Monica Eilertsen Vaka won the Main Event in the poker NM 2024 and is the new Norwegian poker champion.
The big crowd favorite here in Bratislava beat his last opponent in the tournament a quarter of an hour before midnight on Saturday night. Sigve Tellefsen Enes entered the heads up duel as a clear underdog, and was overrun by the phenomenon Vaka from the start.
Sigve Tellefsen Enes came second in Main Event 2024.
The two receive respectively 107,900 and 65,700 euros in prize money. In addition, Vaka gets the coveted white slippers that all Norwegian champions get.
Here you can see all the cash prizes in the Main Event 2024.
This game by Monica Eilertsen Vaka on the bubble in the Main Event caused TV commentator Stig Moen to stand up:
First woman won the Main Event in the poker NM 2024
A big barrier was broken in the poker NM with this victory. Vaka is the first woman to win the Main Event since the Poker NM was played for the first time in 2002.
– Men and women can compete on equal terms, she stated in the TV interview with Direktesport’s Mattis Koppang in the minutes afterwards.
Now she is ready for a party on the night of Sunday, in the big player party in the poker NM. If you are in Bratislava and fancy a party, you are most welcome.
– I said before I came that I wasn’t going to drink anything until I had won an event. Now I can drink, she cheered in the TV broadcast.
Monica Eilertsen Vaka has won the National Championship before (Heads Up at Gardermoen in 2022).
– But there is no doubt that the Main Event is the biggest, she says in the Direktesport broadcast.
Vaka made a clear mark on the Main Event almost from the start. She took the chip lead on Day 2, fell back slightly on Day 3 before regaining the lead on Day 4, the day before finals day. At the final table, she briefly relinquished the chip lead to Sigve Tellefsen Enes, but did not let him borrow it for long.
Now she sits there with all the chips in play in the Main Event, 75 million in total.
Bedell three again
Tom-Aksel Bedell – dubbed Gucci-Bedell by TV 2 because of his extravagant style of clothing – was also a crowd favorite at the final table. He was responsible for the achievement of reaching the final table for the second time in three years, but was also now knocked out in third place.
Tom-Aksel Bedell has become many TV viewers’ favorite after two televised final tables in the Main Event.
– It went as usual, I came third. I had a dream to meet Monica heads up, and we also made an agreement before the final table to meet as the last two. The only thing I’m disappointed about now is that I didn’t do what I promised, Bedell told Direktesport’s reporter Elisabeth Nordskog.
Here, Bedell is involved in a big pot on the way to the final table with KK in the hole:
