Alessandro Pichierri Wins World Series of Poker Europe €25,000 Buy-In GGMillion€ Event

Alessandro Pichierri is now a multi-time World Series of Poker title winner. The Italian took down the 2024 WSOP Europe €25,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em GGMillion€ event, besting a field of 38 entries in the high-stakes affair to earn $372,849 and his second bracelet. His first came back in 2021, when he took down the €3,000 no-limit hold’em ‘Closer’ event at this same venue during that year’s WSOP Europe.

Thanks to this latest win, Pichierri became just the second Italian player to have earned multiple bracelets. The first is four-time bracelet winner Max Pescatori.

Pichierri now has nearly $1.6 million in recorded tournament earnings, with this being his largest score yet. Prior to this, the $165,769 he took home along with his first bracelet was his top payday.

In addition to the money and the hardware, Pichierri also secured 336 Card Player Player of the Year points. He now has 1,004 total points across three final-table finishes, enough to move inside the top 600 in the 2024 POY standings presented by Global Poker.

This event ran over the course of two days inside Kings Resort Rozvadov in the Czech Republic. Late registration was available all the way into the early hours of day 2. The final turnout of 38 entries resulted in a prize pool that fell just short of surpassing the €1,000,000 guarantee. The top six finishers cashed, with more than $1.1 million to be paid out among them when rendered in US dollars.

By the time the final table was set, bracelet winner and World Poker Tour champion Alex Foxen had claimed the chip lead, while Pichierri was in the middle of the pack.

The first knockout at the final table pitted Orpen Kisacikoglu’s pocket fives against the A-Q suited of Salih Atac. The turn gave Atac a queen-high straight, and a blank on the river saw Kisacikoglu sent to the rail in ninth place.

Viktor Blom was the next to fall, with a preflop cooler costing him the remainder of his stack. The high-stakes player, known to many as ‘Isildur1’ online, ran pocket queens into the pocket aces of Pichierri. The board changed notjing and Blom was knocked out in eighth place.

Samuel Ju also got the last of his stack in preflop with a monster holding (A-K), only to find himself trailing against the biggest monster of all: pocket aces. Atac’s pair avoided thew bad beat and Ju was eliminated out on the money bubble, ensuring that the remaining six players all cashed for at least $72,150.

That sum was ultimately awarded to Sirzat Hissou, who got all-in with a flush draw traling the two pair of Leon Tsoukernik. The river brought a heart to fill Hissou’s flush, but it also improved Tsoukernik to a full house.

After Hissou departed in sixth place, the next key clash saw yet another player run into pocket aces. This time it was Tom-Aksel Bedell, with his A-6 shove from the small blind receiving a call from the pocket rockets of Tsoukernik in the big blind. Bedell picked up the nut flush draw on the turn to make it interesting, but a brick on the end saw him eliminated in fifth place ($83,805).

The next bustout was the result of, you guessed it, another preflop cooler. Tsoukernik got all-in with pocket queens and was up against pocket kings for Foxen. The board ran out clean and Tsoukernik settled for $109,002 as the fourth-place finisher.

Foxen then eliminated Atac, three-bet shoving from the big blind with A10 over the button open by Atac with KJ. The board came down A4363 and Atac’s run came to an end in third place ($157,065).

Heads-up play began with Foxen sitting with 15,000,000 to 4,000,000 for Pichierri. The first all-in and call of the final showdown was a calssic race, with A-9 against pocket eights. The pair held for Pichierri to narrow the gap considerably. Not long after that, he overtook the lead and then began to stretch an advantage of his own.

In the final hand, Foxen limped from the button for 200,000 total with Q10 and called a raise to 800,000 from Pichierri, who held QQ out of the big blind. The flop came down 1063 to give Foxen top pair. Pichierri bet 900,000 with his overpair and Foxen raised to 2,100,000. Pichierri three-bet to 4,000,000 and Foxen jammed for 7,325,000. Pichierri made the call and was in fantastic shape to close out the win. The 7 on the turn and 7 were no help for Foxen and he was eliminated in second place ($248,529). The American now has more than $33.5 million in career cashes to his name.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

Photo credit: WSOP, Kings Resort / Tomas Stacha.