Danny Tang Wins the 2017 PokerStars Championship Prague €10,300 High Roller (€381,000)
The 2017 PokerStars Championship Prague €10,300 High Roller has come to an end and it was Danny Tang that lifted the trophy at 11 p.m. local time in the Hilton Hotel Prague. Several other side events had just finished when Hossein Ensan was eliminated in third place, and Tang as well as runner-up Sergio Aido discussed a straight ICM deal - both shook hands soon after.
Tang officially claimed the first place and the trophy, and the twenty-five year old will cross $1 million in live cashes. He has moved to Macau in late 2016 and and made the trip to cold Prague with several friends, while his girlfriend was cheering on the rail.
“I bricked everything," Tang told PokerNews after the tournament. "I told my friends I had to brick everything to win this $10k.” And that's exactly what he did, taking home €381,000 for his efforts.
The two biggest cashes of Aido, who had racked up more than $5.9 million on the live circuit prior to the tournament, came from events in Manila and the Spaniard has been crushing the Asian poker scene in the last two years. While Aido won't have to worry about extra kilos in the hand luggage, he takes home the lion's share of the prize pool for €449,000.
Final Result €10,300 High Roller
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize (in EUR) | Deal (in EUR) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Danny Tang | Hong Kong | €498,000 | €381,000* |
| 2 | Sergio Aido | Spain | €332,000 | €449,000* |
| 3 | Hossein Ensan | Germany | €242,000 | |
| 4 | Ben Heath | United Kingdom | €196,000 | |
| 5 | Orpen Kisacikoglu | Turkey | €152,900 | |
| 6 | Liwei Sun | Italy | €116,000 | |
| 7 | Roman Emelyanov | Russia | €85,000 | |
| 8 | Preben Stokkan | Norway | €63,000 |
*denotes deal of the last two players
The tournament attracted a field of 256 entries including 61 single re-entries, and a prize pool of €2,483,200 was split among the top 39 finishers. Some of the biggest names on the live poker circuit took to the felt and the bubble burst after the dinner break on Day 2.
Among those to cash the same day still were Ryan Riess (32nd, for €17,000), Antoine Saout (31st, for €19,300), Sam Greenwood (30th, for €19,300), Anthony Zinno (29th, for €19,300), Jean-Noel Thorel (27th, for €21,800), Anton Wigg (25th, for €21,800), Sergi Reixach (21st, for €24,300), and Saar Wilf (20th, for €26,800).
Day 3 Action
Sergio Aido had a comfortable lead with 16 players left and after just one hand, the field was reduced by one hopeful. Christopher Kruk came back with the shortest stack and opened for more than half of it before calling off the shove of David Peters. Kruk showed queen-nine suited and faced the pocket jacks of Peters. A queen on the flop was followed by a jack on the turn and the fifth spade for a chop didn't arrive.
Peters started off well into the final day but would have to settle for 15th place eventually. Short stacked, he got it in with king-ten and Hossein Ensan called before folding to the raise of Preben Stokkan. The latter had pocket aces in the big blind and a dramatic run out with the flopped straight for Peters ended in the runner-runner full house for Stokkan.
Igor Yaroshevskyy, €25,500 Single-Day High Roller II runner-up JC Alvarado, Guillaume Pau Davy, Tsugunari Toma and Viliyan Petleshkov all bowed out before the remaining contenders for the title combined to one table. Kfir Ivgi, who had previously won the €2,200 Event #26, started the final table as the chipleader, but he had to settle for 9th place and €52,000.
Ivgi first lost half of his stack when paying off the shove of Orpen Kisacikoglu only to see his opponent turn over king-deuce suited for trips kings. Soon after, Ivgi was all in and at risk with pocket jacks against the ace-king of Liwei Sun, who flopped a king and left the Brit with fewer than two big blinds. Those vanished soon after in a three-way all in.
Down to the last eight players it was Preben Stokkan that busted in unfortunate fashion. The Norwegian flopped trips sevens with nine-seven suited and improved to a full house on the river only for the case nine in the deck to give Hossein Ensan the superior full house with pocket nines.
Roman Emelyanov was left short and raised with queen-ten suited, called a three-bet by Sergio Aido and bluffed it off on an ace-high board. Aido had ace-king for top pair and send the Russian out in 7th place.
Six players headed into the short dinner break and one of them would only return for one hand. Liwei Sun three-bet shoved for fewer than eight big blinds with ace-ten suited and Sergio Aido called with king-queen. A king appeared on the river and the Italian was gone in 6th place.
High Roller regular Orpen Kisacikoglu and Hossein Ensan fell back and were suddenly the bottom stacks with five left. Kisacikoglu shoved for 13 big blinds with queen-seven suited and Ensan snap-called with pocket aces in the big blind. A queen on the flop brought some hope, but two blanks followed and the Turk was gone in 5th place.
The big stack of Ben Heath vanished in two consecutive hands. A big three-bet shove with pocket sixes came at the wrong time, as Danny Tang called instantly with pocket kings and immediately hit top set on the flop. The remaining few chips went into the middle with pocket eights and Hossein Ensan isolated after a call by Sergio Aido, turning over ace-queen. By the river, Ensan had improved to a straight and the field was down to the last three players.
Three-handed play saw the chip lead change a few times and it was Hossein Ensan that ended up all in and at risk via three-bet shove for 20 big blinds with queen-ten. Sergio Aido called with pocket tens and faded the one overcard and backdoor flush draw of the EPT11 Prague Main Event champion to end the last tournament of the festival.
This marks the end of the PokerNews live reporting from Prague and a busy poker year is done and dusted.