Volodymyr Kokoulin was a card away from elimination. Instead, he became the newest World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) bracelet winner after taking down Event #2: €550 Pot-Limit Omaha.
Kokoulin built up a big chip lead three-handed and defeated Poland’s Tomasz Kozub heads-up to win his first WSOP bracelet and €56,100 top prize. “Super good. I dreamed about this since I started playing. So it’s super cool. I feel very pleased,” Kokoulin said after prevailing over the 642-entry field.
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| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Volodymyr Kokoulin | Ukraine | €56,100 |
| 2 | Tomasz Kozub | Poland | €37,400 |
| 3 | Hristiyan Banov | Bulgaria | €25,500 |
| 4 | Claudio Di Giacomo | Italy | €17,800 |
| 5 | Ivan Nikolov | Bulgaria | €12,600 |
| 6 | Stefan Kostner | Austria | €9,200 |
| 7 | Andrei Shpak | Belarus | €6,800 |
| 8 | Damjan Radanov | United States | €5,100 |
The Ukrainian needed some help to survive the final table. With four players left, Kokoulin was all in with two pair against Claudio Di Giacomo’s top set of kings and was at serious risk of elimination. He ended up catching a runner-runner flush for a miracle double up that propelled him into the chip lead and ultimately to the bracelet. “Only a backdoor flush saves me. I got super lucky,” he said.
Kokoulin describes himself as mostly a cash game player, but he does have several notable tournament scores at King’s Resort in Rozvadov. He’s finished runner-up in two WSOP circuit events and also finished in third place in the €3,000 Mystery Bounty event at the Big Wrap festival here in February. He had more than $80,000 in live tournament winnings on his resume before this event, primarily in Omaha events, a game he’s focused more on in recent years.
“I used to play hold’em tournaments for seven years. And then I switched to cash Omaha because it’s more fun. More variance,” he said.
Runner-up Kozub is also no stranger to Omaha. A regular in high-stakes Omaha tournaments, he had more than $1 million in live career earnings, including a win in an Omaha event here at King’s in 2020 for €200,000. He also finished second in that same Big Wrap festival earlier this year for more than €92,000. But his first WSOP bracelet eluded him today as Kokoulin became the 14th player from his native Ukraine to take home WSOP gold.
The final eight players took their seats at the final table at 1 p.m. local time on the televised feature table. Damjan Radanov entered as the short stack and was the first to find himself at risk as Di Giacomo made a pair of aces against his jacks as the Serbian-born, US-based pro was sent out in eighth place at his seventh career WSOP final table. Di Giacomo picked up his second bustout of the final table when he spiked a straight on the turn to eliminate Andrei Shpak in seventh place.
Hristiyan Banov picked up aces to double up off Di Giacomo, then found himself involved in a massive three-way all in against Stefan Kostner and Kozub. The three players saw an ace-high flop where Kostner bet 550,000. Kozub called and Banov moved all in for 720,000. Both opponents called to the turn where Kostner got his last 940,000 in the middle. Kozub had the lead with aces and deuces with a flush draw against Kostner’s ace-king and Banov’s ace-queen. Banov had just three outs to avoid the double elimination and spiked one of them on the river to triple up, while Kozub took out Kostner in the side pot.
Kostner’s sixth-place bustout was just the first in a flurry of eliminations that followed. Ivan Nikolov missed flush and straight draws against Di Giacomo’s kings to finish in fifth. Kokoulin was in danger of joining them on the rail until his miracle flush on the river against Di Giacomo made him the chip leader with nearly 7,000,000. Di Giacomo was left with just 935,000 after the hand and was eliminated shortly after in fourth place by Kozub.
Kokoulin began to pull away during three-handed play after hitting two pair on the river against Banov, then betting Kozub off two pair with a river shove. Banov then moved all in for 1,390,000 in the big blind with ten-high and Kozub called. Kozub flopped trip kings to leave Banov already drawing dead and on his way to the exit in third place.
Kokoulin led 11,660,000 to 4,285,000 at the start of heads-up. He quickly extended his lead when he called Kozub’s bet of 1,000,000 on the river with a flush. Kozub doubled up once, but then found himself all in for 1,975,000 with two jacks against Kokoulin’s queens. Kozub picked up a straight draw on the flop, but it was Kokoulin who ended up making a straight on the river to end the tournament.
Kokoulin nearly didn’t even play the tournament after max late-regging on Day 1. He doubled up right away and the tournament went smoothly for him from there. “I just played normal games, 40 BBs mostly. The structure was super good,” he said. “At the start of the final table I was in a very bad situation because there were three big stacks over me and some short stacks, so I could do nothing. Then in the three- and four-max when stacks became more equal, I began to feel more comfortable."
Kokoulin isn’t letting the bracelet change his plans for the rest of the series. “I think I’ll play mostly cash, because I’m a cash player not a tournament player. Maybe I’ll play the Main Event, but it depends on the cash games,” he said.
That concludes PokerNews' coverage of Event #2: €550 Pot-Limit Omaha. Stay tuned for more coverage throughout the 2024 WSOP Europe at King's Resort in Rozvadov.
