He also cashed twice at the WSOP this summer. Neugebauer's previous best tournament cash was for $27,000 in a tournament in Las Vegas last June. Just the competition part and the part of improving and working on your game was really important to me and I felt like there was some void that needed to be filled.

When I stopped playing basketball, I started playing poker as well. When his athletic career came to a premature end, poker seemed like a perfect avenue to funnel his competitive fire. He also represented the Austrian Under-18 team. He was a professional basketball player before turning to poker, playing for BC Vienna in the Austrian first division. Neugebauer is a poker world champion, but his first career aspirations were in a different game. I don't know what the experience would've been without them.' Max Neugebauer winner WSOPE main event 'What means most to me, honestly, is my friends being here and cheering me on. And then it's actually the WSOP Main Event means even a bit more,' he said, surrounded by a crowd of supporters that cheered every pot won and held up a sign that read 'Max' throughout the final table. He did it in spectacular fashion, with a hero call against Eric Tsai on the final hand of the tournament that ensured his name will forever be etched in WSOP lore. The 26-year-old Austrian is the newest WSOP Europe Main Event champion, prevailing over a record-setting field of 817 players to earn the title and €1,500,000 top prize. And tonight, at the final table of the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event, he was left looking down on everyone as he hoisted the gold bracelet in the air. Standing six-foot, eight inches tall, he towers over the competition in any poker tournament. Max Neugebauer is a hard man to miss in a crowd.

The Giant of Rozvadov: Former Pro Basketball Player Max Neugebauer Wins the WSOP Europe Main Event

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