Martin Kabrhel Wins 2018 WSOPE Super High Roller for $3 Million

Martin Kabrhel entered the 2018 WSOP Europe €100,000 No-Limit Hold’em King’s Super High Roller event in the Czech Republic alongside a field of 95 players. Following three intense days of poker action, the Czech pro subsequently managed to navigate himself deftly past the competition, including a final table packed with WSOP winners, to claim a second career gold bracelet, as well as a huge first place prize worth €2,624,340 ($2,993,112).

Kabrhel also becomes the first Czech player to capture a WSOP bracelet at the 2018 WSOP Europe, and after describing it as his “greatest victory”, went on to express hope of doubling his bracelet haul this year by taking down the Main Event currently underway.

Who is Martin Kabrhel?

Martin Kabrhel started competing on the tournament circuit back in 2009, and that year earned $543,156, followed by $469,871 in 2010. While the player’s earnings were not quite so impressive between 2011-2016, Kabrhel succeeded in capturing his first gold bracelet at the 2017 WSOPE €1,100 No-Limit Hold’em Super Turbo BOUNTY event for €53,557, and that year eventually amassed an impressive $1,690,538 in earnings. His latest massive score, however, raises his personal annual best once more, with his earnings for 2018 currently standing at a whopping $3,275,526.

Martin Kabrhel is also somewhat of a local hero at the King’s Casino, and in addition to taking part in the WSOP Europe, he regularly competes at the WSOP International Circuit that regularly stops at the venue. Needless to say, Kabrhel’s status in his home country has been enhanced even more following his latest WSOP win as he now moves to the top of the ‘Czech Republic All Time Money List’ on $7,038,252.

Next highest is Martin Staszko ($6,338,330), who in 2011 finished runner-up to Pius Heinz at the WSOP Main Event for $5,433,086, after which there is a steep drop off in winnings to a third placed Vojtech Ruzicka ($3,724,774) and a fourth placed Leon Tsoukernik ($3,217,816), who is also the King’s Casino Rozvadov owner.

€100k NLHE King’s Super High Roller

The €100k NLHE King’s Super High Roller featured a €9,025,000 ($10,282,791) prize pool, which was almost double its original €5 million guarantee. Fifteen players would then see a return on their massive buy-ins, all of whom, as you would expect, are some of the most accomplished players in the game. This includes the likes of Steffen Sontheimer (15th), Richard Yong (14th), Steve O’Dwyer (13th), Vladimir Troyanovskiy (12th), Orpen Kisacikoglu (11th), Christoph Vogelsang (10th), and Timothy Adams (9th).

Final Table Recap

The final table was naturally stacked with top talent, too, and featured five WSOP bracelet winners, including two who have won bracelets at this year’s WSOPE. Leading the way in terms of chips was 4-times WSOP bracelet winner Dominik Nitsche (106bbs), followed by Mikita Badziakouski (64bbs), and then Martin Kabrhel (49bbs), while David Peters was the table’s third smallest stack on just 30bbs.

Nitsche added further to his stack after being dealt pocked kings and sending a short stacked Michael Addamo to the rail in 8th, while Julian Thomas (A-10) was responsible for the next elimination following an encounter with Adrian Mateos (K-10), who subsequently exited in 7th.

Martin Kabrhel then sped up the game considerably after being dealt pocket aces and scoring a double elimination over Jan-Eric Schwippert (A-8) and Nitsche (Q-Q) in 6th and 5th respectively. Soon after, Kabrhel (A-Q) dished out the same treatment to Mikita Badziakouski (A-3) in 4th, while David Peters (8-8) ended Julian Thomas’ (6-6) bracelet hopes in 3rd to get heads-up play underway.

Heads-Up Recap

David Peters started the final battle holding a 147.8 million to 42.2 million chip lead over Martin Kabrhel. Nevertheless, the latter managed to even the score and eek out a slight lead by the time the deciding hand was played.

Kabrhel raised preflop with pocket sixes, inducing a three-bet from Peters holding A-K. Two minutes later, Kabrhel made the call, and after Peters opted to check the 6-5-3 flop, Kabrhel took a further 3:40 minutes to place a bet, after which Peters decided this was a good spot to move all in. Needless to say, Kabrhel wasted no time calling, with an 8 and 9 on turn and river subsequently locking up the win for the Czech number one.

Final Table Results

1: Martin Kabrhel (Czech Republic) €2,624,340
2: David Peters (United States) €1,621,960
3: Julian Thomas (Germany) €1,116,308
4: Mikita Badziakouski (Belarus) €789,612
5: Dominik Nitsche (Germany) €574,406
6: Jan-Eric Schwippert (Germany) €430,218
7: Adrian Mateos (Spain) €331,943
8: Michael Addamo (Australia) €264,110