Volkan Alkan Wins the 2022 WSOP International Circuit Rozvadov Spring Edition €1,700 Main Event (€160,500)
The next major festival in Europe's biggest poker arena at the King's Resort in Rozvadov has crowned a winner. After a short-lived final day in the marquee event of the 2022 WSOP International Circuit Rozvadov Spring Edition, Germany's Volkan Alkan came out on top of a 648-entry strong field despite entering the final table as the shortest stack.
It only took just over six hours to distribute the lion's share of the €1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool in the WSOP Circuit €1,700 Main Event and Alkan walked away with a cash prize of €160,500. On top of that, he received the coveted WSOP Circuit gold ring, an entry into the 2022 WSOP Europe €10,350 Main Event and seat in the WSOP Circuit Tournament of Champions during the 2022 WSOP in Las Vegas.
Kosovo's Besnik Lalinovci, who resides in Switzerland, entered the final day as the chip leader and was responsible for the vast majority of the table action. He ultimately fell short of victory and had to settle for a consolation prize of €100,900 after a heads-up duel that lasted all but seven hands. The final table wrapped up in 138 hands on the King's Resort Twitch channel.
Among the finalists was also Israel's Tom Cohen, won took down the Dutch Classics €230 Main Event in September 2021 at the same venue. Cohen's bid for another victory at King's Resort was cut short in third place while Czech WSOP bracelet winner Lukas Zaskodny had to settle for fifth place despite being responsible for the first four eliminations on the final table.
Final Result 2022 WSOP International Circuit Rozvadov Spring Edition €1,700 Main Event
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize (in EUR) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Volkan Alkan | Germany | €160,500* |
| 2 | Besnik Lalinovci | Kosovo | €100,900 |
| 3 | Tom Cohen | Israel | €72,300 |
| 4 | Nedeljko Todorovic | Slovenia | €56,900 |
| 5 | Lukas Zaskodny | Czech Republic | €44,700 |
| 6 | Rama Mulaj | Kosovo | €34,900 |
| 7 | Ruslan Volkov | Ukraine | €26,300 |
| 8 | Luc Ta | Germany | €18,300 |
| 9 | Vincent De Neve | Germany | €14,500 |
* the top 12 finishers also received an entry into the 2022 WSOP Europe Main Event worth €10,350 each
The third edition of the WSOP International Circuit within seven months awarded 12 coveted gold rings. Unlike the last two stops, the flagship tournament came up short of surpassing the ambitious seven-figure guarantee this time and the top 71 spots were paid.
Italy's Fausto Tantillo finished in 13th place to miss out on the additional 2022 WSOP Europe Main Event ticket but had won the €2,200 High Roller Ring Event earlier in the series to unlock his entry to the WSOP Circuit Tournament of Champions in Las Vegas. Ciprian Paunescu, Rene Crha and Symeon Alexandridis fell short of the final table but will be back in fall to compete in the most prestigious tournament of the year at the King's Resort.
The Action of the Final Day
Right from the start, the fireworks kicked off and it was former WSOP Circuit Main Event finalist Vincent De Neve who became the first casualty on the final day. He started with the second-shortest stack and found a premium hand in pocket kings to get it in with. Despite flopping top set, De Neve ended up second-best as the ten-nine suited of Lukas Zaskodny rivered a straight.
Luc Ta was one of the bigger stacks when the cards went back in the air but never got much going. Eventually, he entered one of the most classic flips with jacks versus ace-king and Zaskodny peeled an ace on the turn. The Czech then also won a flip to knock out Ruslan Volkov and he made it four in a row when his kings nailed a full house against the ace-nine suited of a short-stacked Rama Mulaj.
Zaskodny took the lead into five-handed action when he profited from the aggressive playing style of Besnik Lalinovci but the wheels then came off in a span of one hour. He first lost two pots to Lalinovci and was then on the wrong end of a trips versus trips cooler to double Tom Cohen. It was all over soon after for Zaskodny and what followed thereafter can only be described as a frantic frenzy.
Despite an average of more than 40 big blinds, it took fewer than one hour to determine a champion. Volkan Alkan doubled through Cohen to take the lead, who then doubled through Nedeljko Todorovic and finished the job shortly after. Only a few hands later, the two big stacks collided and Cohen's ace-queen suited were no match to the ace-king suited of Alkan. Seven hands of heads-up play culminated in the preflop shove by Lalinovci with queen-nine and Alkan prevailed with ace-ten.
One day prior when he had bagged up the shortest stack, Alkan had bemoaned the fact that he has to stay another day and may potentially bust in the first few hands. However, the comeback story turned into the biggest success of his poker career so far and wrapped up the festival at the King's Resort. The next stop of the WSOP International Circuit is already underway at the Casino Barrière Cannes Le Croisette and will head to Venlo in the Netherlands next in May 2022.