Volodymyr Kokoulin Wins First Career Bracelet At WSOP Europe

The 2024 World Series of Poker Europe kicked off this week with several bracelet tournaments at more affordable price points. Event no. 2 was one such contest, with 642 entries made at €550 for the pot-limit Omaha eight-max tournament.

After three starting flights and two more days of action inside Kings Resort Rozvadov, Volodymyr Kokoulin emerged victorious with the title and the top prize of $62,271.

This was the first bracelet win for the Ukrainian player, who finished runner-up in a WSOP International Circuit ring event earlier this year at the same venue.

This event featured a €300,000 guarantee, which was narrowly surpassed by the time registration came to a close. The top 97 finishers made the money, with plenty of big names running deep. Among those that cashed were bracelet winner Stephen Nahm (42nd), three-time bracelet winner Anson Tsang (38th), bracelet winner Sebastian Langrock (16th), and bracelet winner Dario Alioto (11th).

The most accomplished live tournament player at the final table was American Damjan Radanov, who came into this event with more than $2.1 million in career cashes. He ended up bowing out in eighth place, earning $5,661 for his 118th recorded in-the-money finish.

Kokoulin was nearly knocked out in fourth place, with all of his chips in the middle with two pair trailing top set for Claudio Di Giacomo. Kokoulin managed to hit a backdoor flush to double up and take the lead. Di Giacomo was knocked out in fourth place ($19,758) shortly after taking that beat.

Tomasz Kozub knocked out Hristiyan Banov (3rd – $28,305) to enter heads-up play with 4,285,000 to Kokoulin’s 11,660,000. Kokoulin extended that advantage even further before the final hand was dealt. All the chips got in preflop with Kokoulin holding QQ74 against the JJ85 of Kozub. The board ran out 76258 and Kokoulin made an eight-high straight to scoop the pot and the title. Kozub earned $41,514 as the runner-up.

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

Photo provided by WSOP, Kings Resort / Tomas Stacha.