Vasili Firsau wins the 2015 WSOP Circuit Rozvadov PLO High Roller Event (€44,100)
The second and last day of the €3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller Event saw yet another owner of a World Series of Poker Circuit ring at the King's Casino in Rozvadov. A total of 14 players had bagged up chips after nine levels the previous day and three further hopefuls jumped into the action before the first card was dealt on Day 2, bumping the overall field to 34 entries.
2012 PLO world champion Jan-Peter Jachtmann was in the lead and the German made it all the way into heads-up before having to settle for the runner up spot. Vasili Firsau from Belarus, who won his first golden bracelet in the $ 3,000 Pot Limit Omaha Six Handed (Event #46) in Las Vegas this summer, eventually emerged victorious at almost 4 a.m. local time and added a circuit ring as well as €44,100 to his already impressive poker resume.
The King's regular known only as "Hans Olymp" played exactly one hand and busted with a set of kings against the set of aces of Dimitri Holdeew. Both other late entrants didn't last long either. Daniel Kang and Roger Hairabedian failed to make the final table along with Pavel Binar, Florian Langmann, John Kabbaj, Roman Cieslik and two-time WSOP bracelet winner Jesper Hougaard.
Firsau was leading the unofficial final table and maintained that position after Hannes Scholz had bowed out in 9th place. Only half of the remaining hopefuls would be going home with cash prizes as just the top four got spots paid. The two shortest stacks, Artur Schreiner and Arvin Ravindran, failed to run up their stacks and busted in quick succession. Schreiner's top pair on the flop didn't get there against Jachtmann's two pair and Ravindran's pocket aces were cracked by Lukas Nemec.
The last local in the field was however the next to fall and became the first victim of Thomas Bichon's hot run. Nemec improved to two pair on the turn, but the Czech had picked an unfortunate timing to get his stack in as Bichon made a straight with the very same card and held up after a blank on the river. The very same pattern also let the bubble burst with Bichon once again becoming the chip magnet. 2009 WSOPE PLO bracelet winner Jani Vilmunen defended his big blind against the Frenchman and "improved" to the worse two pair on the turn with aces and fours. Bichon had flopped aces and nines, the additional gutshot of the Finn didn't come either and the money was reached with Bichon sitting behind more than half of the chips in play.
More than two hours passed by without any elimination and 2013 Eureka Prague champion Holdeew then bowed out in 4th place. The German with roots in Kazakhstan got his short stack in with a pair of tens and Jachtmann looked him up with a pair of aces. Holdeew spiked a set of tens but his fellow German rivered a flush with his two other hole cards to start a comeback. Jachtmann doubled through Bichon after coming back from the break before crowning a crazy half an hour with a great fold against the Frenchman shortly after.
From there on, Firsau won almost every bigger pot and assumed control of the table with three players left. The elimination of Bichon in third place was a prime example of the run good of the Belorussian. Bichon had flopped bottom set and Firsau's open-ended straight draw immediately got there on the turn and dodged the river. The heads-up duel lasted all but 20 minutes after and again the player at risk, Jachtmann in this case, got it in ahead with top two pair. Firsau had a wrap once again and repeated the same fate by filling up with the turn card already to bust Jachtmann in second place.
Official result PLO High Roller
| Place | Winner | Nationality | Prize (EUR) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vasili Firsau | Belarus | 44,100 |
| 2 | Jan-Peter Jachtmann | Germany | 29,400 |
| 3 | Thomas Bichon | France | 14,700 |
| 4 | Dimitri Holdeew | Germany | 9,800 |
The PokerNews live reporting continues tomorrow as of 18:00 local time with Day 1 of the highly anticipated €25,000 Super High Roller, which boasts a guarantee of €500,000 and promises plenty of notables among the participants such as Patrik Antonius, Martin Kabrhel, Besim Hot, Quirin Zech, Hans Olymp, Leon Tsoukernik, Paul Newey, Elliot Smith, 2014 WSOP player of the year George Danzer and Andreas Eiler.