Mike Leah Wins WSOP Europe Rounder Cup For Second Bracelet

The 2026 World Series of Poker Europe €2,750 Rounder Cup pitted Europe against the rest of the world in a new twist on the no-limit hold’em tournament. Day 1A was open only to players from the host continent, while Day 1B was open to players from other nations around the globe. A total of 647 entries were made inside the Hilton Hotel Prague, resulting in a $1,785,720 prize pool.

In the end, the visiting team came away with the win. It was Canada’s Mike Leah who emerged victorious, defeating Georgian Tornike Tchkonia heads-up. Leah earned $335,800 and his second career gold bracelet as the champion. His first came back in 2014, at the WSOP Asia Pacific. He took down a $25,000 AUD high roller for $527,000.

With this latest win, Leah joined an elite group of Canadian multi-time bracelet winners, with Daniel Negreanu leading the way with seven. After closing out the victory, Leah made a video call to his son, who posed with him for the above champion’s photo.

Leah, who is also a World Poker Tour main event winner, now has more than $9.8 million in recorded earnings. This latest victory was the seventh-largest of his career.

In addition to the money and the hardware, Leah also secured 1,260 Card Player Player of the Year points. This was his first POY-qualified score of the year, but it alone catapulted him inside the top 100 in the 2026 POY standings presented by CoinPoker.

The Whole World Combines Under One Roof

Leah bagged up the largest stack of any day 1 player, with 104 moving on to day 2 action. Plenty of notables ran deep, including recent bracelet winner Gilles Silbernagel (59th), Pedro Marques (45th), four-time bracelet winner Martin Zamani (37th), Paulina ‘PokerBunny’ Loeliger (36th), four-time bracelet winner Jeff Madsen (25th), bracelet winner Weiran Pu (15th), and eight-time bracelet winner Shaun Deeb (9th). Deeb made his third deep run of the festival, having already finished as the runner-up twice. Incredibly, both final hands in those events saw him eliminated by quads.

This time around, Deeb had pocket jacks cracked by the Q-J of Tchkonia, who turned broadway to win the pot and take the chip lead into the final eight.

Now @shaundeeb gets in JJ vs QJ!

On the FT bubble of the €2,750 Rounder Cup at WSOP Europe.

No way it happens to him again, right? Right?? RIGHT??! 🥶 pic.twitter.com/QMu2Z3baAW

— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) April 8, 2026

Deeb was soon joined on the rail by Yongjae Lee (8th – $31,050) and three-time bracelet winner Ryan Leng (7th – $41,055). Mehdi Chaoui, just a few weeks removed from a $747,000 win in a $30,000 buy-in Triton Jeju high roller, placed sixth in this tournament for $55,315.

Dutch player Joris Ruijs bowed out in fifth place ($76,015), which guaranteed six-figure payouts for the remaining contenders and also left Tchkonia as the last European standing. New Zealand’s Paul Hong was then sent packing in fourth place, earning $106,375. Hong, a 2024 WSOP Online $1,500 bounty event bracelet winner, now has over $570,000 in lifetime scores to his name. 

Closing Out The Win With Pocket Aces

WPT champion and two-time bracelet winner James Obst ultimately fell in third place, earning $151,800 to grow his overall haul to nearly $4.9 million.

Heads-up was a back-and-forth affair. Leah surged ahead early, only to have Tchkonia take and extend a lead of his own. The rest-of-world representative then managed some crucial double-ups, including rivering kings up to best the flopped top pair and nut flush draw of his opponent. Leah then won a big pot with trip tens to move back in front.

The final hand of the tournament began with a button raise to 525,000 from Leah. Tchkonia three-bet shoved for 6,460,000 with A♣2♠. Leah snap called and rolled over A♠A♥. The board came down 10♥7♥5♠Q♥J♠ to lock up the pot and the title for Leah. Tchkonia earned a career-best payday of $220,800 as the runner-up.

Final Table Results

Photo credit: WSOP.