Pavel Binar Wins WSOPC €5,300 High Roller for €72,058
After coming close a number of times over the past three years, Pavel Binar has won the WSOPC €5,300 High Roller earning himself his first WSOPC ring and €72,058 in prize money.
Binar saw off a field of 41 players to defeat a star-studded final table, including bracelet-winner and two-time ring-winner Martin Kabrhel, French superstar Bertrand Grospellier and tough competition from the likes of Oded Cohen and eventual runner-up Van Tiep Nguyen.
| Position | Name | Country | Payout (€) | Payout ($) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pavel Binar | Czech Republic | €72,058 | $88,631 |
| 2 | Van Tiep Nguyen | Czech Republic | €49,661 | $61,083 |
| 3 | Martin Kabrhel | Czech Republic | €31,647 | $51,226 |
| 4 | Bertrand Grospellier | France | €22,883 | $28,146 |
| 5 | Oded Cohen | Israel | €18,501 | $22,756 |
This result lifts Pavel Binar up to 13th in the Czech Republic all-time money list, just behind compatriot Philipp Zukernik who narrowly missed out on the final table in this tournament.
It is also Binar's third five-figure score in three months. After finishing runner-up in the WPT European Championship High Roller in Berlin for €54,880, he followed it up yesterday with a fourth-place finish in the WSOPC Pot-Limit Omaha €2,000 High Roller for €12,373.
It is also Binar's biggest ever cash, beating the amount that he won in that High Roller runner-up finish in Berlin earlier this year. As you can see from the table below, Binar has had a number of close calls in WSOPC ring events and must be delighted to take down this tournament.
| Date | Tournament | Position | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| November 2016 | WSOPC €5,300 High Roller | 2nd | €42,750 |
| April 2017 | WSOPC €2,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High-Roller | 6th | €20,686 |
| April 2017 | WSOPC €5,500 High Roller | 4th | €15,568 |
| March 2018 | WSOPC €2,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High-Roller | 4th | €12,373 |
| March 2018 | WSOPC €5,300 High Roller | 1st | €72,058 |
Tournament recap
The delayed €5,300 WSOPC High Roller got underway at 4.15pm local time, with Pierre Neuville, The Wolf, Bertrand Grospellier and eventual winner Pavel Binar among those registered early on. Play started three-handed but the field soon grew.
Czech bracelet winner Martin Kabrhel knocked out eventual runner-up Van Tiep Nguyen in the first bustout of the day, but it was The Wolf who surged into the early chip lead after some audacious play, including taking a huge pot off Kabrhel where the Wolf made trips against Kabrhel's top pair.
Kabrhel would bust and re-enter after Nguyen doubled through him. More players such as Vojtech Ruzicka, Leon Tsoukernik, and Renato Nowak would join as the field continued to grow.
No one seemed to be able to lay a finger on the Wolf at the head of proceedings; that was until Marzio Tufilli and Renato Nowak were sent to the rail by Michal Mrakes and Nguyen respectively, boosting both of their stacks up over the 100,000 mark.
Also surging, albeit on his second bullet, was Cemo. He eliminated Michal Schuh ace-king versus ace-ten, followed by the elimination of Martin Kabrhel. With play down to three tables, there followed a sort of chip conveyor belt. First Leon Tsoukernik took chips off long time chip leader Michal Mrakes, only to hand them over to Cemo when he bluff-raised on the river straight into the flush of his opponent.
With late registration closed, Cemo really cut loose. First eliminating Ruzicka in a strange hand where Cemo turned out to be bluffing with the best hand. A pair of flush draws came up against one another, with Cemo's jack-high proving the best to eliminate the November Niner.
Cemo followed that up by sending Michal Mrakes to the rail and suddenly play was at two tables with Cemo holding a commanding chip lead of just over 600,000. By comparison, his nearest competitor, Philipp Zukernik, held just 235,000.
There were no major hands on the way to the final table, just a steady trickle of eliminations. But the major talking point was Kabrhel forcing his way into contention with the eliminations of Yehuda Cohen, Renato Nowak, Philipp Zukernik and Matthias Tikerpe in quick succession.
These eliminations were enough for Kabrhel to hold the chip lead as the final eight players got seated at the final table. With just five players guaranteed a min-cash worth €18,501, there was expected to be some tension in the air once play got back underway.
It wasn't the case, with the chips flying resulting in double-ups for five of the eight players at the final table, including two for eventual winner Pavel Binar.
Then, in four hands we lost three players. One player who didn't manage to find a double was short stack Ahmed Abdella who got his remaining chips in out-kicked by Grospellier to depart in 8th. He was soon joined in back-to-back hands by Cemo, who had played poorly in key pots to lose most of his chips to Kabrhel, who was eliminated by Grospellier and then by Igor Pihela who was sent to the rail in 6th place by Kabrhel.
Five-handed, and with all the players in the money, Kabrhel briefly lost the chip lead to Binar, but regained it soon thereafter only to lose it when Binar sent Oded Cohen to the rail flush over flush.
It was the elimination of Bertrand Grospellier in fourth place that really sent Kabrhel to the top of the chip counts, closing in on the one million chip mark. He would soon reach that mark and, without much resistance from his tablemates, he would soon press on to have more than his competitors combined.
The pace three-handed would slow, with Kabrhel perhaps guilty of taking his foot off the pedal, allowing Binar to secure a vital double up to get him back into contention. Soon after the break, Nguyen, who had been quiet for most of the short-handed play pulled off a courageous bluff to move him into the chip lead and into a commanding position.
This hand proved to be pivotal, with Kabhrel losing the head of steam he had worked tirelessly to build up. Eventually, he called off his remaining chips with pocket sixes against the queens of Binar to depart in third, two places short of adding a third WSOPC ring in three years to his poker resume.
Nguyen held the chip lead heads-up, but there was always going to be one massive clash resulting in either a win for Nguyen or a double up for his opponent. As it turned out, it was the latter. Binar limped with ace-four and called off a jam from his opponent with king-four. His ace-high held and Binar was suddenly the one with the 3:1 chip lead.
With the average stack shrinking with every blind increase, it looked like it was going to be a classic flip to end things. But in the end, we had a classic confrontation. In a limp pot, Nguyen check-called a bet on a 
board with 
and then bet 125,000 when his flush completed on the 
turn.
Binar called with 
for two pair and watched as the 
on the river gave him a full house. Nguyen moved all in and Binar snap-called to secure victory shortly before 5 am local time. The result marks Nguyen's best result since finishing second in the partypoker German Poker Championships High Roller for €64,125. But Binar finally gets what he's been so close to achieving before - the coveted WSOPC gold ring.