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The club of double WSOP bracelet winners has a new member! After winning the 2023 $800 No-Limit Hold’em Deep Stack in Las Vegas, Renji Mao added another trophy to his collection by taking down Event #8: €5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha at the 2025 World Series of Poker Europe held at King’s Resort in Rozvadov.
Out of a field of 200 entries, Mao claimed the first-place prize of €213,600. The Chinese player defeated Dario Alioto, who had held the chip lead for most of the tournament until Mao’s comeback in heads-up play. The Italian player fell just short of his second WSOP bracelet but earned €138,800 for his runner-up finish.
Fahredin Mustafov also made it to the final table, finishing 4th for €64,000, along with WSOP bracelet winner Zdenek Zizka (5th – €45,600) and the defending champion Dennis Weiss (9th – €16,400).
#8: €5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Renji Mao | China | €213,600 |
| 2 | Dario Alioto | Italy | €138,800 |
| 3 | Grzegorz Derkowski | Germany | €92,800 |
| 4 | Fahredin Mustafov | Bulgaria | €64,000 |
| 5 | Zdenek Zizka | Czech republic | €45,600 |
| 6 | Salih Atac | Switzerland | €33,500 |
| 7 | Vadim Zakharyan | Israel | €25,500 |
| 8 | Kumaran Sarvendran | Norway | €20,050 |
| 9 | Dennis Weiss | Germany | €16,400 |
“I don’t know how Hellmuth does it,” Renji Mao joked as he held up two fingers for his winner’s photo. Two, like the number of bracelets he now owns after “a long wait.” “The bracelet means a lot because the WSOP is always different. The first one was a big-field event that required a lot of luck, but I probably wouldn’t be playing that many tournaments now without it. This one was a higher buy-in with more pros and more fighting, so I’m super happy to take down this field. It proves that I can not only beat Hold’em, but other formats as well,” Mao explained.
The added pride he takes from this victory also comes from the fact that it was far from a smooth ride. “There were a lot of highs and lows in this tournament against players who wanted to fight for the win. Even at the final table: I was the chip leader at the start, but I lost a huge pot. There were a lot of sick rivers, like the aces-aces. I lost the same hand against Nacho Barbero this summer in Vegas, but this time luck was on my side.”
After these swings, he began heads-up play at the lowest possible point, with a 3 to 1 deficit. “But I was pretty relaxed because I didn’t have much to lose,” Mao said. “Heads-up was relatively simple because I just had to focus on doubling down on my aggression and try to fight back. I would have been happy with second place if I lost, so I wasn’t nervous at all.”
This mindset carried him to the bracelet. And even though he says he’s not “a bracelet hunter,” he is already looking ahead to upcoming tournaments, from the €10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Mystery Bounty that has already started to the Main Event in the next few days.
Final Day Action
Day 2 of Event #8: €5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha began with 31 players—minus one, as Fahredin Mustafov couldn’t show up at the start. Fortunately for him, he had built a massive stack of one million chips on Day 1, so he still had more than a decent stack when he arrived at the casino not long before the final table.
Nikolaos Lampropoulos (31st – €10,650), Jose Scarano, and Leszek Badurowicz (29th – €10,650) returned with much shorter stacks and became the first players eliminated of the day. Future champion Renji Mao even scored a double elimination within the first hour of play to bring the field down to the final three tables.
Players such as Han Kuo (23rd – €10,650), Konstantin Razinkov (18th – €11,200), and Ermanno Di Nicola (17th – €11,200) didn’t progress much further, while Mao and Day 1 chip leader Dario Alioto shared the top of the counts. Mao soon took the lead on his own, surpassing 2,000,000 chips after eliminating Anh Do (15th – €12,200) and Ioannis Angelou Konstas (14th – €12,200).
Patrik Jaros (13th – €12,200) was the next to fall to Shaun Deeb, who was still chasing an eighth WSOP bracelet. However, the returning Mustafov stood in his way and eliminated him in 11th place for €13,900.
After another break, Eran Carmi bubbled the final table (10th – €13,900). Among the nine finalists, Dennis Weiss was hoping for back-to-back success. But only a few minutes after the restart, Mao sent him to the rail in 9th place (€16,400).
During the next hour, Alioto rivered a flush to win a massive pot and regain the chip lead, while Kumaran Sarvendran suffered a very different fate (8th – €20,050), quickly followed by Vadim Zakharyan (7th – €25,500) before the dinner break.
Now seated at the main feature table, the six finalists battled for an hour and a half without an elimination. One finally came after a massive cooler, with Mao hitting a straight on the river against Salih Atac (6th – €33,500) while both players held aces.
That elimination set off a domino effect, as Zdenek Zizka (5th – €45,600) and Fahredin Mustafov (4th – €64,000) were both eliminated by Alioto.
Grzegorz Derkowski entered three-handed play with the shortest stack, but soon doubled against Mao to level up the stacks. Mao eventually doubled through both opponents, leaving Derkowski on fumes.
The German player was eliminated moments later (3rd – €92,800) by Alioto, who entered heads-up play with a 3:1 lead. Mao, however, came back once again thanks to two double-ups. In the third all-in confrontation, Mao held the bigger stack, stayed ahead, and claimed his second WSOP bracelet.
