Stanislav Zegal Wins 2023 WSOP Paradise Main Event for $2 Million

Stanislav Zegal now joins a list that includes Pius Heinz (2011), Hossein Ensan (2019), and Koray Aldemir (2021) as German poker players who won the World Series of Poker Main Event. Zegal defeated Michael Sklenicka heads-up to win Event #10: $5,000 Main Event Championship to conclude the inaugural WSOP Paradise that was held at Atlantis Paradise Island in the Bahamas.

This was the 72nd Main Event in the history of the WSOP and includes 54 installments in Las Vegas, 14 in Europe (including being held in England, France, Germany, and the Czech Republic), two in Asia-Pacific, and one online at GGPoker. WSOP Paradise is the third live expansion of the WSOP brand and the first since 2013, with the WSOP Paradise schedule including 15 gold bracelet events and GGPoker's new OnLive format for several events where players could qualify for later-stage play on GGPoker.

With four live flights and several online at GGPoker, the WSOP Paradise Main Event Championship attracted a total of 3,010 entrants that created a $15,050,000 prize pool. Players that reached Day 2 were all in the money, with some of the 447 players that cashed including Ren Lin, Philipp Gruissem, Alex Livingston, Matthew Wantman, Bertrand Grospellier, Jesse Lonis, Ben Yu, Adam Hendrix, Jim Collopy, Jessica Teusl, Chris Brewer, Fedor Holz, Alex Foxen, Anthony Zinno, David Williams, Mike Watson, Dylan Linde, Daniel Dvoress, Bryn Kenney, Robert Cowen, Josh Arieh, Joao Simao, Tyler Brown, Davidi Kitai, Chino Rheem, Maria Ho, Damian Salas, Espen Jorstad, Daniel Weinman, and Daniel Negreanu.

Australian Daniel Neilson held the chip lead entering the final day ahead of the seven players chasing the $2,000,000 first-place prize and inaugural WSOP Paradise Main Event champion title. Montgomery McQuade was the first to fall in seventh place after his king-ten lost a race to Matt Glantz and his pocket fours. A flip for the chip lead that played out between Sklenicka and WSOP bracelet winner Gabriel Schroeder as the Brazilian was all-in with ace-king against the pocket queens of Sklenicka. The flop brought a queen, and although he turned a flush draw, Schroeder bricked the river and was left with just three big blinds.

Schroeder was then all-in with king-six suited against the ace-seven suited of Sklenicka. The ace-high flop wasn't what Schroeder was seeking, and he was eliminated in sixth place after the turn and river blanked out. Portugal's Rui Sousa was all-in with queen-nine suited against the ace-queen of Sklenicka. Sousa flopped a straight draw, but the board bricked out, and he was eliminated in fifth place as Sklenicka added to his chip lead. Matt Glantz had friends Shaun Deeb and Daniel Weinman on the rail, and they would be please when Glantz scored a double by striking a two-outer against Neilson. Glantz was all-in with pocket sixes against Neilson's pocket aces. The six on the turn was the lucky strike Glantz was searching for, but unfortunately his run would end after the break to Neilson. Glantz was all-in with king-queen against the ace-queen of Neilson, and the board ran out all low cards and Glantz exited in fourth place.

Down to the final three players, Stanislav Zegal was all-in on the flop with two pair against the top-top of Neilson. The turn and river didn't bring an ace for Neilson, and the Australian was down to 15 big blinds. A few orbits later, Neilson called all-in on the flop with a gunshot against Sklenicka's bottom two pair. The turn gave Neilson a chop draw, but the brick on the river put the WSOP Paradise Main Event down to heads-up play with Zegal leading Sklenicka with a three-to-one chip advantage.

Zegal immediately extended his chip lead flopping two pair against Sklenicka's pocket sevens. Zegal now held better than a seven-to-one chip lead, and the final hand would follow shortly after when Sklenicka shoved the river with seven-high, and Zegal tank-called with fourth-pair. Sklenicka showed his bluff, and Zegal tabled his monster call and was crowned the WSOP Paradise Main Event Championship winner. He was awarded his first WSOP bracelet and the $2,000,000 first-place prize.

2023 WSOP Paradise Event $10: $5,000 Main Event Championship Final Table Results

*Stanislav Zegal winner picture courtesy of WSOP.com

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