Martin Kabrhel Leads The Big Wrap as 28 Remain, "ElkY" Bubbles

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Sep 16, 2019 4 min read

All Day 1 survivors of The Big Wrap combined into one field for the first time. They had to survive the early minefields of the late registration and re-entry period in the first two levels in Europe's biggest poker arena at the King's Casino and Resort in Rozvadov.

The guaranteed prize pool of €1,000,000 drew more than 100 additional entries for the €2,350 buy-in event to create a field of 474 entries, and the top 55 spots ended up in the money.

Once it came to bagging and tagging, a very familiar face of King's Casino topped the leaderboard as Martin Kabrhel turned a late entry on Day 2 into a stack of 4,525,000. Kabrhel sat down half-way through the first level of the day and quickly turned his twenty-five big blinds into more than a million. His table presence could be heard in the entire tournament area as usual, and the aggressive playing style sent the Czech into a wild rollercoaster ride throughout the day.

The last player to leave the poker arena without a payday was none other than partypoker ambassador Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, who saw his hopes of a cash vanish on the feature table. Down to just over one big blind, his jam was called two ways and John Trast ended up making two pair to lock up €4,750 for all remaining 55 participants.

Just before and after the money bubble, Kabrhel got the best of Hokyiu Lee. When Kabrhel was about to drop back into the middle of the pack after doubling two shorter stacks, he sent Oleksandr Pyliavskyi and Ran Azor to the rail to regain the lead with twenty-eight players remaining.

Veton Raka started the day as one of the chip leaders and ended the night near the top with 3,875,000 in chips. He did so after sending John Trast to the rail in the final hand of the night over on the feature table. Third in chips is Oleh Sushko with 3,030,000, closely followed by Marian Vacha (2,950,000), Adon Ursu (2,925,000), and Iaroslav Boiko (2,730,000).

Sergey Verkhoturov led the field into Day 2 as the only player above one million and avoided a late bust out when he doubled through Erich Kollmann to move back up to 1,710,000, leaving Kollmann on 820,000 for the final day. Other notables that remain in contention for the top prize of €200,000 are Han Kuo (1,615,000), Tomasz Kozub (1,165,000), Leonid Yanovski (735,000), Ilyaz Dosikov (720,000), and Sascha Minerva (450,000).

Many other big names shared the same fate and missed out on the money spots such as Thomas Bichon, Lukas Zaskodny, Ivo Donev, Besim Hot, Anton Morgenstern, Matous Skorepa, and Maksim Pisarenko. Hot and Donev both hit the rail in a remarkable hand when a four-way all-in resulted in a triple knockout for Mevludtn Mehmedovic with a set of kings.

Marek Blasko, Martin Rothaermel, Jonas Kronwitter, and Maksim Shuts all had to leave without anything to show for either. Shuts lost the vast majority of his stack in the then far biggest pot of the tournament when his flopped nut straight failed to hold up against the top set and inferior straight of Dorel Eldabach. When the average was barely scraping on a million in chips, Eldabach had moved up to 3.2 million but could not hold onto his stack and busted in the money in the final level of the night.

Marcel Luske nursed a shorter stack throughout the day and survived the money bubble. He then doubled twice in quick succession and seemed poised for another one, but the third time wasn't a charm when his kings came up short against the combo draw of Adon Ursu. Eventually, the field was trimmed down to the final four tables at the end of level 23.

The Big Wrap Day 3 Seat Draw

• Tags Bertrand Grospellier Marcel Luske Omaha Martin Kabrhel Dorel Eldabach
• Related Players Marcel LuskeBertrand GrospellierMartin KabrhelDorel Eldabach