The PokerGO Tour is back on the road and Roman Hrabec has bagged the opening event of the Super High Roller Series in North Cyprus, a $316,000 return on his $25,000 buy-in.
The Czech pro was among a field of 39 players who kicked off the 6-tournament series, the buy-ins steadily rising from $25k for each of the first three events, through $52k and $106k for events 4 and 5, to $306,000 for the Super High Roller Bowl finale.
The two-day opener attracted a stacked field, with Phil Ivey, Mikita Badziakouski, Jeremy Ausmus and Artur Martirosyan all falling short of the paid spots.
Eight players returned for day two and the final table, livestreamed on YouTube. Only six players would cash and Hrabec was the short stack, but after Kaladjurdjevic hit the rail it was Brian Kim who eventually bubbled, leaving the rest in the money.
Can Brian Kim Survive the Bubble? 🫧
Watch live: https://t.co/IiVn4k6GlQ pic.twitter.com/smldOP9bqh
— PokerGO (@PokerGO) August 18, 2024
Sam Greenwood and Santhosh Suvarna were the two biggest names left in, the Canadian ousting Poland’s Maksim Vaskresenski in 6th spot but falling next himself with jack-ten against Kayhan Mokri Roshenfekr’s ace-jack.
Meanwhile, Hrabec had doubled through twice on the back of aces, swapping a potential bubble spot for the chip lead and a podium spot after Germany’s Leonard Maue fell in 4th place.
Suvarna’s button open saw Maue in the small blind ship his dozen or so bigs, and a deep think finally brought a call from the Indian star…
Maue: Q♥ J♥
Suvarna: 5♦ 5♣
Flop: 10♦ K♦ 10♥
Maue’s open-ender was extended on the turn…
Turn: 8♦
…but with 16 outs it was a complete brick that sent the German spiralling out in 4th spot…
River: 3♣
Suvarna then proceeded to finish off Mokri after Hrabec had softened him up with several blows, leaving the duo heads-up for the opening title of the North Cyprus stop.
Suvarna entered heads-up play with 2,280,000 chips to Hrabec’s 5,520,000, the blinds sitting at 50,000/100,000 with a 100,000-big blind ante.
Hrabec quickly overturned the chip deficit with some timely aces, and the cards were clearly in his favour as he picked up kings in the final hand of the event, quickly calling Suvarna’s shove…
Suvarna: A♠ 2♣
Hrabec: K♥ K♦
Flop: 8♣ 2♥ 5♦
Turn: 7♦
River: Q♥
The $316,000 first-place prize, 190 PGT points, and PGT Gold Cup went to Hrabec, with Suvarna picking up a very healthy $220,000 and 132 leaderboard points.
2024 Super High Roller Series Event #1 Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize Money | PGT Points |
| 1st | Roman Hrabec | Czech Republic | $316,000 | 190 |
| 2nd | Santhosh Suvarna | India | $220,000 | 132 |
| 3rd | Kayhan Mokri | Norway | $158,000 | 95 |
| 4th | Leonard Maue | Germany | $116,500 | 70 |
| 5th | Sam Greenwood | Canada | $83,000 | 50 |
| 6th | Maksim Vaskresenski | Poland | $62,000 | 37 |
Hrabec trails only Martin Kabrhel on the Czech Republic All-Time moneywinners list, thanks in part to the $4,330,000 he won earlier this year for taking down the Triton Jeju $100k Main Event.
He also picked up his first WSOP bracelet during the summer by winning the $333 No-Limit Hold’em Triple Treys online event for $100,228.
The second event on the Super High Roller Series schedule is Event #2: $25,750 No-Limit Hold’em (7-Max) which sees England’s Ben Heath take the chip lead into today’s final table.
Fellow English pro Lewis Spencer is also in the mix, as is Jeremy Ausmus. We’ll bring you all the best of the action from that one right here on VIP Grinders.
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