted WSOP gold bracelet is Vivian Saliba. Originally hailing from Brazil, she relocated to Austria several years ago and has been taking part in the WSOPE on numerous occasions since. The newest winner denied Hong Kong’s Hokyiu Le8 a repeat victory in the very same tournament at the King’s Resort in Rozvadov, Czech Republic.

Highlights

Thanks to a field of 229 entries, Event #4: €2,000 Pot Limit Omaha generated a prize pool of  €398,231 prize pool, which was shared across the top 35 finishers. Several Asian players entered the fray with the hopes of claiming the hardware, and especially poker pros from Hong Kong had been successful in previous years in the four-card variant.

Yan Shing “Anson” Tsang won this very event two times and one of his best friends was the defending champion: Cash game specialist Lee. Both reached the money stages once more and Tsang bowed out in 25^th place when his flopped top set was no good against a combo-draw as he had to settle for €4,335.

That left the defending champion as the only Asian hope in contention and he reached the final table as the chip leader, at times holding nearly three times as many chips as his nearest follower. But as the hours kept passing, the short stacks stayed in contention and the lead four-handed changed numerous times. Lee’s hopes of a title defense vanished in third place for €40,100 after he lost two all-in showdowns against Saliba, who entered heads-up with the lead against Germany’s Markus Anheier.

After nearly 17 hours of play, a winner was then crowned and it was Saliba who went from slight underdog on the flop to dominant lead and she sealed the victory with a flush. The €91,400 top prize for the Pot-Limit Omaha specialist was the second-biggest of her career and more importantly, the first WSOP gold bracelet.

For Lee, who mainly earns his living in cash games, it was another deep run in the four-card variant and yet he had already racked up more than half a million US Dollars in live poker tournaments. His biggest score was the first place back in October 2023 when he came out on top of a 206-entry strong field to claim €91,183 for first place.

The ongoing 2024 World Series of Poker Europe awards 15 WSOP gold bracelets from September 18 until October 10, 2024 and features more than €15 million in guaranteed prize pools. For the third edition in a row, the marquee €10,350 Main Event boasts a €5 million guarantee and has set an attendance record in the previous two years.