The inaugural World Series of Poker Paradise Main Event has been won by German qualifier Stanislav Zegal after a thrilling battle in The Bahamas. With the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island attended by some of the biggest players in the world, the seven finalists in the WSOP Paradise Main Event were the envy of everyone else. At the end of a dramatic conclusion to the event, Zegal had won $2 million, a score he called “life changing money” as he celebrated the achievement of his life.

Seven Start but Don’t Last Long

With Daniel Neilson’s chip leading stack being 62 big blinds tall and the short stack being Montgomery McQuade’s eight bigs, there weren’t too many big blinds on the table. That showed early on as two quick eliminations reduced the field to five in the time it takes to mix a cocktail at the Atlantis Resort’s Hard Rock Hotel. No-one had time to visit the Lazy River before McQuade was the player at risk and Team Lucky lived up to their name.

The British player McQuade shoved pre-flop from the hijack position with and was begrudgingly called by ‘Team Lucky’ player Matt Glantz. The other three members of Team Lucky are Daniel Weinman, the 2023 WSOP Main Event winner, Josh Arieh, star of Game of Gold and Shaun Deeb, who is on his way to winning a million-dollar weight loss bet by next summer’s Vegas WSOP.

With over a dozen bracelets between them, Glatz was attempting to win the quartet’s second Main Event of 2023 and held with ease as his struck gold on the . The turn rendered the river meaningless as Glantz hoovered up McQuade’s chips and the Brit shook his hand to leave in seventh place for a payday of $300,000.

Schroeder Gets Peanuts

If irony ever plays a part in poker, it seems to be in the regular exposure of players’ names for narrative game. In a world where the WSOP record-holding winner enjoys talking and is called Hell-muth and the most propulsive winner of the seminal Main Event was called Moneymaker, the Brazilian players Schroeder winning ‘Peanuts’ in final table terms was apt. In the famous cartoon Peanuts, Schroeder love Beethoven but was often left frustrated.

Here the same was true in at least the latter example as Schroeder, his lost to Michael Sklenicka’s as a flip for 38.9 million chips went against him. Left with just under three big blinds, Schroeder lost his final hand to the same player as Skleicka’s prevailed against the Brazilian’s , a board of leaving Schroeder dead by the river and on the rail with $400,000.

Sklenicka was on a roll and took out Portuguese professional Rui Sousa next. The latter three-bet all-in for 20.5 million chips with – a whopping 34 big blinds – and paid for his over-aggression, as Sklenicka called with the dominating . The flop of gave Sousa an open-ended straight draw but a turn wasn’t any help and when the fell on the river, the Czech player grew his new chip lead at the table with the large chunk of chips that had been in front of the eliminated Sousa, who slunk away to collect $1510,000.

Team Lucky Lives Up to Their Name

“How good does this guy run!?”

All-in with , Matt Glantz was left needing a lot of luck from his Team Lucky railmates when the overnight chips leader Daniel Neilson called with . The flop of gave Glantz a backdoor straight draw, but such runner-runner miracles were no longer necessary when the two-outer landed on the turn to rapturous roars from the rail.

“How good does this guy run!?” Asked Norman Chad on the official WSOP commentary stream and it was a good question. Team Lucky? They know it.

A ended any hope Neilson had of winning the hand and having started the day on 15 million chips, Glantz leapt to 33.8 million at the now deposed Neilson’s expense, the Aussie slipping to just 25.8 million chips by comparison. A tight hand between Michael Sklenicka and German player Stanislav Zegal saw the chipstacks balance up even more, with the hand concluding with Sklenicka on 46.3 million and Zegal stacking up 43.8 million. The WSOP Paradise Main Event was anyone’s to win.

Matt Glantz decided to make another move soon after that elimination, but his timing was horrible. Three-betting all-in with , Glantz was well behind his caller Daniel Neilson with . The six-high board of saw Glantz hit the rail just as Jeff ‘Doomslayer’ Platt spoke to fellow Team Lucky member Shaun Deeb on the rail.

Zegal Eagle Flies Highest

“You make plans for when stuff like this happens, but then when it happens it’s so overwhelming.”

Another huge hand was right around the corner, as a few minutes later, Stanislav Zegal, an online qualifier for the $5,000-entry Main Event was all-in on a board showing with after Neilson shoved, covering Zegal with . A river concluded the hand and while Zegal ended it with 110 million chips and a massive chip lead, Neilson was down to 15.2 million, the equivalent of just 15 big blinds.

Losing the rest of his chips in the next hand, Neilson cashed for $900,000. All-in with on a flop of , he was called by Michael Sklenicka with and he survived the turn and river to go to the heads-up for the title with around a third of Zegal’s chips.

It didn’t take long for Zegal to lock it up. On a flop of , Zegal checked with and Sklenicka bet with .

Both players checked the turn before a river saw Zegal check again. Sklenicka moved all-in for 16 million and Zegal went into deep thought, taking off his hat and glasses and eventually making a hero call to win his first-ever major title and the inaugural WSOP Paradise Main Event for $2 million. Sklenicka had to settle for a second-place score of $1.2 million.

“It was somewhat exhausting and needs to settle,” Zegal told PokerNews “You always make plans for when stuff like this happens, but then when it happens it’s so overwhelming. I’m going to do something for myself, for my health more, study more poker and just enjoy the time with friends and family but I won’t play higher. I felt comfortable here.”

No-one ever looked more comfortable than the German player as he landed the first major win of his poker career.

Headline photograph courtesy of Tomas Stacha at PokerNews, the official reporting team for the WSOP Paradise festival.