It has been quite the week for Roman Verenko. On November 4 he captured his first live tournament title ever by winning a €5,000 buy-in pot-limit Omaha side event at the World Series of Poker Europe festival for what was then a career-high payday of $49,637. Just three days later he managed to come out on top in another €5,000 buy-in PLO tournament. The second time around, he defeated a field of 223 entries in an official bracelet event, earning his first piece of WSOP hardware and the top prize of $247,288.
The Ukrainian now has more than $564,000 in lifetime tournament earnings, with more than half of that money being won in the past few days.
Verenko was awarded 768 Card Player Player of the Year points as the champion of this event. This was his third POY-qualified final-table finish of the year. With 968 total points, he now sits within reach of the top 500 in the 2022 POY race standings, which are sponsored by Global Poker.
The top 34 finishers made the money in this event, with notables like bracelet winner Andriy Lyubovetskiy (30th), six-time bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu (28th), Felipe Ramos (26th), two-time bracelet winner Yuval Bronshtein (17th), bracelet winner Daniel Dvoress (16th), bracelet winner Jan-Peter Jachtmann (15th), and five-time bracelet winner Shaun Deev (10th) among those who cashed.
By the time the field combined onto a single table, Verenko sat in fifth chip position while Eran Dov Carmi was atop the leaderboard. Dimitrios Michalidis (9th – $18,572) ran double-suited A-K-J-7 into the pocket aces of Michael Magalashvili and was unable to come from behind. Then, Carmi made the nut flush against the set of kings of Roland Israelashvili after all of the chips had gone in preflop. Israelashvili earned $23,042 for his 194th cash in a bracelet event.
Magalashvili was the next to fall, with his A-Q-9-4 running into the A-K-7-6 of two-time bracelet winner Oleksii Kovalchuk. A pair of kings was enough by the river to send Magalashvili packing with $29,453.
Despite scoring that elimination, Kovalchuk was soon heading home himself. He got all-in preflop with pocket queens, some connected cards, and one suit facing the double-suited A-J-9-3 of Carmi. The turn gave Carmi nines and threes, which remained the best hand after a brick on the river. Kovalchuk earned $38,756 as the sixth-place finisher.
Thomer Pidun ran pocket kings into the pocket aces of Carmi to finish fifth ($52,453). Verenko then scored his first knockout of the final table after he flopped a flush to take a dominant lead in a clash against Gergo Nagy. The turn and river were no help to Nagy, who was awarded $72,962 for his fourth-place showing.
Carmi then got all-in after a flop of J104 against the 10876 after most of the chips went in preflop. Carmi had the high end of the wrap straight draw, but a 2 turn and 8 river was of no help. Verenko’s tens and eights scooped the pot, giving him a massive chip lead heading into heads-up action with Omar Huang. Carmi’s third-place finish saw him earn $104,234.
It didn’t take long for the final hand to arrive. All of the chips got in preflop with Huang holding K874 to Verenko’s J532. The board came down A54 to give Verenko the wheel. The A on the turn and K on the river meant that Huang was eliminated in second place ($152,827).
Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
| 1 | Roman Verenko | $247,288 | 768 |
| 2 | Omar Huang | $152,827 | 640 |
| 3 | Eran Carmi | $104,234 | 512 |
| 4 | Gergo Nagy | $72,962 | 384 |
| 5 | Thomer Pidun | $52,453 | 320 |
| 6 | Oleksii Kovalchuk | $38,756 | 256 |
| 7 | Michael Magalashvili | $29,453 | 192 |
| 8 | Roland Israelashvili | $23,042 | 128 |
| 9 | Dimitrios Michailidis | $18,572 | 64 |
Winner photo provided by WSOP.
