WSOPE Event #8: €25,000 GGMillion€

Nearly three years ago, Alessandro Pichierri was overjoyed to capture his first bracelet at King's Resort during the 2021 World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE). Today, he surpassed that achievement with a victory in Event #8: €25,000 NLH GGMillion€. Pichierri overcame a field of 38 entrants to claim his second WSOP gold bracelet and a career-best prize of €335,900.

Choosing to register as late as possible on Day 2, Pichierri stayed under the radar for most of the day, entering the final table in the middle of the pack. He began to gain momentum after the money bubble burst, ultimately overtaking Alex Foxen heads-up to secure the title and the lion's share of the €1,000,000 prize pool.

Final Table Results

Winner's Reaction

"I feel very grateful to see a good result from my hard work" Pichierri mentioned when asked how he felt following the big win. "When you play every day and things go bad, you can think that you're doing something wrong but when you win a tournament like this, you can feel a bit of peace. I've had many up moments and some down moments in my career and this is for sure an up moment".

Pichierri had a difficult path to victory with Foxen seated to his left holding a dominant chip lead for most of the day. Pichierri touched on the difficulty of navigating that final table up until heads-up play began.

"The whole final table was hard, and painful at times. He (Foxen) is a very difficult opponent, very aggressive, and he was on my left as a massive chip leader. The whole final table I just waited and let him do everything. Once heads-up play began I got lucky two times. I won a flip and then a semi-cooler. So heads-up was easy, but Foxen was a very hard opponent".

Day 2 Action

Late registration remained open through the first two levels of Day 2, allowing several high-profile players to join the 14 Day 1 survivors. Among the new entries were notable names such as Julien Martini, Fahredin Mustafov, former King's Resort owner Leon Tsoukernik, Anson Tsang, Jan-Peter Jachtmann, and Alessandro Pichierri.

The day began with Alex and Kristen Foxen as the shortest stacks in the field, but their journeys took very different paths. Alex gained early momentum, winning several pots without a showdown and eventually knocking out Stephen Chidwick before eliminating his spouse, Kristen, to ascend among the chip leaders. Kristen and Chidwick chose to reenter, though neither could improve on their second attempts. Kristen managed to build momentum after busting Chidwick but was sent to the rail again by her husband, this time in a blind-on-blind clash.

Meanwhile, Martin Kabrhel, who started as the chip leader, provided plenty of table banter. At one point, he needled Chidwick after the latter's early bust-out. However, Kabrhel struggled to gain traction despite his early advantage and was eliminated well before the final table was formed.

Among those who narrowly missed out on the final table were Shaun Deeb, Simone Andrian, as well as the previously mentioned Jachtmann and Tsang. With Safwane Bahri's elimination in tenth place, the nine-handed final table was locked in, led by Foxen, who held a dominant chip advantage over the field.

Final Table Play

On the opposite end of the spectrum from Foxen was Orpen Kisacikoglu, who started the final table as the short stack with just 16 big blinds. Kisacikoglu was unable to spin up his short stack and became the first to fall from the unofficial final table after losing a preflop race to Salih Atac, who entered the final table with the second-largest stack.

Online legend Viktor Blom began the day with an above-average stack, but his luck took a sharp turn for the worse once the final table began. After being forced to fold twice to Foxen's aggression, Blom found himself on the wrong side of a nasty cooler when his queens ran into Pichierri's aces, resulting in Blom's elimination just two spots shy of making the money. Not long after, Samuel Ju would also run into aces, this time held by Atac. Ju failed to improve with his ace-king and earned the unfortunate title of bubble boy while Pichierri gained some much-needed momentum.

Former King's Resort owner Tsoukernik had a roller-coaster final table following Ju's elimination. First, he eliminated Sirzat Hissou in sixth place and shortly afterward he turned a set of sixes in another hand that brought him nearly even with Foxen for the chip lead. From there, Tsoukernik lost most of his stack after doubling up Alessandro Pichierri twice but seemed poised for a comeback after sending off Tom-Aksel Bedell in fifth place. Foxen finally put an end to Tsoukernik's run after picking up pocket kings and holding against the pocket queens of Tsoukernik, who exited in fourth place.

Foxen held well over half the total chips in play with three players remaining and applied relentless pressure on his opponents following Tsoukernik's elimination. Pichierri managed to call a bluff from Foxen, keeping himself in contention, while Atac continued to dwindle before bowing out in third place.

Entering heads-up play, Foxen had nearly a 4:1 chip lead over Pichierri. However, Pichierri quickly won a flip in one of the first hands, which helped him stay competitive. From that point on, he seized the momentum. After winning a few more small pots, Pichierri found himself with the chip lead for the first time that day.

The final hand saw Foxen get his chips in with top pair against Pichierri's overpair. Unfortunately for Foxen, he couldn't hit either of his two outs and was forced to settle for second place, while Pichierri claimed the final pot of the night, along with the trophy and the top prize of €335,900.

That concludes the PokerNews coverage for this event but stay tuned for our ongoing coverage of the 2024 WSOPE here at King's Resort.

Alex Foxen    limped in from the button and Alessandro Pichierri    checked in the big blind.

The     flop checked through to the   turn, giving Foxen a pair of tens while Pichierri picked up a flush draw. Foxen called a bet of 600,000.

Pichierri sized up to 1,850,000 on the   river and folded out the better hand.

Alessandro Pichierri	10,500,000	200,000
Alex Foxen	8,500,000	-200,000

Alex Foxen    raised to 450,000 from the button and Alessandro Pichierri    defended his big blind.

Pichierri made kings and eights in the     flop and folded out Foxen with a check-raise to 675,000 after Foxen bet 225,000.

Alessandro Pichierri	9,700,000	500,000
Alex Foxen	9,300,000	-500,000

Alessandro Pichierri limped in from the button and called off his stack of 3,800,000 after Alex Foxen jammed from the big blind.

Alessandro Pichierri:   
Alex Foxen:   

The     flop gave Foxen counterfeit outs to go along with his overcrads but the   turn and   river ensured Pichierri's double-up.

Alex Foxen	11,200,000	-4,000,000
Alessandro Pichierri	7,800,000	4,000,000

Salih Atac raised to 600,000 from the button and called for his tournament life after Alex Foxen put him all-in from the big blind.

Salih Atac:   
Alex Foxen:   

Foxen paired his ace on the     flop and sealed the elimination on the   turn ahead of the board completing   river.

Alex Foxen	15,000,000	3,600,000
Alessandro Pichierri	4,000,000	-600,000
Salih Atac	0	-3,000,000

Alessandro Pichierri    limped in from the small blind and called when Alex Foxen    made it 520,000 from the big blind.

Pichierri paired his ace on the     flop to take the lead, and he check-called for 300,000 before the   turn and   river checked through to showdown.

Pichierri took in the pot.

Alex Foxen	11,000,000	-1,000,000
Alessandro Pichierri	6,000,000	1,500,000

Alex Foxen opened to 320,000 from the button with    and Salih Atac called from the small blind with   .

The flop came    . Atac checked, Foxen bet 240,000 and Atac called.

Both players checked the   turn leading to the   river. Atac checked and Foxen moved all in, covering Atac who had 2,300,000 behind. Atac opted to fold and Foxen took the pot.

Alex Foxen	10,000,000	1,000,000
Salih Atac	2,300,000	-900,000

Alex Foxen opened to 320,000 from the button and Alessandro Pichierri defended from the big blind.

The flop came     and PIchierri check-called a 220,000 continuation bet from Foxen.

On the   turn Pichierri led out with a bet of 355,000. Foxen made the call.

Pichierri checked the   river. Foxen bet 790,000 and PIchierri made the call.

Foxen had a missed flush draw with    while Pichierri had aces up with    to take a healthy pot from Foxen.

Alex Foxen	8,800,000	-2,850,000
Alessandro Pichierri	6,600,000	2,480,000
Salih Atac	3,600,000	370,000