Event #7: €2,200 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed

Seven out of 10 events of the 2018 World Series of Poker Europe have now awarded the coveted gold bracelet in Europe's biggest poker arena at the King's Casino in Rozvadov. After a brief and very intense final day, it was Hong Kong's Yan Shing "Anson" Tsang that defeated Ilya Bulychev to claim his maiden bracelet in Event #7: €2,200 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed. For his win, Tsang took home €91,730, Bulychev had to settle for a payday of €56,684.

It was certainly no surprise to see Tsang and Bulychev in heads-up as they were first and second in chips after Day 1 and Day 2 respectively. Down to the last four players, Tsang regained the lead once more and never put his foot from the pedal to dominated the late stages with sheer aggression. This past summer, he already had a shot at a Pot-Limit Omaha bracelet and finished 10th in $ 10,000 Pot Limit Omaha - Championship (Event #49) for $67,210.

"Actually, I play Hold'em, PLO and all the mixed games, but the mixed games was the first time that I played in Las Vegas. PLO and Hold'em tournaments I play quite a lot," Tsang said in the interview after his victory.

While many others may have considered ICM on the final table of this buy-in, for Tsang it was all about the victory and the gold bracelet that he had previously missed out on.

"Yes, I always play for the win. I think there is an edge for me, because some players may be very concerned about ICM."

As his most dangerous opponents on the final table, Tsang mentioned "My countryman, Hokyiu Lee, and both the Swedish guys were very good."

While Tsang was always near the top of the counts, it wasn't an easy ride and he regularly went up and down the leaderboard in the early and middle stages of the final table. One key hand changed that, as Tsang was suddenly in control with four players remaining.

"Yes, it was a key hand with Quan Zhou when he three-bet ace-king suited and I four-bet all in. But actually, my equity was quite good in this hand," Tsang elaborated.

The day is not over yet for the first WSOP bracelet winner from Hong Kong, as he plans to jump into the €25,500 Super High Roller for another shot at glory.

"Yeah I am going to play the 25k later. I was planning to play the event actually, so no matter if I got the bracelet or not I was still going to play."

Many Asian players made the trip to Rozvadov to take part in the 2018 WSOPE and have been thriving in the last two yxears. A few of them are poised to win their own maiden bracelet according to Tsang:

"To be honest, you can see that the results of the Asian players are really good in the past two years. Asia has a lot of good poker players, and they start to travel around for poker tournaments. I am happy to be with them together. A lot of them are really good. Danny Tang, Michael Soyza and Pete Chen are very good and I think more bracelets are coming for the Asian players.

Tsang currently sits in fourth place in the Hong Kong all-time money list with more than $2.4 million in cashes, but he is the first to win a WSOP bracelet. For official purpose, Hong Kong s is a part of China, but, for all intents and purposes, it is allowed to operate as an independent country.

The event drew a total of 187 entries, consisting of 106 unique players and 81 re-entries. The top 29 spots took home a portion of the €358,853 prize pool and Tomasz Gluszko ended up as the bubble boy. Notables that cashed include Roland Israelashvili, Chris Ferguson, 2018 WSOP Player of the Year contender Shaun Deeb, Jan-Peter Jachtmann, Allen Kessler, Anthony Zinno, 2013 WSOP Main Event champion Ryan Riess and Aaron Duczak.

Final Result Event #7: €2,200 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed

Action of the Final Day

It only took eight hands to reduce the final table from eight to the last six hopefuls. Pot-Limit Omaha online high stakes cash game player Alexander Norden was the first to depart. The Swede three-bet preflop with pocket aces and got his stack in after a king-queen-queen flop only to see Ilya Bulychev snap-call with the flopped full house. Gisle Olsen fell victim to the other big stack Anson Tsang when his kings were outfloppped by eventual champion Tsang with trips fours.

Quan Zhou doubled through Bulychev to claim the lead, but the Russian jumped back into the top spot after doubling through Hokyiu Lee soon after. Just one hand later, Lee was forced all in from the big blind and Zhou dealt the final blow.

One hour later it was the second Swede on the final table that ran out of chips in Ludvig Sterner. The PLO cash game regular never got much going and eventually ended up all in and at risk when defending his big blind and flopping the nut straight. Jason Gray held the nutflushdraw and immediately got there on the turn to leave Sterner drawing dead.

That reduced the field to the final four and Tsang ramped up the aggression, assuming control with a very aggressive playing style. Tsang four-bet shoved with king-jack-ten-ten double suit into Ilya Bulychev's cold-call and the three-bet of Quan Zhou, who had a suited ace-king and forfeited almost half of his remaining stack.

Zhou never recovered from that final blow and eventually ended up all in with fewer than two big blinds. It was Tsang that finished off the job he previously started and the top set on the flop was more than enough to reduce the field to the last three.

Jason Gray, since 2012 a member of the Aussie Poker Hall of Fame and now based in London, United Kingdom, patiently nursed a shorter stack for most of the final table and even took over the lead for a short time. However, Gray was grinded back down by the aggression of Tsang and ran with an ace-king-ten-deuce double suit into the aces of Bulychev. Gray turned two pair, but Bulychev rivered the flush.

In heads-up, Tsang had a comfortable lead over Bulychev and needed a mere 20 minutes to emerge victoriously. After turning the nut straight and jamming into his opponent, Tsang held a commanding lead and the duo clashed again the very next hand. This time, Bulychev had the best of it on the flop with the nut straight, while Tsang held bottom set. Instead of the full house, running hearts gave Tsang the winning flush and that sealed his victory.

Another three gold bracelets are up for grabs during the 2018 WSOPE and the PokerNews live reporting team will be on the floor until the conclusion of the WSOPE Main Event on November 2nd, 2018.

Anson Tsang made it 210,000 to go with      and Ilya Bulychev defended the     . The flop of     was checked through and the   turn brought another check by Bulychev. A delayed continuation bet awarded the pot to Tsang and right after the WSOPE gold bracelet was placed in the middle of the live stream table.

Bulychev then raidsed the      and Tsang called with     . On the     flop, Tsang checked and Bulychev bet 260,000, the call of Tsang followed.

The   came on the turn and Tsang checked, Bulychev asked for the size of the pot and bet 750,000 into a pot of 1 million.

Tsang clarified the bet and pot size with the dealer, double-checked his cards and raised the pot to put Bulychev the option to call all in or fold with around 1.6 million behind. It was not a quick fold by Bulychev, who took more than two minutes before letting go.

That hand vaulted Tsang into a commanding lead.

Anson Tsang	5,830,000	1,380,000
Ilya Bulychev	1,645,000	-1,380,000

Ilya Bulychev raised the pot from the button and Jason Gray three-bet to 680,000 in the small blind, Bulychev moved all in and Gray called for 835,000.

"Nice hand," Gray said immediately and tapped the table when the cards were turned over.

Jason Gray:     
Ilya Bulychev:     

The board came       and the two pair of Gray were no good, as Bulychev rivered the flush to eliminate Gray in 3rd place for

Anson Tsang	4,690,000	-80,000
Ilya Bulychev	2,785,000	915,000
Jason Gray	0	-835,000

Anson Tsang raised to 205,000 with the      and Jason Gray called in the big blind with the     . The     flop was checked by Gray, Tsang bet the pot and forced an instant fold.

Anson Tsang	4,170,000	85,000
Ilya Bulychev	2,790,000	240,000
Jason Gray	515,000	-325,000

A three-way limped pot was checked on the     flop and the   fell on the turn. Ilya Bulychev bet 125,000 with the      and Anson Tsang was the only caller with     in the small blind.

On the   river, Tsang check-called a bet of 175,000 to see the bad news and Bulychev claimed the last hand of the level before the players headed into a 15-minute break.

Anson Tsang	4,085,000	-680,000
Ilya Bulychev	2,550,000	570,000
Jason Gray	840,000	110,000

Ilya Bulychev raised with the      and Anson Tsang defended the big blind with the     . They checked the     flop and Tsang bet the   turn for 330,000, Bulychev called. On the   river, Tsang bet just 245,000 into a pot of 990,000.

Bulychev gave it a lot of thought and eventually paid off Tsang with his counterfeited two pair.

Anson Tsang	4,315,000	755,000
Ilya Bulychev	2,040,000	-725,000
Jason Gray	1,120,000	-30,000

Anson Tsang raised the button with the      and Ilya Bulychev called in the small blind with the     , Quan Zhou called in the big blind with      with a mere 85,000 behind.

Bulychev bet the     flop for 80,000 and Zhou folded, Tsang called. The   turn was checked by Bulychev and Tsang bet 235,000 to win the pot.

Anson Tsang	3,335,000	540,000
Ilya Bulychev	2,765,000	-240,000
Jason Gray	1,290,000	0
Quan Zhou	85,000	-300,000

Ilya Bulychev limped the      out of the small blind and Quan Zhou raised to 175,000 with the      in the big blind, Bulychev called.

The flop came     and Bulychev double-checked his cards, checked and Zhou quickly checked back. Bulychev also checked the   turn, as did Zhou. On the   river, Bulychev made it 100,000 to go and Zhou folded.

Anson Tsang	3,185,000	150,000
Ilya Bulychev	3,005,000	325,000
Jason Gray	810,000	-240,000
Quan Zhou	475,000	-265,000

Anson Tsang limped in with the      and Ilya Bulychev checked his option with the     . They checked the     flop and the   turn was checked by Tsang Bulychev bet 80,000 and Tsang's check-raise to 240,000 won the pot in a battle of the two chip leaders.

Tsang raised to 140,000 first to act soon after with the      and Bulychev flat-called on the button with the     . Quan Zhou in the small blind raised the pot to 620,000 with the     . Jason Gray snap-folded in the big blind and Tsang went for it to four-bet to 2,060,000.

Bulychev quickly folded and Zhou, who had half of his stack in already, was sent into the think tank. He was already in a similar spot at the end of day 2 and folded after more than four minutes, this time he did so after three minutes.

Anson Tsang	3,435,000	990,000
Ilya Bulychev	2,250,000	-220,000
Jason Gray	1,050,000	-90,000
Quan Zhou	740,000	-680,000

Quan Zhou raised to 110,000 with the      and Anson Tsang in the small blind three-bet the pot with the     , Zhou called and a pot of 810,000 emerged. The flop came     and a bet of 450,000 by Tsang did the trick to win the pot without further resistance.

Jason Gray opened the next hand with the      and Zhou called with the      in the big blind. Zhou picked up a flush draw on the     flop and his bet ended the hand right there. Zhou also won the next hand against by check-raising top pair and gutshot against Gray in a limped battle of the blinds to send the Aussie further down in the leaderboard.

Ilya Bulychev	2,470,000	-25,000
Anson Tsang	2,445,000	455,000
Quan Zhou	1,420,000	-15,000
Jason Gray	1,140,000	-415,000