Dominik Nitsche shoved for 13,000,000 from under the gun and action folded to Christian Rudolph in the small blind who called. Mikita Badziakouski found in the big blind and considered his options, after mulling it over, Badziakouski looked at his cards once more before folding them.
Dominik Nitsche:
Christian Rudolph:
The flop came for Rudolph to stay ahead and leave Nitsche still looking for the ace or jack.
The turn was the to add loads of extra outs for Nitsche but the on the river wasn't what Nitsche was looking for as the four-time WSOP bracelet winner wouldn't be winning his fifth. Nitsche was sent to the payout desk to collect his cash for finishing in fifth place for €196,328.
Mikita Badziakouski counted out his stack in the small blind and then decided to raise to 16,500,000 to leave himself behind with only a bit. Addamo shoved from the big blind and Badziakouski threw in his last chips for the call.
Mikita Badziakouski:
Michael Addamo:
The flop came for Addamo to flop trip treys.
The turn was the which meant Badziakouski was drawing dead. The river completed the board with the as a formality as Badziakouski was eliminated in fourth place for €266,767.
All in all, it hasn't been too bad here in Rozvadov for Badziakouski as he won the €25,000 No-Limit Hold'em - King's Short Deck Championship for €213,750 only a few days ago.
Michael Addamo call au bouton et snap quand Benjamin Pollak shove de small blind pour 24,400,000.
Benjamin Pollak:
Michael Addamo:
Le flop confirme l'avance d'Addamo.
Le tournant lui donne full house mais donne des outs supplémentaires à Pollak pour gagner (le ) et partager (les 3 Rois du paquet). La rivière ne change rien pour Pollak qui signe un nouveau podium sur ce tournoi. Le Français avait encaissé 460,622€ l'an passé en terminant runner-up à Rozvadov.
Michael Addamo just limped on the button with and Christian Rudolph checked his option holding . The flop fell to give Addamo an open-ended straight draw and Rudolph a completed straight.
Addamo led out for 4,000,000 and Rudolph raised to 11,500,000. Addamo called to see the pair the board on the turn. Rudolph checked again but Addamo opted to check it back.
The completed the board on the river giving Addamo the nut straight. Rudolph shoved all in and Addamo snap-called for his remaining 44,800,000. Addamo scored a double up with both players making a straight and Rudolph was down to just 13,500,000.
Christian Rudolph shoved on the button and Michael Addamo snap-called. They both got up from their chairs to see the cards go on their backs.
Christian Rudolph:
Michael Addamo:
The German rail shouted: "A seven is always coming!"
The flop came for Addamo to stay ahead with the pair of fives.
The turn was the for Rudolph to now pick up some extra outs to double up if an ace, seven, or queen would come.
The river completed the board with the for Addamo to stay ahead and finally eliminate Rudolph in second place for €524,532 and award Addamo with his second WSOP bracelet and the first-place prize of €848,702!
The 2018 World Series of Poker Europe has crowned another bracelet winner in the early morning hours and gears up for the final two bracelet events in Europe's biggest poker arena at the King's Casino in Rozvadov. Another record field emerged thanks to 133 total entries in Event #8: €25,500 No-Limit Hold'em Super High Roller and the guaranteed prize pool was more than tripled.
Australia's Michael Addamo and Germany's Christian Rudolph battled until almost 6 a.m. local time. A series of double-ups at the very end made for a rollercoaster experience with the better end for the Aussie and he recorded his best result on the live circuit for €848,702. Addamo came fresh off winning his first gold bracelet this past summer in Event #24: THE MARATHON - $2,620 No-Limit Hold'em for $653,581 and the final day of the event turned into yet another marathon session.
Heads-up opponent Rudolph reached his third WSOP final table in two years and narrowly missed out on his maiden bracelet, but collected a consolation prize of €524,532 for his efforts. The 2017 WSOP Main Event 3rd place finisher and last year's runner-up of this very event, Benjamin Pollak, had to settle for third place this time around. Among the other finalists were Mikita Badziakouski, four-time WSOP bracelet winner Dominik Nitsche, Winfred Yu, James Romero and German High Roller regular Manig Loeser.
“I definitely gonna catch up on some sleep now,” a visibly exhausted Addamo said in the interview with Czech media. Having just arrived at King's Casino prior to the start of this event, Addamo bagged the chip lead on Day 1 on a couple hours of sleep and went on to add a second WSOP bracelet to his collection.
With this victory, Addamo will boost his cashes on the live circuit to more than $3 million and becomes the third Aussie to win multiple bracelets. Following into the footsteps of Hanh Tran and Timur Margolin, he also becomes the third player in just eight events at the 2018 WSOPE festival to win a WSOP bracelet in Las Vegas and Rozvadov in the current year.
Right in front of the stunning feature table set in Europe's biggest poker arena, an explosive high-stakes cash game session was running with an explosive line-up. King's Casino owner Leon Tsoukernik and “Aussie Matt” Kirk had already squared off in enormous pots previously, and they were this time joined by Tony G, Ben Lamb, Rob Yong and four-time WSOP champion Bobby Baldwin. The game of choice was pot-limit omaha with blinds of €1,000/€2,000.
Hundreds of thousands of Euros will also be at stake in the next highlight of the festival as Day 1 of the €100,000 King's Super High Roller is just around the corner, certain to attract some of the biggest names of the international poker circuit. Whether or not Addamo will be taking a shot at a third bracelet in 2018 remains to be seen.
Final Result Event #8: €25,500 No-Limit Hold'em Super High Roller
Place
Winner
Country
Prize (in EUR)
1
Michael Addamo
Australia
€848,702
2
Christian Rudolph
Germany
€524,532
3
Benjamin Pollak
France
€370,219
4
Mikita Badziakouski
Belarus
€266,767
5
Dominik Nitsche
Germany
€196,328
6
Winfred Yu
Hong Kong
€147,642
7
James Romero
United States
€113,505
8
Manig Loeser
Germany
€89,253
Action of the Final Day
Even before any cards were dealt on Day 2, the €25,500 High Roller had surpassed the 113 entries of the previous year and another nine new entries boosted the field to 133 entries in total, making it the biggest High Roller of that buy-in in Europe in the current year thus far. The prize pool of €3,158,750 more than triple the initial guarantee, and the top 20 spots were set to see a return on their investment.
Among the early casualties were Liv Boeree, Michael Soyza, 2013 WSOP Main Event champion Ryan Riess, Adrian Mateos and Christoph Vogelsang. Riess lost a flip with pocket jacks against the ace-king of Manig Loeser, who immediately spiked a king on the flop. It wasn't a lost day for Riess, however, as he jumped into the €10,500 Turbo High Roller and defeated Ognjen Sekularac in heads-up for €178,582 in a field of 56 entries.
Many other regular faces of the European and international High Roller circuit were still in contention including former WSOP bracelet winners Igor Kurganov, Johannes Becker, David Peters, Chris Ferguson and defending champion Niall Farrell. However, none of them made it to the money. Farrel was eliminated just before the three-table redraw when his jam with seven-six suited was called by Fabrizio Gonzalez out of the blinds with ace-jack. Gonzalez turned a better pair and rivered the nut straight for good measure.
Two-time WSOP bracelet winner Kristen Bicknell was ousted just shy of the money bubble when her king-nine failed to connect with the board against the pocket jacks of Rainer Kempe. The money bubble then burst in spectacular fashion on the outer tables. Manig Loeser jammed into Gonzalez in a battle of the blinds and the Uruguayan called for 26 big blinds with ace-jack. Loeser only held ace-deuce, but a deuce on the flop left Gonzalez empty-handed.
Gianluca Speranza, Sylvain Loosli and Pavel Binar ran out of chips before the next redraw and Czech master of speech play Martin Kabrhel fell in 16th place. Joni Jouhkimainen failed to hold up with ace-ten suited and the flopped nutflushdraw, as Mikita Badziakouski got there with ace-six when he missed out on the open-ended straight draw and rivered a six instead.
Swiss businessman Asaf Berman, Rainer Kempe, Vladimir Troyanovskiy and Jean-Noel Thorel all missed out on a spot on the final table. Troyanovskiy was all in with ace-king suited against the pocket kings of Rudolph and flopped an ace, but the case king appeared on the river. The field combined after an even more spectacular three-way all in on the outer table. Timothy Adams was poised for a triple up with pocket kings against the queen-jack suited of Matthias Eibinger and the pocket queens of Benjamin Pollak, but the last queen appeared on the flop to deny the Canadian a second WSOP bracelet for now.
Seat
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Michael Addamo
Australia
11,600,000
19
2
Benjamin Pollak
France
42,200,000
70
3
Christian Rudolph
Germany
22,100,000
37
4
Manig Loeser
Germany
8,100,000
14
5
Winfred Yu
Hong Kong
10,300,000
17
6
Mikita Badziakouski
Belarus
17,500,000
29
7
James Romero
United States
8,400,000
14
8
Dominik Nitsche
Germany
12,800,000
21
Action of the Final Table
After the double knockout on the final table bubble, Pollak throned at the top of the leaderboard with almost two times as many chips as Christian Rudolph in second place and the remainder of the field had very similar stack sizes.
Manig Loeser was the first to bow out when he open-shoved with king-eight out of the small blind. Winfred Yu looked him up out of the big blind with ace-eight suited and flopped top pair. Loeser had some outs with a gutshot, but ultimately found no help to become the first casualty.
Rudolph, who had been responsible for several eliminations on the feature table previously, continued his run-good and sent James Romero to the rail next. Romero ended up all in and at risk with ace-ten, but Rudolph had little to fear with the dominating ace-queen on a nine-high board.
The action didn't slow down as two further players were eliminated in quick succession. In a three-way pot, Winfred Yu flopped the nutflushdraw and went with it only for Christian Rudolph to snap-call with pocket nines for top set. Yu turned an additional straight draw, but the river was a blank. Dominik Nitsche, who won his fourth WSOP bracelet in Rozvadov one year ago in €111,111 No Limit Hold'em - High Roller for One Drop, also fell victim to the hot run of countryman Rudolph and lost a flip with ace-jack against pocket eights.
What followed was a stalemate that turned into an endurance challenge until the early morning hours. Fortune favored Michael Addamo when he was at risk preflop with king-nine suited against the ace-jack of Benjamin Pollak, as the Aussie flopped a full house. The run-good of Addamo continued when he took on a short-stacked Mikita Badziakouski with ace-trey versus ace-five suited thanks to trips on the flop.
Addamo nearly got there from behind for the third time, but missed out on a wheel draw to double Rudolph with ace-trey versus ace-jack. Only a few hands later, Benjamin Pollak was at risk with ace-queen suited against the pocket sevens of Addamo and ended up second-best to set up a nearly even-stacked duel for the gold bracelet past 4 a.m. local time.
Rudolph pulled away at the start but Addamo doubled into a commanding lead when he rivered a nine-high straight against the flopped six-high straight of his opponent. The fate of Rudolph seemed all but sealed when he was at risk right after with ten-five against pocket queens, but the German made two pair on the river.
A series of double ups for both players followed and eventually, it was a simple coin flip that decided over the final outcome of the tournament. Addamo held pocket fives and Rudolph was at risk with ace-seven. Memories of the 2014 EPT Barcelona Main Event final table with the infamous German rail and their “the seven always comes” returned, but this time no seven nor ace for that matter showed up to crown Addamo as the champion.
That wraps up a late night shift here at King's Casino in Rozvadov, but the penultimate event of the 2018 WSOPE is just a night's sleep away.