Martin Kabrhel Wins 2018 WSOPE Super High Roller and €2.6m

Martin Kabrhel has won the 2018 WSOP Europe €100,000 Super High Roller and a payout worth €2,624,340 ($2,993,112). This is the largest prize that was paid during the 2018 WSOP Europe.

This tournament, which was held at King’s Casino in Rozvadov, Czech Republic, featured a pro-heavy field of 95 entrants. But Kabrhel was unfazed as he navigated through the field and on towards his second-career gold bracelet.

Kabrhel becomes the only Czech player to win a gold bracelet at the 2018 WSOP Europe. Let's take a closer look at how he claimed victory, along with an overall recap of the tournament.

Recap of €100K WSOPE Super High Roller

The 2018 WSOPE Super High Roller featured a prize pool worth €9,025,000 ($10,282,791). This is quite impressive when considering that its original guarantee was €5 million.

15 players cashed in all, including Steffen Sontheimer (15th), Richard Yong (14th), Steve O’Dwyer (13th), Vladimir Troyanovskiy (12th), Orpen Kisacikoglu (11th), Christoph Vogelsang (10th), and Timothy Adams (9th).

The last remaining eight players – including five WSOP gold bracelet winners – competed on the final table.

4-time WSOP champ Dominik Nitsche led the field with 106 big blinds. He was followed by Mikita Badziakouski (64bbs) and Kabrhel (49bbs) as the biggest chip holders when final table play began.

Nitsche furthered his lead after knocking Michael Addamo out in eight place with his pocket kings. Julian Thomas (A-10) would deal the next blow, eliminating Adrian Mateos (K-10) in seventh place.

It was Kabrhel’s turn next, as he used pocket aces to knock out both Jan-Eric Schwippert (A-8) and Nitsche (Q-Q) in sixth and fifth place, respectively.

Kabrhel continued his run by eliminating Mikita Badziakouski in fourth. The former had his opponent dominated with A-Q to Badziakouski’s A-3.

David Peters would set the stage for a heads-up match when his pocket 8’s bested Julian Thomas’ pocket 6’s.

Heads Up Play

Peters had 147.8 million chips when heads-up play started, giving him a sizable lead over Kabrhel and his 42.2 million chips. However, the latter was able to overcome the large disadvantage and eventually claim the lead.

Kabrhel made a preflop raise on the final hand with pockets 6’s, which drew a three-bet from Peters (AK). Kabrhel tanked for couple of minutes, then made the call.

The flop was dealt 6-5-3, and Peters checked. This caused Kabrhel to take even more time on the flop, before eventually betting. Peters then moved all-in, which drew a call from Kabrhel.
The latter showed a set of 6s, then watched as a harmless 8 and 9 hit the turn and river, respectively. This gave him the hand and the tournament title.

More on Martin Kabrhel’s Poker Career

Kabrhel has been playing live tournament poker since 2009, when he won $543,156 throughout the year. He followed this up with another strong campaign in 2010 by collecting $469,871 in earnings.

He didn’t turn in as impressive of tournament results over the next five years. However, Kabrhel would collect his first gold bracelet by winning a 2017 WSOP €1,100 Super Bounty tournament and €53,557. This also turned out to be his best year overall, as he earned $1,690,538 throughout 2017.

Kabrhel is having yet another career year in 2018 thanks to his recent high roller victory. He now has $4,154,474 in live earnings, which pushes his overall winnings to $7,917,201. This puts Kabrhel at the top of the Czech Republic's all-time poker winnings list.

He's well known at King’s Casino, playing in both cash games and smaller tournaments there. As he’s shown at the 2018 WSOPE, Kabrhel is also quite good in bigger events too.

2018 WSOP Europe Super High Roller Final Table Results

1. Martin Kabrhel – €2,624,340


2. David Peters – €1,621,960


3. Julian Thomas – €1,116,308


4. Mikita Badziakouski – €789,612


5. Dominik Nitsche – €574,406


6. Jan-Eric Schwippert – €430,218


7. Adrian Mateos – €331,943


8. Michael Addamo – €264,110