Addamo and Kabrhel Win WSOP Europe High Rollers
After the first seven events at the World Series of Poker Europe awarded their gold bracelets and millions in prize money, it was time for the two high-stakes, big buy-in High Roller tournaments. Players with extra-large bankrolls took to the tables at King’s Casino in Rozvadov, Czech Republic, each seeking WSOP gold.
The WSOP Europe kicked off on October 9 and awarded its first two bracelets to players representing Israel. The next five tournaments were examples of the best of global poker, with players from Austria, Ukraine, Hungary, and Hong Kong winning events, along with yet another Israeli winner.
And that brought the festivities to Events 8 and 9, the Super High Rollers. The winners of those events put Australia in the winner’s circle, along with a player from the home country of the Czech Republic.
Event 8: €25 NLHE Super High Roller
Players with massive bankrolls collected their monies at the cash game tables and put it into the buy-in for the first of two high-roller events in the WSOPE series. There were unlimited reentries through the start of Day 2, but it was worrisome when only a handful of players took seats at the actual start time on October 24. But the players did come, eventually, and the finally tally of entries climbed to 133. That left the original guarantee of €1 million in the dust when the prize pool settled at €3,158,750.
The top 20 finishers were paid from that pile of cash, but names like Sylvain Loosli, Rainer Kempe, and Timothy Adams fell short of the final eight-handed table. Manig Loeser of Germany was the first to exit, with the sole American, James Romero, as the next to bust at the hands of chip leader Christian Rudolph of Germany. Rudolph then eliminated Winfred Yu of Canada and Dominik Nitsche of Germany.
Four-handed play lasted quite some time until Michael Addamo of Australia found some run-good (the same kind that put him in top chip position at the end of Day 1) and took out Mikita Badziakouski of Belarus and then Benjamin Pollak of France. Addamo took a slight lead into heads-up play against Rudolph, though the latter took over and began to dominate. The two then doubled each other up and switched the lead back and forth in a true poker battle that took the action into the wee hours of the morning. And near sunrise, Addamo grabbed the win, collecting a second bracelet to go with the first he won this summer in Las Vegas.
Winner: Michael Addamo of Australia (€848,702)
Michael Addamo was the latest to pull off the WSOP/WSOPE double in 2018 as he won Event 8: €25,500 High Roller in the early morning hours today.https://t.co/nBR59Kd2lS pic.twitter.com/tAIzwTEhFn
— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) October 26, 2018
Event 9: €100K NLHE Super High Roller
Poker action-seekers brought their bigger bankrolls to the tables on October 26 for the €100K buy-in event, and the tournament closed registration with 95 entries, some of which were reentries. The prize pool had been guaranteed at €5 million but soared to €9,025,000. The top 15 players were paid from that rather sizeable amount of cash.
Among the names on the payout list were Richard Yong, Steve O’Dwyer, and Tim Adams, but it was Dominik Nitsche who took the chip lead into the final table of eight. He was one of three Germans at the table, with David Peters representing the United States, Martin Kabrhel for the home country of the Czech Republic, Adrian Mateos for Spain, and Mikita Badziakouski of Belarus. Michael Addamo of Australia was also there seeking another high roller bracelet and back-to-back WSOPE wins.
But Addamo was the first to exit at the hands of Nitsche, but Julian Thomas ousted Mateos while Peters doubled through Nitsche to take over the chip lead. Then a massive hand developed that saw Kabrhel eliminate Jan-Eric Schwippert and Nitsche, and Kabrhel followed that by busting Badziakouski in fourth place. Thomas was the short stack of the final three but chipped up through Kabrhel before the dinner break, but it was Peters who ran away with the chip lead after that meal. Peters ousted Thomas in third place and took 147.8 million chips into heads-up against the 42.2 million of Kabrhel. But it was Kabrhel who came out of the gate strong, chipping up consistently and evening the stacks, both holding 95 million. At that point, Peters moved all-in with A-K on a 6-5-3 flop, but Kabrhel called right away with pocket sixes. The board blanked and gave Kabrhel his second WSOPE bracelet and the highest tournament cash of his career.
Winner: Martin Kabrhel of Czech Republic (€2,624,340)
Overcoming a huge deficit heads-up, Martin Kabrhel defeats David Peters heads-up to win his second WSOP bracelet, winning the Super High Roller for €2,624,340. pic.twitter.com/wuacgHOxgj
— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) October 28, 2018
