With a big smile on the face, Daniel Dvoress grabbed his single chip on the button and announced all-in. Ben Heath raised to 120,000 in the small blind and Dvoress still grinned while he awaited the fate. Alex Kulev folded and the cards were flipped over.
Daniel Dvoress:
Ben Heath:
The flop gave Heath heaps of outs with the two live cards and open-ended straight draw. While he bricked the turn, he got there with the river to eliminate Dvoress in third place.
With two minutes left on the clock for the level, the two contenders opted to take the break now and will determine a winner in 10 minutes from now.
Ben Heath limped the button and called a raise by Alex Kulev, which led them to the flop. Kulev jammed and Heath quickly called.
Alex Kulev:
Ben Heath:
The huge double draw of Heath had a ton of equity and the turn sealed his victory, which made the river a formality. Kulev had to settle for the runner-up spot and €142,620 but will certainly be back the following day for the next edition of this single-day High Roller Event.
Heath claims the PokerStars Spadie trophy and a top prize of €227,130. A full recap of today's action is to follow.
The second high-stakes contest of the 2022 PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague stop at the Hilton Hotel in Prague has determined a champion. Out of a 22-entry strong field in Event #10: €25,000 NLHE High Roller, the UK's Ben Heath earned the biggest slice of the €528,220 prize pool after defeating Alex Kulev in heads-up.
It was a small but elite field consisting of 15 unique players and seven re-entries and many of those who entered are expected to return the following day for the second edition of this one-day tournament. Only the top four spots were paid with Daniel Dvoress and Pablo Brito Silva also earning a profit on their investment.
Bubble boy was fellow Brazilian poker pro Rodrigo Seiji, who had won Event #3 €10,200 Mystery Bounty just one day prior but had to leave empty-handed without anything to show for this time.
Final Result Event #10: €25,000 NLHE High Roller
Place
Winner
Country
Prize (in EUR)
1
Ben Heath
United Kingdom
€227,130
2
Alex Kulev
Bulgaria
€142,620
3
Daniel Dvoress
Canada
€95,080
4
Pablo Brito Silva
Brazil
€63,390
The early stages of the day were dominated by rapid changes atop the leaderboard with Sam Greenwood, Adrian Mateos, Orpen Kisacikoglu, and Steve O'Dwyer taking their turns in the spotlight. Fedor Holz also made his first appearance during the festival but quickly vanished on his first entry.
Jean-Noel Thorel bowed out two times but returned once more to quickly double-up against Kulev with the superior straight. However, his fortune didn't continue and he fell in tenth place to set up the unofficial final table. Mateos and Holz ran out of chips in quick succession thereafter with the latter running with tens into the queens of Kulev.
Heath doubled into the lead when then biggest stack Kulev applied maximum pressure with pocket treys only to run into pocket kings. Seiji showcased his survival skills with a very short stack but ultimately couldn't beat the pocket jacks of Dvoress to become the bubble boy.
Brito Silva was flipped out by Heath, who held more than half of the chips in play and Kulev doubled through Dvoress in a battle of the two short stacks. There was no miracle comeback from a single chip for Dvoress and Heath entered heads-up with a lead of nearly three-to-one.
Kulev, who was the most active player for most of the day, didn't give up quietly and even pulled back into the lead. However, a bluff catcher with ace-high sent most of the chips in play to Heath, who closed out the victory soon after.
The second €25,000 High Roller is only a few hours away, scheduled to kick off at 12.30 p.m. local time on Saturday, December 10, 2022. Stay tuned back then for more live poker action from Prague as the PokerNews live reporting team will be back on the floor to cover multiple tournaments simultaneously.