Forty-two of the world’s most prolific poker players had gathered at King’s Resort in Rozvadov to battle it out for an iconic WSOP bracelet in Event #8: €25,000 GGMiliion€ at the World Series of Poker Europe.
When the dust had settled, the 89 entries they had done together created a mighty prize pool of €2,079,930. However, the lion’s share of €600,000 could only go to the victor, and that was Canadian high roller Daniel Dvoress, who won his second golden bracelet by defeating Michael Rocco heads up. Rocco took home €365,000 after a relatively short heads-up battle but ultimately missed out on the top spot and all the glory that comes with it.
The prolific poker player is known for travelling the world for high-stakes poker, but often skipping the WSOP at Las Vegas, so he gets fewer opportunities to win a bracelet than most other players of his calibre, making this win that more special. Sadly for his fans, it appears that this will remain so for the foreseeable future. “It’s just a little hard for us Canadians to play in the US, tax-wise. Winning my first live bracelet does not really change my view on that.” Dvoress had already won a WSOP bracelet online in 2020, but winning one live felt more special to him. “It was a tougher final table, it was a deeper final table, and the whole tournament was just longer, so it felt more real.”
Event #8: €25,000 GGMillion€ Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Daniel Dvoress | Canada | €600,000 |
| 2 | Michael Rocco | United States | €365,000 |
| 3 | Martin Kabrhel | Czechia | €260,000 |
| 4 | Gab Yong Kim | South Korea | €189,000 |
| 5 | Leonard Maue | Germany | €140,300 |
| 6 | Niklas Astedt | Sweden | €106,600 |
| 7 | Cedric Schwaederle | France | €82,900 |
| 8 | Tamas Adamszki | Hungary | €66,200 |
Day 2 Action
However, at the start of the day, the late registration was still open. Fourteen players joined the 28 survivors from Day 1, and among the reentries that showed up with a fresh starting stack were high roller regulars Teun Mulder, Chris Brewer, Ben Heath, and Ren Lin, the last of which was on his fourth bullet of the tournament. Meanwhile Jens Lakemeier, Diego Zeiter, and fresh bracelet winner Wing Po Liu were the three completely new faces at the start of the day.
However, all of them fell short of the 14 places receiving a payday. Joining them on the rail were many of poker’s household names, including Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Viktor Blom, and Eelis Parssinen, who all fell in the early stages of the day. Meanwhile, the likes of Johan Guilbert, Laszlo Bujtas, and Felipe Ketzer fizzled out at the final three tables. Eventually, it was well-known Argentinian grinder Nacho Barbero who was ousted in 15th place and thus received the title of bubble boy for this event.
The post-bubble action was plenty and rapid, meaning that it did not take long before the unofficial final table of nine players was reached. Once in the money, goodbyes were said to, among others, Timothy Adams (13th – €41,610) and Ole Schemion (12th – €41,610). Not much later, it was start-of-day chipleader James Chen who busted in 10th place as the final table bubble.
Final Table Play
During the final two tables, Martin Kabrhel had won the majority of big pots, including one where he flopped a full house to leave Orpen Kisacikoglu short-stacked. It resulted in him starting the final table as chipleader with more than 12 million chips, over a quarter of all chips in play. On the other hand of the spectrum was Tamas Adamszki, who only had 310,000 chips in his stack at the start of play, equating to merely three big blinds. However, he managed to triple up in the first hand of the final table, leaving Jerry Odeen to be the first one eliminated when his nut flush draw failed to come in against Niklas Astedt’s overpair.
Now on the official final table of eight players, it took over an hour to lose the next player. Adamszki managed to double up again in a flip, but, eventually, he failed to beat the odds and was eliminated in eighth place when his pocket nines failed to beat the pocket kings of Rocco in a preflop confrontation. Rocco also surpassed Kabrhel in chips with this elimination, landing him in the chip lead.
After another hour, it was Cedric Schwaederle who was next on the chopping block. He got his chips in good with ace-king against Dvoress’ ace-queen, but a queen on the flop spelled the end for the Frenchman. It took even longer for the next elimination. After about 90 minutes of six-handed play, it was online phenom Astedt who lost a preflop flip against Kabrhel. Left with just one small blind, he was forced all-in the next hand and exited the tournament shortly after in sixth.
Shortly thereafter, Kabrhel scored another knockout when Leonard Maue met his maker. Maue had doubled up a total of four times on the final table, but his fifth all-in confrontation went awry when he jammed his king-six into Kabrhel’s pocket tens in a blind-on-blind encounter. Maue had a sweat when he turned a combo draw, but the river bricked out and resulted in his departure.
In the meantime, Dvoress had seized the chip lead, and he extended it when he eliminated Gab Yong Kim in fourth place. The South Korean player finished in second place at the €25,000 bracelet event at WSOPE 2022 and made another deep run this year. However, his efforts to make it one place further were thwarted when he got his final eight blinds in preflop against Dvoress, who won the flip to send Kim home.
Short-Handed Play
About 90 minutes later, Dvoress single-handedly secured his spot in the heads-up battle. In a blind-on-blind limp-three-bet pot preflop, Dvoress pocket nines were taking on the king-queen of the at-risk former chip leader Kabrhel. Kabrhel was looking set to double up after hitting a pair on the flop, but Dvoress hit his set on the river. The two-outer sent Kabrhel home in third place and set up the duel for the bracelet between Dvoress and Rocco.
After a quick break to set up the decor, the two grinders went at it. Dvoress started the heads-up with about twice as many chips as Rocco, but that did not mean he lost his focus at any point. “I don’t think it’s a good approach to go into any heads up, no matter what the chip distribution is, with any certainty. You can have a four-to-one disadvantage and still ship the tournament.”
After some small pots went back and forth, the first all-in situation saw Rocco’s ten-nine being at risk preflop against the ace-eight of Dvoress. Dvoress was the only one to make a pair and thus secured his victory. He received €600,000, a special GGMillion€ trophy, and, of course, the coveted WSOP bracelet.