Three trophies were awarded on the festival’s penultimate day including United Kingdom’s Samuel Perry winning the two-day €400 8-Game Main Event, Simen Gulbrandsen shipping the €800 H.E.T.R.O.S. High Roller, and Greece’s Andreas Paliogiannis earning the trophy in the €250 Lowball Draw Mix.

Read on to learn about the results on Day 4 of the 2024 EMPC:

On Thursday evening, United Kingdom’s Samuel Perry earned his way onto the international poker map after defeating Norway’s Gunnar Wedde heads-up in the 2024 EMPC Event #5: €400 8-Game Main Event to bank a massive haul of €15,821. The relatively unknown British player notched a few small cashes according to The Hendon Mob in the United Kingdom before heading to Bratislava for some mixed-game action at the 2024 EMPC.

The Main Event itself was a huge success story with 161 entries creating a massive €56,221 to blow away the €40,000 guarantee. This far exceeded the €33,150 prize pool for this event in 2023 when Lithuania’s Dainius Antanaitis won the inaugural Main Event title for €11,265. However, one can’t compare apples to oranges as even though this event had a smaller field of 68 players, the buy-in was also higher at €550.

Many big names were battling it out in the Main Event including Mason Pye, who was the only player to cash in this event in back-to-back years after earning fifth place for €2,155 last year and 13th place for €845 this year.

Five mixed-game beast all hit the rail one-by-one at the final table including Marcin Puczylowski, poker reporter Frank Visser, Joakim Bakke, Vegard Nygaard, and WSOP Circuit ring winner Jon Kyte leaving Wedde and Perry heads-up for the title.

Although Perry eventually came out on top, Wedde, who is part of a family of Norwegian poker players, became one of a handful of players to earn a five-figure score in the EMPC with his impressive runner-up journey after earning €10,120. This should wipe away any tears for narrowly missing out on the coveted trophy for the biggest event during the 2024 EMPC.

Last year, Simen Gulbrandsen was on center stage in the semi-finals in a high-profile match-up against the then-defending WSOP Main Event champion Espen Jorstad in the Poker North Masters and Norwegian Championship €800 Heads-Up. Gulbrandsen went on to defeat the poker legend only to lose the final match to Oyvind Larsen.

Gulbrandsen was back heads-up against a different legend in Tobias Leknes. This time it was in a full-ring event in the 42-entry Event #6: €800 H.E.T.R.O.S. High Roller, which features all the games of H.O.R.S.E. in a different rotation along with deuce-to-seven triple draw after witnessing an impressive bunch hitting the rail including EMPC founder Frode Fagerli, Eva “Chic” Jiretorn, Slovenian poker superstar Blaz Zerjav, and Teemu Kangasvieri.

This was the second time Leknes was heads-up in an EMPC event after finishing one place shy of a trophy in the €350 Dealer’s Choice. Leknes was left one spot shy once again before congratulating Gulbrandsen on his epic win and will still have one chance on Friday to come away with trophies in back-to-back years.

It seemed nearly a certainty that Norwegians would win two out of three tournaments on Day 4 as with nine players remaining in Event #7: €250 Lowball Draw Mix, Greece Andreas Paliogiannis was the only player not from the friendly Nordic country.

However, Paliogiannis stuck around while Norwegians Vegard Nygaard, Marius Hogtun, David Takk, Kenneth Aspestrand, Tor Fenes, Jon Kyte, and Oerjan Skommo all hit the rail leaving him heads-up against Hans Winther. Winther was unable to save the Norwegian poker community’s hopes and dreams and had to settle for a healthy runner-up prize of €3,475 while Paliogiannis earned both the trophy and the €5,367 top prize.

Event #7 attracted 74 entries for a €15,792 prize pool to push past the €15,000 guarantee. The event guaranteed that those who prop bet on Norway to win more trophies than the rest of the world were left shaking their heads in frustration as the rest of the world officially won more trophies with a five to two lead on Norway with just one event remaining.

Samuel Perry’s epic Main Event victory catapulted him to the top of the EMPC Leaderboard with one event remaining. Check out the top 10 on the leaderboard below:

See the 2024 EMPC Schedule here.