Germany's Van Hiep Tran Ships the WPTN Rozvadov Main Event at King's Casino for €68,081
Yesterday, Germany's Van Hiep Tran outlasted a field of 339 entrants to win the partypoker World Poker Tour National (WPTN) Rozvadov Main Event at King's Casino Czech Republic for €68,081.
The event easily eclipsed its guarantee of €200,000 with 339 entrants (296 entries + 43 reentries) ponying up the €1,100 buy-in to generate a huge €330,101 prize pool.
The tournament kicked off on August 5 with the first of its two opening days. Players began the day with 30,000 opening chips and were able to rebuy once on each day. Additionally, players that survived Day 1a were allowed to reenter on Day 1b on August 6 and bring their best stack forward when the surviving players returned for action on Day 2 on August 7.
The action whittled down to 19 players to start the final day of action on August 8 with the eventual winner, Tran, holding a commanding chip lead. Soon after play began, one of Czech Republic's biggest names in poker along with a regular at King's Casino in Martin Kabrhel was the first player eliminated to bank the 19th place prize of €3,268.
Including Kabrhel, five players from five different countries were eliminated during the first blind level on Day 3, including Germany's Bernd Alexander Rygol ((18th - €3,730), Spain's Adrian Quevedo (17th - €3,730), Hungary's István Nagy (16th - €3,730), and Netherland's Luuk Krabbe (15th - €4,357).
The international affair continued on as the final table bubble began to approach with players from two more different countries being the next to exit including Poland's Lukasz Jankowski (14th - €4,357) and Sweden's Velican Sahin (13th - €4,357) before a trio of Germans were the next to exit including Thassilo Achim Krause (12th - €5,315), Dennis Kraus (11th - €5,315), and Patrick Alexander Marquardt (10th - €5,315).
While Marquardt was the official final table bubble boy, he received some additional consolation of his buy-in back as well from the tour's sponsor thanks to winning the partypoker Last Longer Bet.
The final table proved to be a long and tough battle between players from six different countries. Czech Republic's Vítězslav Pešta was the first to bow out in ninth place for €7,295 before Israel's Shay Vodka (8th - €9,573), Germany's Patrick Beuter (7th - €12,148), Austria's Markus Hofer (6th - €14,623), and Israel's Itay Bernstein (5th - €17,294) all hit the showers in succession.
A pair of Germans were the next to be eliminated from the tournament with Daniel Oliver Schumacher banking €23,767 for fourth place and Jan Christoph Streicher taking home €31,954 for third place.
Tran entered heads-up play against Netherland's Harmjan Poel with a 3:2 chip advantage. Before play began, the two players agreed to a deal guaranteeing both players to win at least €58,081.
Play then resumed with blind levels cut in half to 30 minutes per level for the remaining money, the coveted trophy, and of course the chance to be entered into the WPTN history books as the latest champion.
After an hour of battling it out, play came to an end with Tran winning the top prize of €68,081 and Poel walking away with a great payday of €58,021.
On the final hand, Tran bested his opponent holding 10♠8♣, against Poel's 9♣7♠ on a board that read 4♣J♣7♦6♥10♥ giving Tran the victory when all was said and done.
Final Table Payouts of the partypoker WPTN Rozvadov Main Event
| Place | Name | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Van Hiep Tran | Germany | €68,081* |
| 2 | Harmjan Poel | Netherlands | €58,081* |
| 3 | Jan Christoph Streicher | Germany | €31,954 |
| 4 | Daniel Oliver Schumacher | Germany | €23,767 |
| 5 | Itay Bernstein | Israel | €17,294 |
| 6 | Markus Hofer | Austria | €14,623 |
| 7 | Patrick Beuter | Germany | €12,148 |
| 8 | Shay Vodka | Israel | €9,573 |
| 9 | Vítězslav Pešta | Czech Republic | €7,295 |
*Reflects heads-up deal
PokerNews Cup Up Next at King's Casino!
The 10th anniversary edition of the PokerNews Cup returns to King's Casino for a full schedule of exciting low limit events that can't be missed.
The festival starts in just a couple of days on August 10 with the fun €80 PokerNews Cup Opening NLH featuring a healthy €6,000 guarantee.
Of course, the highlight of the poker festival is the €250 PokerNews Cup Main Event running from August 11-15 where players can strike it rich thanks to a lofty €200,000 guaranteed prize pool. Players still have the opportunity to get in on this event for a fraction of the cost thanks to three €40 qualifiers taking place August 11-13 at King's Casino.
The PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be on hand providing updates throughout the festival.
Lead image courtesy of the World Poker Tour and King's Casino.
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