Former basketball star wins biggest ever WSOPE Main Event
Max Neugebauer swapped hoops for cards after an injury and so far it looks like it has really worked out for him.
The boom in live poker continues as the WSOPE has just hosted a record-breaking Main Event, with 817 runners.
The eventual champion was Max Neugebauer of Austria, who captured €1,500,000 after defeating Eric Tsai heads-up.
The 26-year-old's live earnings stood at just $84,000 before this event, with a $27k score in Vegas being the largest score before now.
If Neugebauer looks familiar, he was a professional basketball star before poker. He played for BC Vienna until an injury ended his career early:
"I had huge knee problems. When I stopped playing basketball, I started playing poker as well. Just the competition part and the part of improving and working on your game was really important to me and I felt like there was some void that needed to be filled. Poker was that for me," he said.
Now all eyes are on WSOP Paradise which gets underway from December 3.
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (EUR) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Max Neugebauer | Austria | €1,500,000 |
| 2 | Eric Tsai | Taiwan | €891,000 |
| 3 | Michele Tocci | Italy | €639,000 |
| 4 | Kasparas Klezys | Lithuania | €464,000 |
| 5 | Michael Rocco | United States | €341,000 |
| 6 | Nils Pudel | Germany | €255,000 |
| 7 | Ruslan Volkov | Ukraine | €193,000 |
| 8 | Alf Martinsson | Sweden | €148,000 |
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