Rozvadov, Czech Republic (2 November 2017) – Matous Skorepa bested a huge field at King’s Casino to become the latest bracelet winner at WSOP Europe. Skorepa won the Colossus event, collecting his first WSOP bracelet and €270,015.
For Skorepa , this victory represents not only his first WSOP bracelet, but also his first WSOP cash and the biggest score of his live poker career. Before today, he had a total of only about $27,000 in recorded earnings. Not he earned more than ten times that amount in one fell swoop.
He was obviously excited about the victory. But, he said, "My mom just called me down. She was like, ‘Okay. It’s like €270,000. Okay. Good for you.’ I’m pretty excited, of course. I’m happy."
Skorepa appears to have learned a lot from his mother over the years. He attributes his success to keeping an even keel at the table, and staying focused regardless of stakes or variance. "If I play small cash games or small tournaments, it’s the same for me as big tournaments."
Skorepa is an amateur player, and works as the manager of a restaurant. He says he started playing poker about five years ago, and takes the game seriously. But he'll be back at work tomorrow. Soon, though, he'll get away a bit. When asked about his plans for the prize money, he said, "First, I’ll on vacation. Summer was really busy so I couldn’t go on vacation. So right now I need to disappear. [...] I need to just get out, turn off facebook, turn off everything, just relax."
The Colossus – named for the record-setting event held at the WSOP in Las Vegas since 2015 – lived up to its namesake, becoming the largest tournament (in terms of entries) ever held at a WSOP Europe. There were 10 starting flights, and a total of 4,115 entries. Only 258 players returned for Day 2. They played down to 12, and then returned to finish the event on Day 3.
There was only one previous bracelet winner at the final table. Makarios Avramidis won an event at WSOP Europe two years ago, and just barely fell short in his quest for a second. He eventually finished in fifth place for €68,771.
Here are the final table results:
1– Matous Skorepa – €270,015
2 – Florian Fuchs – €166,855
3 – Jonathan Khalifa – €123,241
4 – Ivaylo Sivinov – €91,711
5 – Makarios Avramidis – €68,771
6 – Roman Motovsky – €51,968
7 – Pascal Pflicks – €39,576
8 – Nebojsa Ankucic – €30,386
9 – Gaetan Cauchy – €23,499