Adon Ursu Wins King's Resort's The Big Wrap, Europe's Biggest PLO Event
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The biggest Pot-Limit Omaha tournament of the year outside of Las Vegas has come to a conclusion in Europe's biggest poker arena at the King's Casino and Resort in Rozvadov. It was Adon Ursu that lifted the trophy for the winner shots in the early morning hours after defeating Veton Raka heads-up.
It was the second edition of the PLO festival in 2019, and the flagship tournament drew a total of 474 entries for the €2,350 buy-in. The top 55 spots took home a portion of the guaranteed €1,000,000 prize pool.
Winner Ursu began the final day fifth in chips and quickly found his way to the top of the leaderboard when the final three tables were reached. He remained one of the most active players and sent several opponents to the rail to regain momentum after small setbacks.
Two clashes with eventual third-place finisher Kozub sent Ursu back into the middle of the pack, but he then sent Pawel Keller to the rail to take over control. Ursu never ceased the top spot anymore and knocked out seven of his eight final opponents to the rail to showcase his dominating role in the late stages of the tournament.
The Big Wrap €2,350 Main Event Final Table Results
Place | Winner | Country | Prize in € | Prize in $ |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Adon Ursu | Turkey | €200,000 | $222,986 |
2 | Veton Raka | Kosovo | €120,000 | $133,792 |
3 | Tomasz Kozub | Poland | €88,000 | $98,114 |
4 | Borritoo | Lithuania | €71,200 | $79,383 |
5 | Sergey Verkhoturov | Russia | €56,300 | $62,771 |
6 | Han Kuo | Germany | €43,400 | $48,388 |
7 | Pawel Keller | Poland | €32,250 | $35,956 |
8 | Victor Nalim | Turkey | €23,260 | $25,933 |
The Demise of Start-of-Day Chipleader Martin Kabrhel
Martin Kabrhel made his presence known on Day 2 and topped the leader board with 28 players remaining. The final day, however, was filled with obstacles for the two-time WSOP bracelet and five-time WSOP Circuit ring winner in his home casino. Kabrhel doubled Hasan Nazarian and Maxifeli to drop below the average. His run eventually came to an end when he got it in with kings against the aces of Sergey Verkhoturov.
By then, Ilyaz Dosikov, Erich Kollmann and Leonid Yankovski were already on the rail. Other notables that fell short of the final table were Iaroslav Boiko, Oleh Sushko, Sascha Minerva, and Marian Vacha. Both Minerva and Vacha were nursing shorter stacks for a long time, and Minerva was well ahead with a wrap when he ended up at risk only for Veton Raka to spike a pair on the river.
Final Table
Down to the final table, Pawel Keller was in the lead with Adon Ursu and Sergey Verkhoturov hot on his heels. Hasan Nazarian was left with crumbs and failed to make any further pay jumps.
Lithuania's Borritoo was now the short stack, but throughout the final day, the Lithuanian turned out to be a cat with more than nine lives. Time after time, he would get short and double again to postpone the trip to the payout desk.
Instead, Victor Nalim and Pawel Keller were felted by Ursu, and Borritoo knocked out fellow short stack Han Kuo when both were even in chips.
Borritoo doubled again, much to the delight of his rail from Lithuania, got short, tripled, and doubled when his queens hit a flush to best the queens of Sergey Verkhoturov.
Ursu finished off Verkhoturov soon after and Borritoo seemingly escaped from elimination once again when he clashed with Ursu, but he was counterfeited on the river to end up in fourth place.
Three-handed play was all about the sheer aggression of Ursu and Veton Raka. While it was set to be the biggest live score for both Ursu and Raka, they played the three-handed situation aggressively.
Tomasz Kozub, who reached the final table during April's edition of The Big Wrap where he finished fifth for €61,363, took home €88,000 this time. He managed to double his short stack twice against Raka but would go under against Ursu. If there was any proof needed for the run-good of Ursu, it was his clash with Kozub when he flopped a pair, gutshot, and flush draw against a straight draw. Ursu turned a straight flush to send Kozub to the payout desk.
Heads-up play lasted all but two hands after. Ursu got it in with aces against the pair and straight draw of Raka. The latter missed, and Urdu lifted the trophy.
That wraps up the PokerNews updates from Rozvadov for now. Europe's biggest poker arena is getting ready for the upcoming 2019 World Series of Poker Europe that starts a month from now.
Winner Picture courtesy of Vasyl Tsubera / King's Resort and Casino.