Roman Hrabec Wins Opening Event of PGT Super High Roller Series in Northern Cyprus

A thrilling opening final table saw just six players from the 39 entries make the money as Event #1 of the PGT Super High Roller Series ended in drama. A thrilling comeback for Roman Hrabec meant that the player who was shortest on the money bubble ended up winning the tournament just a few hours later on the PokerGO stream.

Welcome Back to Cyprus

So much of the PokerGO Tour takes place at the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Casino & Resort in Las Vegas that you could be forgiven for focusing on the action in Sin City. In truth, however, locations such as the five star Merit Royal Diamond Hotel and Spa in Northern Cyprus host PGT leaderboard qualifying events and this week’s PGT Super High Roller Series is one of them.

Event #1 of the series was the $25,750-entry No-Limit Hold’em 8-Max event and it had 39 entries, meaning six players would receive profit on their investments. Seventh would be a painful bubble, the difference between winning $62,000 in sixth place and nothing just one place behind. It looked like Roman Hrabec would have more chance of being bubble boy than champion when he was shortest of the seven, but his recovery, couple with another player’s demise meant someone else was on the chopping block.

Brian Kim moved all-in with pocket nines and was called by the Indian poker player Santosh Suvarna. He turned over pocket tens and the superior pair held, leaving Kim on the rail with nothing and Suvarna dominant at the perfect time. Soon after his elimination of Kim, Polish player Maksim Vaskresenski cashed for $62,000 in sixth place. Shoving with ace-king, the Pole lost to Sam Greenwood when the Canadian made a straight across the board to send play five-handed.

German Player Maue Misses Out

Roman Hrabec doubled through the chip leader Suvarna shortly after that bust-out, committing his chips with pocket aces and watching with glee as his hand swept home undamaged by Suvarna’s king-ten. It should take over 220 hands to receive pocket aces on average, but soon, Hrabec held them again, this time holding when the German player Leonard Maue shoved from the small blind with king-four. The Czech player rose up the ranks while Maue was left very short.

Sam Greenwood was the most experienced player left at the table but soon he had the roundest number of chips possible – zero. All-in with jack-ten, he was dominated by the Norwegian player Kayhan Mokri, whose ace-jack held with ease to reduce the field to four and send Greenwood to the rail with $83,000.

Maue was under the gun in figurative terms and shoved with queen-jack in a bid to improve his lot. Suvarna it was who called with pocket fives and although flop and turn provided outs for the at-risk German player, Maue missed them all to depart with a result worth $116,500.

Hrabec was no longer the leader, with Suvarna’s stack rising to prominence during the level in which Maue and Greenwood lost interest in proceedings. Hrabec dropped a little lower down the leaderboard but managed to double up once again, this time through the Norwegian player Kayhan Mokri.

Suvarna Unable to Halt Hrabec

Mokri was now the short stack and he eventually fell to the Indian Suvarna. Down to ten bigs, Mokri shoved with eight-deuce but Suvarna called with ace-king and ‘Big Slick’ was strong enough to hold, taking out the Norwegian for $158,000 in third place. Suvarna, whose high stakes reputation is growing with every month in poker, has recently established himself as someone to fear in cash games and tournaments with nosebleed entry fees.

While he has won a WSOP bracelet and other events, Suvarna finished second or third in several events prior to his World Series success. While not fully beholden to a ‘runner-up’ tag, Suvarna will have been disappointed to just miss out on the top prize here in the sweltering heat of Cyprus. He didn’t get a foothold in the heads-up battle, starting with less than 40% of the chips and never looking like the aggressor in the final duel.

Hrabec’s leading stack of 5.52 million Suvarna’s 2.28 million chips, and when Hrabec’s pocket aces made a nut flush, his lead looked unassailable. Suvarna moved all-in with ace-deuce and Hrabec had the simplest of snap-calls with pocket kings. The ‘cowboys’ shot down Suvanra’s ace-rag and held to win the Czech player Hrabec $316,000 and his latest major title. Suvarna could at least comfort himself with the uptick to his poker bankroll, taking home $220,000.

With Hrabec’s win taking him past $8.67 million in career earnings via The Hendon Mob, Northern Cyprus remains the place to be for the next week as players from all over the world battle for millions of dollars and vital PGT Points in the 2024 PGT Super High Roller Series.