Daniel Thaller made it down to the final few tables in the Mediterranean Poker Party back in 2022, only to have his run in the massive event end in 20th place. Just three years later, Thaller found himself deep in the same tournament with another shot at glory. This time, he outlasted the competition to claim the trophy
The Larnaca, Cyprus resident has been making the two-hour drive to the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel-Casino Kyrenia for about a decade now. His dedication paid off with this being his biggest score to date.
“I don’t even know… I’m just so thankful. It’s really crazy, I didn’t expect this,” said Thaller after the win. “This is my biggest cash. By far. By far. By far.”
Thaller defeated a field of 1,196 entries in the $5,300 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event, securing a career-best score of $786,670. His previous top payday had been a $46,750 haul as the runner-up in another $5,300 buy-in event at this venue back in 2021. He now has more than $937,000 in career earnings to his name.
This victory also came with a massive haul of 1,920 Card Player Player of the Year points. This was Thaller’s first POY-qualified score of 2025, but it alone was enough to catapult him inside the top 50 in the overall standings.
The prize pool swelled to $5,740,800 thanks to the sizable turnout in this event, surpassing the $5 million guarantee. The top 175 finishers all made the money, earning at least the min-cash of $8,500. Thaller came into the final table in the middle of the pack.
He worked his way up the leaderboard in the early going despite not scoring any of the early knockouts. Once down to the final three, Thaller and his two remaining opponents hashed out a deal to redistribute the remaining prize money while leaving the trophy and $200,000 to play for.
Andreas Mavromoustakis ultimately left with the $651,080 he bargained for after losing a big pot with his flopped top two falling to Thaller’s turned set of sevens. Mavromoustakis was on fumes after that, and was soon eliminated in third place.
Thaller held a sizable lead over Timothy Chung when heads-up play began, with 247,100,000 to Chung’s 111,600,000. After battling for a bit, the chips got in with Thaller holding A
Q
against Chung’s K7. The board came down A
3354 and Thaller won with aces up. Chung settled for $637,250 as the runner-up, a new top cash for the 2022 GUKPT London champion.
Check out a replay of the final table action via Merit Poker’s YouTube channel.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
| 1 | Daniel Thaller | $786,670 | 1920 |
| 2 | Timothy Chung | $637,250 | 1600 |
| 3 | Andreas Mavromoustakis | $651,080 | 1280 |
| 4 | Razvan Sabau | 316,000.00 | 960 |
| 5 | Garik Tamasian | 229,000.00 | 800 |
| 6 | Dawid Smolka | 162,000.00 | 640 |
| 7 | Milad Oghabian Langar | 113,000.00 | 480 |
| 8 | Hassanin Hashim | 80,100 | 320 |
| 9 | Italo Modena | $63,000 | 160 |
Photo credit: Merit Poker.
