The spotlight of the poker world has fallen firmly on Rozvadov during the past week as players seek to get their hands on a coveted gold bracelet at WSOPE. Titles have been claimed and the lead has changed hands in the battle for Player of the Year too. In addition, Phil Ivey has been busy contesting King’s Short Deck Super High Roller tournament and pocketing a much needed, near million-dollar score for 2nd place.
100K King’s Short Deck Super High Roller event – Winner: Leon Tsoukernik
While this was not a WSOPE bracelet event, it is certainly worthy of a mention, given the presence of Phil Ivey in the final fight for the title. After the difficulties he has faced on his return to the WSOP in Las Vegas this summer, many in the poker world would love to see Phil Ivey pick up a bracelet over in Rozvadov.
This event provided a pleasant high stakes jolt of interruption in the WSOPE schedule, as 29 entries of €100,000 helped boost the prize pool to a final figure of €2,755,000. Many of the top talents in the world, who were already in King’s Casino for the WSOPE took part, and by the time the final table was set, the event had brought a fascinating final table together. Owner of King’s Resort, Leon Tsoukernik was joined by Phil Ivey, Paul Phua and Cary Katz.
Cary Katz’s elimination in 4th place brought the action three-handed, with Phil Ivey looking unstoppable as he accumulated a big stack of chips. By the time Paul Phua had hit the rail in 3rd, Ivey had a big chiplead over Leon Tsoukernik. Poker is nothing if not unpredictable however, and three double ups helped Tsoukernik to overturn the deficit and seize control of the match with a 4 to 1 chiplead. Shortly after, he flopped top set against Ivey’s top pair and it was all over.
Here are the final table payouts:
1st – Leon Tsoukernik (Czech Republic) – €1,102,000 (US$1,223,220)
2nd – Phil Ivey (United States) – €826,500
3rd – Paul Phua (Malaysia) – €551,000
4th – Cary Katz (United States) – €275,500
€25K Short Deck High Roller – Winner: Siamak Tooran
The €25K Short Deck High Roller marked the latest chapter in the rise of Short Deck poker as the first of two Short Deck tournaments at WSOPE 2019 played out at King’s Casino. The tournament attracted 11 entries, which helped the prize pool grow to €2,636,250.
As the event entered the final stages, Thai Ha and Siamak Tooran were able to consolidate their chip stacks and push aside the remaining challengers. The two players soon found themselves heads up for the title, and while Ha, who was born in Vietnam started with the chip lead, that situation soon changed as Tooran wrestled the lead away from him before overpowering his opponent to claim the title.
The final payouts are as follows:
1st – Siamak Tooran (Germany) €740,996 (US$822,506)
2nd – Thai Ha (United States) – €457,964
3rd – Orpen Kisacikoglu (Turkey) – €323,553
4th – Netanel Amedi (Israel) – €230,807
5th – Besim Hot (Switzerland) – €166,258
6th – Rob Yong (United Kingdom) – €120,946
7th – Jonathan Depa (United States) – €88,861
Event 3 – €1,350 Mini Main Event – Winner: Vangelis Kaimakamis
The €1,350 Mini Main Event brought together the biggest field in the series so far, with 766 players paying the entry fee to contest the title. This generated a prize pool of €873,240 with a very attractive six-figure top prize.
This event took three days to complete, and as the sun rose on the third day, only 7 players remained standing. Through the course of the final table, the chips counts would see plenty of swings, with only one of the three bigger stacks which began the final going on to make it to the final three players.
Jose Rivas and Vanglies Kaimakamis had started the day in the middle of the counts but quickly rose to become major contenders for the bracelet. Jose Rivas was the first to fade, slipping to around 14 big blinds before coming out on the wrong side of a flip to end his challenge. Kaimakis had been the lucky beneficiary and continued in the same vein of form to overturn and near 2 to 1 chip disadvantage and win the heads up duel against start-of-day chip leader Shahar Levi.
The final payouts are as follows (*a deal was struck):
1st – Vangelis Kaimakamis (Greece) € 167,056* (US$184,218)
2nd – Shahar Levi (Israel) € 103,216*
3rd – Jose Rivas (Venezuela) € 72,474*
4th – Markus Jordan (Germany) € 51,628*
5th – Didier Rabl (Switzerland) € 37,321*
6th – Andrew Bak (United Kingdom) € 27,382
7th – Luigi Macaluso (France) € 20,396
8th – Leonid Yanovski (Israel) € 15,426
9th – Gerardo Giammugnani (Italy) € 11,850
Shaun Deeb takes command of POY race
The early exchanges at WSOPE 2019 have seen some movement at the top of the standings, with Shaun Deeb having vaulted into the lead after cashing events 2 and 7 with 18th and 13th places finishes, respectively. Robert Campbell who led the way coming into WSOPE has also managed two cashes, but his 50th and 48th place finishes were not enough to hold onto the lead.
Daniel Negreanu is also beginning to fall away despite adding a 16th place finish in the €25,500 Short Deck to his earlier 59th place finish in event 2. There are plenty of points still available however, and the title could still potentially go to any player in the top 5 spots. Jason Gooch, who occupies 6th is almost 500 points adrift of Daniel Zack, all but ruling him out.
Here are the current top 5 standings:
1st – Shaun Deeb – 3,621.53
2nd – Robert Campbell – 3,558.62
3rd – Daniel Negreanu – 3,264.20
4th – Phillip Hui – 3,186.17
5th – Daniel Zack – 3,126.13
Other events
Event 7 – €1,100 Turbo Bounty NLH
Entries: 377
Prize Pool: €200,000
Winner: Tomas Fara (Czech Republic) – €59,904 (US$)
Article by Craig Bradshaw
