Michal Schuh Comes Up Big In World Series of Poker Europe Colossus Event

Michal Schuh came out on top in the 2024 World Series of Poker Europe €550 no-limit hold’em Colossus event, topping the sizable field of 2,799 entries to earn the top prize of $190,199. The Czech native also became just the 11th player from his home country to secure a WSOP bracelet.

This was the largest recorded score yet for Schuh, topping the $90,192 he took home for a third-place finish in the 2017 WSOP International Circuit main event held at this same venue. He now has more than $595,000 in lifetime earnings to his name.

In addition to the hardware and the money, Schuh was also awarded 600 Card Player Player of the Year points. This was his second POY-qualified score of the year, having also placed eighth from a field of 6,237 in the Euro Poker Millions €590 buy-in event at this Casino in July for $59,235 and 110 points. With 710 total points, he now sits just outside the top 1,100 in the 2024 POY standings presented by Global Poker.

This event ran from Sept. 25 – 30 at Kings Resort Rozvadov. It featured eight starting flights, including one held at Kings Resort Prague, along two more days of action. The strong turnout saw The final day began with 16 players remaining and Georgios Tsouloftas in the lead. Schuh sat in fourth chip position to start.

Tsouloftas remained on top heading into the final table, while Schuh had climbed into second place in the chip counts. Hong Pham ran A-Q into pocket aces to finish ninth ($27,473). Mousa Awad (8th – $32,246) then lost a race with A-K against the pocket tens of Schuh to see the field trimmed to seven.

Pascal Pflock was down to less than a handful of big blinds when he got all-in with 10-8 suited trailing the A-7 of Erik van Hulst. An ace-high runout saw the German eliminated in seventh place ($38,462).

Schuh continued to surge thanks to his A-K holding against the A-Q of Tomas Krivsky. Neither player connected and Krivsky headed to the payout window to collect his $47,120 payday as the sixth-place finisher.

The next knockout saw Schuh come from behind, with his AJ overcoming the AQ suited of Vito Branciforte thanks to a Q93108 runout. Branciforte placed fifth, earning a career-best score of $58,997.

Paul-Adrian Runcan was critically short stacked when he shoved from the small blind with J-5. He was dominated by the Q-J of Tsouloftas, who called out of the big blind. Both players paired their jacks on the turn, but the kicker played to see RUncan finish fourth ($75,314).

Despite scoring that knockout, Tsouloftas was ultimately the next to fall. After a back-and-forth three-handed battle, he lost a big pot with the flopped second nut flush against the flopped nut flush for Schuh. He then doubled-up the short stack, three-bet shoving over Schuh’s button open from the small blind with Q-8 only to run into A-10 from Van Hulst in the big blind. Neither player improved and Tsouloftas was left with less than a big blind after the hand. He was eliminated not long after in third place, earning $98,069 for his strong showing.

Schuh held roughly a 4:3 lead over Van Hulst when heads-up play began. The advantage changed hands, but Schuh was able to regain control and pull away ahead of the last hand of the tournament. In the final hand, Van Hulst moved all-in for just over eight big blinds with K4 from the button. Schuh called with AJ and the board ran out AA739 to bring the event to a close. Van Hulst was awarded $130,259 as the runner-up.

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

Photo credit: WSOP / Tomas Stacha.