Tamir Segal Wins 2018 WSOP Europe COLOSSUS for €203,820

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Tuesday, October 16th, 2018 | Written by Charles Washington

The 2018 World Series of Poker Europe kicked-off its 10 gold bracelet schedule on Oct. 9 with its €550 COLOSSUS No-Limit Hold’em event. Since its introduction to the WSOP in 2015, the tournament has attracted the largest fields of all the live events featured at the Series, with 13,070 players taking part in its Las Vegas iteration this year, and 2,992 players entering its European version last week.

Following eight starting days, and a further two days of action, it was Israel’s Tamir Segal who would eventually triumph over the huge field, including Poland’s Wojciech Wyrebski heads-up, to claim a career first bracelet, not to mention a top prize of €203,820 ($234,252).

Tamir Segal

Going into the €550 COLOSSUS No-Limit Hold’em event, Tamir Segal had just $10,917 from nine tournament cashes since January 2016. On his 10th cash, however, the player has now increased his live earnings to $245,169, and also becomes just one of 10 Israelis ever to have won a coveted WSOP bracelet.

Furthermore, Segal has suddenly appeared on Israel’s ‘All Time Money List’ in a 37th place position. Only the top nine players have winnings in excess of $1 million, though, and currently at the top of the list is Amir Lehavot on $5,706,052, followed a fair distance back by Zvi Stern on $2,669,291. Meanwhile, Rafi Amit, the country’s only two time bracelet winner, is in 10th place with $956,293 in earnings.

€550 COLOSSUS

The €550 COLOSSUS drew a field of 2,992 players, with that number down on the 4,115 players who took part in last year’s WSOP Europe offering. Nevertheless, the €550 ($637) buy-in event will still likely prove the most popular draw at the King’s Casino Rozvadov, and all told its prize pool ultimately surpassed its original €1 million guarantee by an impressive €435,412.

Only a relatively few number of pros ended up finishing in one of its 419 money spots, though, the most recognizable of whom included Chris Ferguson (150th), Sanjay Sahijwani (135th), Allen Kessler (52nd), Sebastian Kos (17th), Jan Bednar (16th), and Netanel Amedi (13th).

At the end of 12 hours of action on Day 2, its original starting field had subsequently been reduced to just 10 finalists, who then took an overnight break before playing down to a champion the following day.

Final Table

On Day 3, the official final table of ten lined up as follows:

Wojciech Wyrebski (40bbs)
Hannes Neurauter (39bbs)
Dariusz Glinski (31bbs)
Krasimir Yankov (29bbs)
Tamir Segal (28bbs)
Bjorn Bouwmans (20bbs)
Nelio Gatta (17bbs)
Aksel Ayguen (16bbs)
Francesco Delfoco (16bbs)
Flavio Decataldo (15bbs)

Despite starting in 5th place overall, Tamir Segal would eliminate six out of nine players on his way to claiming the victory. First to go was Nelio Gatta in 10th after running his A-J into the pocket fives of Segal, followed by Björn Bouwmans in 9th, whose A-K got cracked on the turn by Segal’s A-Q.

Next, Segal’s pocket aces trumped the pocket kings of Flavio Decataldo to eliminate him in 7th, while at the other extreme of the spectrum, Segal’s pocket twos proved sufficient to send Francesco Delfoco (A-10) to the exit in 6th following an 8-2-7-J-Q board. Finally, when just three players remained, Aksel Ayguen’s (Jh-Jd) was all-in against Segal (Kc-7c), but then had to bow out in 3rd after a 10d-Qd-8c-Ad-Jc board made his opponent a straight.

Heads-Up Recap

Tamir Segal entered the final stretch holding a 4-1 chip lead over Poland’s Wojciech Wyrebski. Two hands later, and both players were all-in preflop with Wyrebski’s A-Q up against the K-10 of Segal. Unlucky for Wyrebski, however, the dealer laid out a 8-6-K-8-10 board to eliminate him in a runner-up position, albeit for an impressive €125,966 ($144,774) payday.

Meanwhile, Tamir Segal was awarded top honors for his remarkable performance, and now has a prestigious WSOP bracelet to commemorate the occasion.

Final Table Results ($)

1: Tamir Segal (Israel) $234,252
2: Wojciech Wyrebski (Poland) $144,774
3: Askel Aygun (Belgium) $106,179
4: Dariusz Glinski (Poland) $78,533
5: Hannes Neurauter (Germany) $59,596
6: Francesco Delfoco (Italy) $44,075
7: Flavio Decataldo (Italy) $33,449
8: Krasimir Yankov (Bulgaria) $25,608
9: Björn Bouwmans (Belgium) $19,778
10: Nelio Gatta (France) $15,412

Other WSOPE Action

Two other events are currently underway at the WSOP Europe, with another Israeli player, Asi Moshe, reaching the final table of the €1,650 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Handed Deepstack in pole position. The player previously won a gold bracelet at the 2013 WSOP $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event for $582,321, but a number of contenders could still potentially prevent him from recording yet another famous victory, including James Bullimore, Giuliano Bendinelli, Robert Schulz, Viktor Katzenberger, and Van Tiep Nguyen.

The €550 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed is also approaching its conclusion with just 21 hopefuls remaining, including such pros as Chris Ferguson, Jason Gray, and Dutch Boyd.