Johann Schamne turned a $400 buy-in into $230,204 by winning the €1.5 Million guaranteed event at the Italian Poker Sport series. Well, the buy-in was $394 using today’s exchange rate. The €380 event had a guarantee of €1.5 million that was easily crushed by the whopping 7,007 entries.
Held at King’s Resort Rozvadov in the Czech Republic — the current European home of the World Series of Poker — it was the largest poker tournament in the resort’s history.
The win was Schamne’s best cash by a ton. He won $45,238 in an event in 2011.
The top 886 players got a piece of the $2,357,639 price pool generated in the massive event that ran from Jan 23 to Feb. 3. An additional day had to be added thanks to the huge turn-out.
The top 22 won at least $11,232. Those made the final nine won at least $25,480, with six-figures kicking in at fourth-place.
But once the players got down to four, they made an ICM deal, which sent a majority of the money and the trophy to Schamne. The original top price was $250,000. It was Romania’s Alexandru Silviu Moraru who finished second, Germany’s Robert Ashelm in third, and Bosnia & Herzegovina’s Marko Bajic in fourth.
They all crushed their lifetime tournament poker winnings multiple times with this one cash.
Schamne not only won the most money, but also received entry in to the 2025 WSOP Main Event.
The €380 event was one of two at the Italian Sports Series, joining a €1,100 buy-in contest on Feb. 2. Won by Andrei Sasu, that event attracted 284 entries who generated a $309,000 price pool, which easily beat the €100,000 guarantee. Sasu took $43,606 for winning the thing, with Hungary’s Tibor Uveges as the runner-up ($37,120).
Rounding out the top five were Jakub Štěrba (third for $39,048), an unknown player in fourth, and Dimitrios Anastasakis in fifth ($18,354).
Štěrba was the winner of the last Italian Sports Series €380 event, which was held in October. That one attracted 2,118 entries. The $165,018 was Štěrba’s largest cash.
| Place | Player | Earnings |
| 1 | Johann Schamne | $230,204 |
| 2 | Alexandru Silviu Moraru | $174,044 |
| 3 | Robert Ashelm | $156,364 |
| 4 | Marko Bajic | $135,564 |
| 6 | Mario Boos | $65,364 |
| 7 | Michael Adam | $52,884 |
| 8 | Daniel Wurzinger | $43,524 |
| 9 | Timour Kotidis | $25,480 |
