Matous Skorepa Tops Huge Field at WSOPE to Win Colossus and €270,015

Ten starting flights led to a record-breaking 4,115 entries in the €550 Colossus at the World Series of Poker Europe, with Matous Skorepa bagging the gold bracelet and €270,015 in first place prize money.

Restaurant manager is Skorepa's main source of income, but he may want to consider a transition from the dining tables to poker tables after becoming the third Czech player to win a title at the 2017 WSOPE at King's Casino in Rozvadov. Skorepa joined fellow countrymen Martin Kabrhel and Lukas Zaskodny as first-timers who've captured a championship on their home turf.

The amateur appeared calm and cool throughout the tournament, apparently not affected by the massive prize pool of €2,078,075 ($2,441,749). In terms of entries, the Colossus was the largest tournament  ever at a WSOP Europe event.

"If I play small cash games or small tournaments, it’s the same for me as big tournaments," Skorepa told WSOP reporters.

Greek Champ Comes Up Short

The enormous starting field was whittled down to 258 players when Day 2 action began. Only 12 still held chips and a chair when Day 3 commenced. The final table of nine had only one former WSOP champion, Greece's Makarios Avramidis, who won a gold bracelet a couple years ago in Berlin but could go only as far as 5th place in this tournament.

Following Avramidis to the rail was Ivaylo Sivinov from Bulgaria, whose pocket aces were cracked by Skorepa and his Q-9 in a key hand that found the eventual champion all-in. Hitting a straight on the river doubled up the Czech and crippled Sivinov, who was eliminated shortly thereafter.

Frenchman Jonathan Khalifa added €123,241 ($144,809) to his live poker winnings that now total $422,803 following a 3rd place finish. A pivotal hand saw Khalifa ahead pre-flop with pocket nines, but a ten on the river matched Skorepa's A-10 and put the kibosh on Khalifa's quest for a WSOPE victory.

That left Skorepa and Austrian Florian Fuchs in a heads-up match for the title, with the latter trailing in chips. The Czech made short work of Fuchs, claiming the gold bracelet and $317,269 in prize money when his suited K-8 held up against the Austrian's K-4.

2017 WSOPE - Event #5 - €550 NLHE - The Colossus - Final Table Results