Kahle Burns Wins First Career Bracelet in WSOPE €25,500 Platinum High Roller (€596,883)
Australian high roller Kahle Burns has added the most coveted prize in all of poker to an already outstanding poker resumé. Burns reigned supreme in WSOPE Event #8: €25,500 Platinum High Roller No-Limit Hold'em at King's Resort, quickly overcoming a final table stacked with poker royalty to win €596,883 and the WSOP bracelet.
Britain's Sam Trickett came runner-up in a bracelet event for the second time in his career. 2019 WSOP Main Event champion Hossein Ensan's attempt to win his second bracelet this year came up short as he fell in third. Hakim Zoufri of the Netherlands was fourth, Canadian high roller regular Timothy Adams finished fifth and GPI #2 ranked player Alex Foxen was the first to bust out on the final day of play, finishing in sixth place.
Unlike Robert Campbell, who burst out in emotions after his victory in Las Vegas, Burns was rather calm and focused when the final hand was over.
“Yeah, it was sort of smooth sailing: a very fast final table. I was lucky to come in with the chip lead and sort of didn’t have any all-ins myself. Other people knocked themselves out and there was one hand against Sam [Trickett] where I sort of jammed light and both woke up with hands. That changed things a bit, but everything went fast and smooth, no complaints.”
He added: “I won a lot of chips on Day 2 and managed to maintain it, this was nice. It is always good to have all the chips around the bubble.”
Event #8: €25,500 Platinum High Roller No-Limit Hold'em Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (EUR) | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kahle Burns | Australia | €596,883 | $644,410 |
| 2 | Sam Trickett | United Kingdom | €368,899 | $410,637 |
| 3 | Hossein Ensan | Germany | €251,837 | $280,331 |
| 4 | Hakim Zoufri | Netherlands | €177,062 | $197,090 |
| 5 | Timothy Adams | Canada | €128,326 | $142,841 |
| 6 | Alex Foxen | United States | €95,962 | $106,822 |
| 7 | Anton Morgenstern | Germany | €74,117 | $82,505 |
| 8 | Robert Campbell | Australia | €59,189 | $65,896 |
Sporting the sizable lead, Burns returned at 2 p.m. to play the final day of this event with 6 out of 83 left. Alex Foxen, hunting Stephen Chidwick again as the top-ranked GPI player in the world, was the first to be eliminated, shoving queen-jack into Trickett's ace-jack to cash just shy of six figures.
Trickett, one of the short stacks coming into the day, shot up the leaderboard after also taking out Timothy Adams in fifth place by winning pocket eights versus ace-king. Holding pocket aces, the Brit had a shot to knock out Hakim Zoufri next but the Dutchman survived with nine-eight making a straight.
Trickett then got it all back and more in a three-way all-in clash which left Zoufri empty-handed and allowed the Brit to jump over Burns to take the lead.
Not to be denied, the Aussie reclaimed the lead right back after winning a big showdown with ace-ten versus the king-queen of Hossein Ensan, poker's reigning world champion. The German champ saw his attempt to win a second bracelet this year come up short after the board ran out five blanks, and he added nearly $300,000 to the $10,000,000 he earned in July for winning the Main Event.
Bucket List: Winning a Bracelet
The heads-up with Trickett became a short affair after both players picked up a monster to get it in for a pot of 98% of the chips in play. Burns limped in with pocket queens while Trickett found ace-queen to put in a raise. Burns reraised, Trickett shoved, and Burns called to leave Trickett with dust after the board brought only low cards. The next hand, Burns took the remaining two bigs from Trickett to capture his first career gold.
While already having racked up $6 million in lifetime winnings, as well as being heralded as one of the most dangerous players from Down Under, Burns' elite poker resumé was lacking one important accolade until today: a WSOP gold bracelet. Certainly, the windfall of over $600,000 is nothing to sneeze at either. In regards to whether the money or the prestige was more important to him, Burns said:
"For me, the bracelet is definitely a bucket list thing. I definitely didn't want to exit poker and not win one, but in terms of the prestige of a bracelet, I feel like it is great to win one. But at the same time, anybody can win one too and it doesn’t necessarily mean you are a fantastic poker player. Obviously, in this instance, since it is a 25k, there are some very strong players.
Whether or not it had a bracelet attached to it, against strong players and a strong competition means something to me and I haven’t had a good start to the series, so to recoup some of that money is obviously quite nice," he added.
Aussies Reign Supreme
With the win, Burns follows in the footsteps of Michael Addamo who won the same event last year. "Back to back for the Australians, great, bringing it back to the Commonwealth," Burns laughed.
While Burns definitely plans to play in the Main Event and the 100K, he'll be traveling back to his homeland after the WSOPE has wrapped up.
“I am from Melbourne and one of my best friends is getting married, so he is having a Bucks Party in Australia or Bachelor’s Party in the United States. I am the best man for the wedding and need to get back there and take control of that; it’s gonna be a fun time with the boys,” Burns explained.
Speaking of fun times, with the likes of Campbell, Michael O'Grady, and Sam Higgs also in Rozvadov, one might expect some shenanigans at the bar or in one of the local establishments around town, but Burns doesn't plan on partying with them until everything is over.
“I am not much of a celebrator, maybe just go out for dinner and have one beer. Maybe after the series, if the boys want to have a drink then I will be down.”