The 2024 EPT Paris stop has concluded and as the final card fell, the biggest win of a big name’s career was confirmed. Oliver Weis has shot to fame over the past 12 months to such an extent that he might have a genuine grievance at not winning a Global Poker Award in recognition of the fact just the other night in Las Vegas. He won’t mind this morning, however, as he looks back on a million-dollar victory that has easily become the biggest victory in his poker journey to date.

Powerplay at Le Palais

The PokerStars European Poker Tour has enjoyed a very fruitful stop in the French capital city of Paris, with Le Palais De Congres a hugely successful – and most importantly full – new venue over the past fortnight. From the FPS Main Event to the final €10,300 High Roller won by Weis, it has been a roaring success and with 512 entries in this final event, awarded a top prize of €970,200, the equivalent of just over $1.05 million.

With over $5 million in the prizepool, the final day took an incredible 13 hours to come to a dramatic conclusion, with 71 places paid and players such as Jan Eric Schwippert (69^th), Chris Dowling (67^th) and Byron Kaverman (65^th) all earning a min-cash worth $19,475. Other in-the-money finishes for big names in poker included Aliaksei Boika (40^th for $22,400), Ben Heath (27^th for $34,000), Daniel Smiljkovic (22^nd for $39,175) and Joey Weisman (12^th for $68,500).

Once the nine-handed final table began, Weis held the chip lead, with 72 big blinds to his name, a long way ahead of Russian Nikita Kuznetsov in second place on 54 bigs. It was the Finnish player Tomi Brouk who busted first, his call for his stack pre-flop with proven incorrect when Sergey Lebedev turned over , no pairs coming to change matters, sending Brouk home with $98,700 in ninth.

Ribeiro Hits the Rail

The next player to go was Alex Tkatschew, who busted for $126,700 in eighth place. The Austrian lost a coinflip with pocket sevens against Russia’s Sergey Lebedev, who hit the flop with his ace-queen, the board sending Tkatschew home. It was at this point that a decision was made to reduce the clock of the tournament to 45-minute levels instead of an hour and 30-minute levels from three-handed play to a conclusion, a choice that was arrived at with the full co-operation of both the players and Global Poker Award winning tournament director Toby Stone.

Russian player Nikita Kuznetsov was the player who bust in seventh place, earning $164,750 in the process. All-in with , he was not as fortunate with it as his countryman Lebedev had been in the previous elimination, Lebedev himself winning the flip with to accelerate towards the upper limits of the leaderboard.

Brazilian player Carlos Ribeiro exited in sixth, his unable to usurp Stanislav Zegal’s as the German’s ‘snowmen’ held up through the board. Ribeiro’s cash was worth $214,100 and it wasn’t long before he was joined on the rail by the man who busted him. Zegal shoved for 12 big blinds with and was called by Weis with . The board of did not help Zegal one bt and he departed in fifth for $278,350.

Weis-wash Ends Event in Style

“I’ve been playing a long time and it feels great to finally get a major title.”

With four players left, one player went from hero to zero – and the rail. Belarussian Ihar Soika had led the field with seven players left, with his eye firmly on the million-dollar top prize. Within three places, he had left the party in fourth, with the astronomical amount of money that $361,800 is feeling like a consolation prize.

All-in with , Soika was unfortunate to be dominated by Lebedev’s in his final hand, the board of pairing Soika’s six to no avail. He had two players for company in the queue for payouts just a few minutes later, as Swiss player Luca Marki with and the aforementioned Lebedev with both lost when all-in against Oliver Weis. The German had and with all the chips committed pre-flop, a runout didn’t help either at-risk player enough, as Weis took out his final two opponents in the final hand.

Pocket kings had proclaimed him king after 13 hours at the felt. After taking down the biggest title of his poker career so far, the eponymous Weis was delighted with the conclusion of the 2024 EPT Paris festival.

“I’ve been playing a long time and it feels great to finally get a major title,” he told PokerNews reporters. “[The final table] was one of the craziest I’ve been involved in, short stacks doubling everywhere, and with a lot of variance at the end, so [I’m] just really happy to win.”

Here are all the results from an exciting final event of the 2024 European Poker Tour festival in the City of Light.

Photographs courtesy of Manuel Kovsca and Eloy Cabascas for PokerNews, official live reporting coverage of the PokerStars European Poker Tour.