Christian Pedersen’s first live poker tournament title was earned on the game’s premiere stages. The Danish poker pro, who primarily plies his trade in the online cash game streets, defeated a field of 359 entries in the World Series of Poker Europe €8,400 GGMillion$ no-limit hold’em high roller. Pedersen overcame Thai all-time money leader Punnat Punsri heads-up, earning $690,000 and his first gold bracelet in the process.
This was by far the largest recorded score for Pedersen, blowing away the $110,959 he secured with an eighth-place finish in a €10,300 high roller at the 2023 European Poker Tour Paris festival. With this huge triumph in Prague, Pedersen is approaching $1 million in career cashes.
This triumph also came with 1,200 Card Player Player of the Year points, enough to catapult the infrequent live tournament participant within reach of the top 100 in the 2026 POY standings presented by CoinPoker.
While this was the first POY-qualified score for Pedersen, it was already the ninth final table of the year for Punsri (2nd – $460,000), who has accumulated nearly $3.4 million in POY earnings along the way. The high-stakes regular from Bangkok’s success on the circuit has moved him into fourth place on this year’s POY leaderboard. Punsri now has $35.6 million in lifetime earnings after this close call, but remains in search of his first WSOP bracelet.
Closing Out The Festival In Style
This tournament was the last to finish inside the Hilton Prague, which was playing host to the WSOPE for the first time after being held at Kings Resort Rozvadov from 2017 through 2025.
The solid turnout made for a prize pool of $3,170,000, with the top 54 finishers all earning a share. Big names like Viktor Blom (37th), Leo Margets (29th), Michael Moncek (24th), Landon Tice (20th), Ding Biao (19th), Mustapha Kanit (15th), Alexandre Reard (13th), Boris Kolev (11th), and Yuliyan Nikolaev Kolev (10th) all ran deep.
Triple crown winner Michael Watson came into the final nine with the lead, with Pedersen in second chip position and Punsri towards the bottom of the counts. The clear short stack, though, was Mehdi Chaoui. The recent Triton Jeju $30,000 turbo event winner had just over a single big blind when the final table began, and was soon sent packing in ninth place ($48,300). He was joined in short order by Jake Greenbaum (8th – $62,100), who lost most of his stack with pocket sevens against the pocket queens of Aliaksei Boika.
A massive hand went down during seven-handed action that catapulted Pedersen into the lead. He picked up pocket kings against the pocket queens of Watson, and the two squared off in a preflop raising war that resulted in an all-in confrontation. Both players made a flush when four clubs hit the board, with Pedersen’s being best. Watson slid to 11 big blinds after the hand, and soon got all-in with A♠9♦ trailing the A♥10♥ of Zackary Estes. Neither player improved through a king-high runout, and Watson settled for $81,650 as the seventh-place finisher. The Canadian star now has just shy of $38 million in career cashes under his belt.
Pedersen Continues To Surge
Pedersen’s stock continued to grow thanks to his elimination of Mario Quilez, with A-8 suited besting K-J suited. Pedersen flopped aces up and held from there to send Quilez packing with $109,250.
Estes was the next to fall. He had the same A♥10♥ that helped him eliminate Watson, but this time around was trailing preflop against J♥J♣ for Pedersen. Estes picked up additional outs when he made a pair of tens on the turn, but was unable to improve any further and hit the rail in fifth place ($150,650).
The next big showdown pitted Pedersen’s 3♦3♣ against Q♠10♦ for Boika. The Belarusian flopped a straight draw to go with his overcards, but a final board of K♥9♦7♣A♠9♠ kept the small pocket pair ahead. Boika earned $212,750 as the fourth-place finisher, pushing his career haul past the $9 million mark.
Punsri landed the knockout blow on Miroslav Alilovic, beating K♦J♣ with A♠7♣. The 7♥5♥2♣5♠Q♥ runout gave Punsri sevens and fives with an ace kicker to win the pot and eliminate Alilovic in third place. The French player secured $310,500 with his podium showing, the second-largest score of his career. This windfall only trails the $528,030 he earned for a win in a €2,200 event at the 2022 EPT Barcelona series.
Pedersen Vs. Punsri
Punnat Punsri
Punsri was still trailing heading into heads-up play, but won the first all-in of the clash to edge into the lead. His K♣J♠ outflipped the 3♠3♣ of Pedersen in that instance, with a jack on the flop being enough.
Pedersen was able to retake and then expand the lead before the final hand of the tournament arrived. It was pocket threes again for Pedersen, this time in hearts and diamonds. His 3♥3♦ faced Q♣10♣ for Punsri, who called the open-shove from the button with his suited broadway cards from the big blind.
The board came down K♦8♦7♠2♦A♠ and Pedersen’s pair held to deliver him the pot and the title.
This was the third time that Punsri had finished second in a bracelet event, having previously been the runner-up in both the 2022 WSOP Poker Hall of Fame bounty event and the 2024 WSOP $5,000 no-limit hold’em eight-max event.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Payout | POY Points |
| 1 | Christian Pedersen | $690,000 | 1,200 |
| 2 | Punnat Punsri | $460,000 | 1,000 |
| 3 | Miroslav Alilovic | $310,500 | 800 |
| 4 | Aliaksei Boika | $212,750 | 600 |
| 5 | Zackary Estes | $150,650 | 500 |
| 6 | Mario Quilez | $109,250 | 400 |
| 7 | Michael Watson | $81,650 | 300 |
| 8 | Jake Greenbaum | $62,100 | 200 |
| 9 | Mehdi Chaoui | $48,300 | 100 |
Photo credits: WSOP.
