Italy’s Alessandro Pichierri emerged triumphant from a “painful” final table to capture his second WSOP Europe gold bracelet, a heads-up comeback against Alex Foxen good for €335,900 and the €25k NLH GGMillion$ title.
Pichierri left it until the last moment to register for event #8 on the 15-bracelet schedule at King’s Casino in Rozvadov, former owner and founder of the biggest cardroom outside of Vegas, Leon Tsoukernik, another to late reg.
By that time, a full day’s play was already behind most of the players, Martin Kabrhel leading the chip counts with Stephen Chidwick, Viktor Blom and Orpen “Orp the Turk” Kisacikoglu mid-pack, with the Foxens joined by Shaun Deeb bringing up the rear.
No Softplay as Foxens Clash
Everyone was chasing a share of the €1million GTD prizepool, entries topping out at 38 for a €50k overlay, which included second bullets from Kabrhel and Chidwick, as well as Kristen Foxen after this spousal bustout hand…
Kristen Foxen: 8♥ 8♦
Alex Foxen: Q♠ Q♥
Flop: Q♣ 7♦ J♠
Turn: 5♣
River: 10♥
Incredibly, Kristen would be busted again by her husband to exit the tournament for real, a surefire sign that there would be no softplay between poker’s leading couple.
The fun and games continued when “Loose” Leon rivered a saving chop on the bubble and then proceeded to send Safwane Bahri out on the final table bubble. Only six would be paid, however, so there was still work to be done.
Blom Busts Short of Money
Kisacikoglu’s exit was followed by that of the legendary Viktor Blom, the phenom behind the “Isildur1” online account that fought everyone and anyone at the highest stakes in the late noughties.
Viktor Blom: Q♠ Q♣
Alessandro Pichierri: A♠ A♣
Flop: 10♦ 5♠ 10♠
Turn: 6♠
River: K♦
The unwanted title of bubble boy went to Samuel Ju, losing out with big slick to Salih Atac’s pocket rockets, and that meant €65,000 sewn up for the final six.
Hissou and Bedell both fell to Tsoukernik, but the ever-active former casino mogul immediately ran queens into Foxen’s kings, departing in 4th spot for €98,200 – mere pocket change for the man who reportedly sold his share of King’s Casino for more than €300million.
Foxen then saw off Salih Atac, the Swiss player bagging a lifetime best score of €141,500 for his podium run, and that left Foxen with a 4:1 chip lead heads-up against Pichierri.
Heads-up Surprise for Foxen
It didn’t take long to settle the destination of the bracelet, a quick double up helping Pichierri along the way, and then all the chips going in on the flop of the final hand…
Alex Foxen: Q♣ 10♦
Alessandro Pichierri: Q♠ Q♥
Flop: 10♥ 6♣ 3♣
The Italian snapped off Foxen’s 5-bet jam and only had to dodge a few outs for victory…
Turn: 7♥
River: 7♠
With that, Pichierri lifted his second WSOP bracelet and doubled his best-ever live score.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (EUR) |
| 1 | Alessandro Pichierri | Italy | €335,900 |
| 2 | Alex Foxen | United States | €223,900 |
| 3 | Salih Atac | Switzerland | €141,500 |
| 4 | Leon Tsoukernik | Czechia | €98,200 |
| 5 | Tom-Aksel Bedell | Norway | €75,500 |
| 6 | Sirzat Hissou | Germany | €65,000 |
Pichierri told reporters afterwards: “I feel very grateful to see a good result from my hard work…I’ve had many up moments and some down moments in my career and this is for sure an up moment”.
He added: “The whole final table was hard, and painful at times… once heads-up play began I got lucky two times. I won a flip and then a semi-cooler. So heads-up was easy, but Foxen was a very hard opponent”.
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