The 2023 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event at Kings Casino in Rozvadov, Czech Republic, smashed through its prior participation mark on Sunday during Day 2 action. With late registration avaiable through most of Sunday, 140 players either bought in or re-entered after busting in earlier flights.
The additional entries brought overall attendance to 817, topping the old mark of 763 set in 2022. The record attendance also generated a record €7,761,500 prize pool for the tournament, with €1.5 million awaiting the event's winner later this week.
WSOP Vice President Jack Effel heralded the new attendance mark via X / Twitter:
Once registration closed, the final-table payouts in the WSOP Europe main event could be calculated and have been announced as follows:
1st - €1,500,000
2nd - €891,000
3rd - €639,000
4th - €464,000
5th - €341,000
6th - €255,000
7th - €193,000
8th - €148,000
9th - €115,300
Overall, 123 players will cash in the event, with the money bubble scheduled to break early in today's Day 3 action.
Germany's Kenesha Kabir tops Day 2 survivors
More than half of Day 2's overall participants were gone by night's end, while Germany's Kenesha Kabir rode high during the day's 14 hours of play. Kabir is a relative newcomer to live poker events, having never cashed in a WSOP tourney and having only $4,122 in career live earnings to date. Nonetheless, the unhearlded Kabir amassed 1,600,000 in chips on Sunday to lead all 191 Day 2 survivors.
Italy's Andrea Radicchi was the only other player to finish over 1.5 million, while Day 1B chipleader Levan Rcheulishvili and German star Leon Sturm also bagged top-ten stacks.
Outside the top ten, but still well positioned for a deep run, is the event's returning champion, Omar Eljach. Eljach picked up his second bracelet earlier in this year's series and the Swedish star bagged 663,000 on Sunday. Several stars finished Day 2 with big stacks that placed just outside Sunday's top ten, including Maria Lampropulos (888,000), Adrian Mateos (885,000), Alex Keating (701,000), Viktor Blom (700,000), and Dario Sammartino (681,000). The top ten stacks from Day 2 action were these:
Keneshka Kabir (Germany) - 1,600,000
Andrea Radicchi (Italy) - 1,502,000
Alexander Tkatschew (Germany) - 1,277,000
Max Neugebauer (Austria) - 1,180,000
Levan Rcheulishvili (Georgia) - 1,170,000
Leon Sturm (Germany) - 1,030,000
Bruno Desimoni (Brazil) - 997,000
Vito Vella (Italy) - 980,000
Alf Martinsson (Sweden) - 976,000
Kasparas Klezys (Lithuania) - 970,000
