Stone-Cold Martin Kabrhel Stacks €2.6 Million in WSOPE Super High Roller

The Czech Republic’s Martin Kabrhel lived every poker player’s dream this week by winning €2.6 million in the World Series of Poker Europe €100,000 buy-in Super High Roller event at his home casino in Rozvadov.

Kabrhel beat an ultra-tough field of 95 players that included many of the best poker players in the world.

The final table alone included famed European pros Mikita Badziakouski, Dominik Nitsche, Julian Thomas and Adrian Mateos.

American pro David Peters, who’s in the midst of a stunning $7.7-million winning year, actually had a huge chip advantage over Kabrhel when it came to heads-up play but the Czech native mounted a huge comeback and eventually closed out the tournament when his pocket sixes outraced Peters’ ace-king in the final hand.

It was Kabrhel’s second WSOP gold bracelet. He has been downright dominant at King’s Casino in Rozvadov as both his bracelets have come on home turf.

Here’s a look at all the final-table payouts from the enormous €100k buy-in event:

Kabrhel Immediately buys Into WSOPE Main Event

The first thing that Martin Kabrhel did after winning his career-best €2.6 million in the Super High Roller? He went ahead and immediately jumped in the €10,000 buy-in Main Event at the WSOPE in Rozvadov.

While there’s a good chance the Main Event won’t offer quite the same first-place prize as the €100k Super High Roller, Kabrhel must have seen some value because he didn’t hesitate to hop in the event after taking a few quick Sportsbook photos.

Amazingly, Kabrhel was able to keep up his high level of play and finished with 204,000 chips on Day 1B. Unfortunately, he trailed off the following day and ended up busting before the money.

The €10,000 buy-in is the main attraction for the WSOPE’s visit to King’s Casino, thanks in part to its hefty €5,000,000 guaranteed prize pool.

It ended up attracting a total of 534 entries including the likes of 2018 Main Event champ John Cynn, French poker legend Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Russian crusher Anatoly Filatov and online icon Viktor “Isildur1” Blom.

At the time this article was published, there were just under 100 players left in the tournament with the likes of Jack Salter, Sergio Aido, Ryan Ries and Niall Farrell still chasing the €1.1-million first-place prize.

Shaun Deeb Locks Up Player of the Year

American tournament grinder Shaun Deeb has effectively locked up this year’s WSOP Player of the Year race and is merely awaiting his trophy at this point.

Deeb, who is widely regarded as one of the best online MTT players in the world, went on an absolute tear at this year’s WSOP in Vegas with a total of 15 cashes, three final tables and two huge bracelet wins. Deeb, a veritable mixed-game master, won the $25,000 buy-in PLO event for $1.4 million and then went on to win the $10k 6-Max event for another $814,179.

Of course the WSOPE counts toward POY as well and Deeb went ahead and added four more cashes in Rozvadov, including a runner-up finish in the PLO/Hold’em event for €63,731.

The WSOP POY has always been one of the most highly regarded awards in the poker community and icons of the game like Phil Ivey, Jason Mercier, Chris Ferguson and Erick Lindgren have all won it.

Daniel Negreanu is the only player who’s managed to win it twice. The PokerStars pro took the award in both 2004 and 2013. The win in 2004 was particularly fortuitous as the online poker boom was just beginning and the POY nod no doubt helped elevate Negreanu to poker stardom.

Here's a look at the WSOP POY Sportsbooks from the last 10 years: