WSOPE (World Series of Poker – Europe) Goes Gold

It has been an eventful week at the recent World Series of Poker Europe tournament; Mike Mizrachi came up tops, and Scotty Nguyen as overall-leader reckons he is destined for the Poker Hall of Fame. The Gold bracelets have been dished out, and saw a first ever bracelet winner from Tunisia. Ben Mahmoud won Event 1; the first bracelet awarded in Cannes. This award is considered to be historic. Mahmoud defeated Yannick Bonnet heads-up for the bracelet, and sealed the win in the €2,700 Six-Max No Limit Hold’em).

After the last river card fell, Ben Mahmoud was fast surrounded by his friends from the rail. He received tremendous support in this, the biggest moment of his poker career. The €147,099 first place prize is the largest he has ever received, and Mahmoud actually considers himself to be a “recreational” poker player. The significance of this win could change the course of his life, especially if he decides to go pro, but it was also a noteworthy win for the country of his birth.

Last week also saw some momentous news for PokerStars; they concluded their World Championship online poker tournament for 2012 on the virtual felt. It was one of the biggest and most successful online tournaments ever; lasting a full three weeks and a day. It also generated massive amounts of prize money, with multi-millions of dollars being given away. Perhaps one of the most significant story-lines from this particular virtual event, was when “maratik” from Russia, turned 40 frequent player points into a mahoosive $1,000,907 prize in the main event.

This story has all the magic of the Chris Moneymaker fairy-tale, when an online poker player from nowhere became the winner of the World Series of Poker Main Event in 2003 from a $40 satellite. Moneymaker started his bankroll by playing online poker for free.