WSOP Europe, WSOPE

WSOPE Wraps Up – Shaun Deeb, Martin Kabrhel, and Daniel Pidun Make History

Images courtesy of WSOP.com, CardPlayer.com

Another edition of the popular World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) festival is behind us, and 15 new WSOP bracelets have been awarded to the best performers.

These included two of the world’s biggest tournament poker stars in Shaun Deeb and Martin Kabrhel, both of whom managed to add to their impressive resumes this fall. 

The festival’s biggest winner was easily Daniel Pidun, a German player who “only plays poker once a year,” but has managed to win an EPT Main Event in Berlin in 2013, and the 2025 WSOPE Main Event in his limited time playing the game. 

As the festival wound down, the WSOP announced that the WSOPE festival will be moving from Rozvadov to Prague, thus remaining in the Czech Republic, but changing venue to a significantly more scenic one. 

If you missed the action at this year’s WSOPE, here is a full rundown of the most interesting events of the Series, along with a full rundown of all the bracelet winners to wrap it up. 

Stepan Budac Turns €350 Into €113,350

The first big story of the 2025 WSOPE came to us in Event #2: €350 NLH King’s Million. This small buyin event drew in an incredible 3,229 runners, creating a prize pool of close to a million EUR. 

An international final table included very few professional poker players, with Moldova’s Stepan Budac being the most experienced with just over €130,000 in tournament cashes before. 

Yet, the remaining nine were now playing for WSOP gold, and it would turn out that experience, mixed with a little luck, would prevail. 

Photo Credit: CardPlayer.com

Despite being down to just one big blind at one point, Budac was able to climb back and eventually get to a heads-up duel with the German Jan Kohl. 

Despite starting strong, Kohl was not able to beat Budac’s A3 with his Q8 in the first heads-up showdown that had the Moldovan at risk. 

Kohl had another opportunity to eliminate him a few hands later, but was behind once again, as Budac’s pocket Kings won him the chip lead. 

Budac captured his first WSOP bracelet and the biggest tournament score of his life for €113,350, while Kohl had to settle for a runner-up finish worth €79,350. 

Yuhan Wang Dominates the Mini Main Event

The €1,350 Mini Main Event was another WSOPE event that saw quite a few entrants, as 1,293 players joined the mini version of the Series’ most prominent event. 

Once again, the final table was dominated by European players, as one would expect, but the eventual winner came all the way from China to win his first WSOP bracelet. 

Yuhan Wang, who admittedly played few big tournaments before in his life, ran well and showed amazing instincts in a few situations to lead him to the Mini Main Event final table. 

Once there, Wang was already guaranteed the biggest cash of his poker career, but he would not stop there. Instead, he went all the way and took home €226,850, as well as a WSOPE Main Event ticket. 

Wang turned that ticket into another €35,600 a few days later, when he finished 28th in the Main Event, recording his fifth cash of the Series and nearly making his second final table of the year. 

Martin Kabrhel Puts on a PLO Show

One of the most polarizing figures in poker, Martin Kabrhel was able to win his fifth WSOP bracelet in Event #10: €10,000 PLO Mystery Bounty. 

The No Limit Hold’em specialist entered was among the 88 players who joined the €1,000,000 guaranteed event, with each of them earning some extra value when the event failed to meet the guarantee. 

Despite not being heavily proficient in Omaha, Martin was able to navigate the field, run well in the right spots, and eventually make the final table. 

Once there, Kabrhel and the runner-up finisher Robert Cowen ran the show, as they eliminated all the players and won all the remaining bounties. 

The Czech pro won €188,500 for his first-place finish, along with €62,500 in bounties, while Cowen took home €121,00 in prize money and €117,500 in bounties. 

Shaun Deeb Does it Again

Shaun Deeb winning a WSOP bracelet is hardly news anymore, but the one he was able to capture in Rozvadov this time around will be quite special, as it made him part of an elite club of tournament poker players. 

The 2025 WSOP Player of the Year was one of just 38 players to enter Event #13: €25,000 NLH GGMillion€, and the only American player to win a bracelet at the festival. 

For Deeb, this win signified his eighth WSOP triumph, which allowed him to catch up to Benny Glaser and Michael Mizrachi, both of whom entered the 8-time winner’s club earlier this year in Las Vegas. 

As you would expect from a €25k event, the field was quite tough, but Deeb was by far the most experienced player in it, and he made sure the experience worked in his favor. 

As the tournament played down to just two players, Shaun was up against Brazil’s Iago Savino, a player with limited tournament experience and results. 

Deeb eventually had to get lucky during the heads-up match, however, as his A6 was all in against Savino’s pocket Eighths, but an Ace on the turn gave him a double-up and a commanding chip lead. 

From there, it was a short way to the finish line, and Shaun never looked back. The victory brought him a €329,000 payday, along with another bracelet and another step closer to poker immortality. 

Daniel Pidun Is the Main Event Champion

WSOPE named its first Main Event champion back in 2007, and it was the young Norwegian phenom Annete Oberstad who shocked the poker world to win her first WSOP bracelet back then. 

Since then, the likes of John Juanda, Phil Hellmuth, Adrian Mateos, and Kevin MacPhee were just a few of the winners, making it an elite club of world-class players. 

That club was now joined by Daniel Pidun, a German poker player whose poker resume is a shockingly short, but successful one. 

Pidun started playing tournament poker back in 2009, and since then has recorded only 12 official money finishes. However, those few results now add up to more than $3,000,000. 

Pidun’s first big breakthrough came in 2013, when he won the €5,000 EPT Main Event in Berlin for €800,000. Since then, he’s only played on occasion, but he came back to Rozvadov this year and won the most coveted title of them all, along with over €1.1 million in prize money. 

Daniel beat a field of 659 players on his way to his first WSOP bracelet, and was joined in the winner’s circle by his brother Thomer, a WSOPE bracelet winner in his own right. 

While neither of the Pidun brothers are poker professionals, whatever they are doing at the green felt is working, as they join the rare ranks of siblings with WSOP bracelets. 

Full 2025 WSOPE Champions Recap

Here is a full rundown of the 2025 WSOPE events and their champions:

EventChampion1st Place PrizeRunner-Up
#1: €1,200 NLH Bounty Hunter OpenerPawel Wojciechowski€58,850Jan Bendik
#2: €350 NLH King’s MillionStepan Budac€113,350Jan Kohl
#3: €1,000 PLO 8-MaxSascha Wilhelm€148,600Daniel Bang-Ortmann
#4: €2,000 NLH 2k MonsterstackGiuliano Bendinelli€169,850Zdenek Zizka
#5: €1,350 Mini Main EventYuhan Wang€226,850Stanislav Koleno
#6: €2,000 PLODusan Despotovic€182,500Quirin Zech
#7: €550 NLH ColossusJose Gomez Casillas€158,350Claudio Daffina
#8: €5,000 PLORenji Mao€213,600Dario Alioto
#9: €3,000 NLH 6-MaxTobias Peters€184,850Elias Vaaraniemi
#10: €10,000 PLO Mystery BountyMartin Kabrhel€188,500Robert Cowen
#11: €777 NLH Lucky 7’sMatteo Intiso€82,350Catalin Diac
#12: €1,500 NLH Mystery MillionDarius Neagoe€100,350Rene Schnitzler
#13: €25,000 NLH GGMillion€Shaun Deeb€329,000Iago Savino
#14: WSOPE Main EventDaniel Pidun€1,1140,000Gerald Karlic
#15: €1,000 NLH CloserLukas Timko€158,000Michal Schuh

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