WSOPE: Nitsche Leads Stacked €100k Final Table; Chases Bracelet #5
The final table in the most expensive tournament of the 2018 World Series of Poker Europe is set and a familiar face can be found at the top of the leaderboard with eight players remaining in Event #9: €100,000 No-Limit Hold'em King's Super High Roller. One year ago, Dominik Nitsche won his fourth WSOP bracelet at Europe's biggest poker arena in the King's Casino in Rozvadov, and the German High Roller regular leads the last eight hopefuls into the final day.
“I was aiming for 100k!” joked Nitsche after bagging and tagging for the night. “I wanted to be able to finish early tomorrow and play the Main Event. I just ran extremely hot; lots of good plays, a couple of bad plays that thankfully didn’t hurt me too much."
Event #9: €100,000 King's Super High Roller Final Table Seat Assignments
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Martin Kabrhel | Czech Republic | 24,675,000 | 49 |
| 2 | Julian Thomas | Germany | 19,925,000 | 40 |
| 3 | Dominik Nitsche | Germany | 53,125,000 | 106 |
| 4 | Michael Addamo | Australia | 12,450,000 | 25 |
| 5 | Mikita Badziakouski | Belarus | 32,200,000 | 64 |
| 6 | Adrian Mateos | Spain | 10,225,000 | 20 |
| 7 | David Peters | United States | 15,275,000 | 30 |
| 8 | Jan-Eric Schwippert | Germany | 22,100,000 | 46 |
Nitsche says that he considers Mikita Badziakouski the toughest player remaining in the Super High Roller, and said he’d love to get him heads-up.
“Just because of his background. We’ve played a lot online together so I was saying at the table that I hope we get heads-up because I think he’s an amazing player, and it would definitely make for the most intricate heads-up for a while.”
After an already impressive day with 76 entries, Day 2 kicked off with 33 players remaining and the registration and re-entry period remained open for another two levels. A flurry of eliminations and re-entries boosted the field up to 95 entries and that generated a massive prize pool of €9,025,000, which is a perfect opportunity for professional poker players, according to Nitsche.
"I just ran extremely hot; lots of good plays, a couple of bad plays that thankfully didn’t hurt me too much."
“It’s a fantastic 100k,” the German said. “Leon [Tsoukernik] did a great job in getting all of these players in. And what that means for me as a pro … there’s no secret that there’s action being sold. And it’s also no secret that in a field full of recreational players I’m going to have a much bigger piece of myself."
Nitsche already has four bracelets to his name and joked on social media that he is running very good at the King's Casino. Just two days ago, the German finished 5th in the €25,500 Super High Roller - on one bullet, and is now already secured an even bigger payday once more. However, there is much more at stake with the coveted gold bracelet and High Roller glory up for grabs.
“What will it mean to me [to win]? A huge payday – and that’s great! Another bracelet, and that’s also great. It’s ridiculous how good I run at the WSOP and at King’s, and with both combined it’s like I can’t be stopped here. So it would mean a lot to me.”
While Nitsche bagged up a comfortable lead with 53,125,000, he is facing tough competition on his road to a possible fifth WSOP bracelet. Aforementioned Badziakouski sits in second place with 32,200,000 and Martin Kabrhel completes the overnight podium with 24,675,000. Jan-Eric Schwippert (23,100,000) and Julian Thomas (19,925,000) will also aim to continue the tradition of German High Roller wins, while David Peters (15,275,000), Michael Addamo (12,450,000) and Adrian Mateos (10,225,000) can add another WSOP bracelet to their resume.
A total of 15 players would finish in the money. Shortly before the two-table redraw, Igor Kurganov ran into the dreaded cooler when he ran his pocket kings into Peters' pocket aces. Next to go and the official bubble boy was Tobias Ziegler, who lost a flip with pocket deuces to Vogelsang's ace-nine to secure the others of at least €146,907.
Players to finish in the money but missing out on a spot of the final table were Steffen Sontheimer, Richard Yong, Steve O'Dwyer, Vladimir Troyanovskiy, Orpen Kisacikoglu, Christoph Vogelsang and Timothy Adams. Read back about all their eliminations and more in the PokerNews live reporting section.
Cards will be back in the air at 3 p.m. local time with 55:40 minutes left at blinds of 250,000/500,000 with a big blind ante of 500,000. Cards-up coverage on the PokerRoomKings Twitch channel will take place on a security delay of 30 minutes and the PokerNews live updates will be published accordingly. Follow all the WSOPE live updates on PokerNews as the biggest buy-in event of the WSOP Europe comes to a sizzling conclusion.
