[user38873]
William Kassouf - EPT Prague 2016 €10,300 High Roller Winner
The final High Roller of the 2017 PokerStars Championship Prague festival kicks off at 12.30 p.m. local time at the Hilton Hotel Prague with Day 1 of the €10,300 High Roller. One year ago, the EPT13 gathered a record field of 407 entries for this very event and created a prize pool of €3,947,900. Master of speech play William Kassouf claimed the trophy and €532,500 after cutting a deal with Patrick Serda, who walked away with a payday of €719,000.
It is also the last PokerStars Championship High Roller title up for grabs after PokerStars announced the return to the European Poker Tour brand as of 2018, and some of the biggest names in poker are expcted to battle it out over the next three days. Day 1 will feature a total of 10 levels of 60 minutes each and all participants receive 50,000 in chips. A single re-entry is available during the registration period, and players can join the action until the cards are back in the air for Day 2.
Day 1 Level Structure
Level
Duration
Small Blind
Big Blind
Ante
1
60 min
100
200
25
2
60 min
100
200
25
Break 20 min
3
60 min
150
300
50
4
60 min
200
400
50
Break 20 min
5
60 min
250
500
75
6
60 min
300
600
100
Dinner Break 75 min
7
60 min
400
800
100
8
60 min
500
1,000
100
Break 20 min
9
60 min
600
1,200
200
10
60 min
800
1,600
200
Previous PokerStars Championship High Roller winners in 2017 include Luc Greenwood, Irish / American poker icon Steve O'Dwyer, Sosia Jiang,Julian Stuer and Ronny Kaiser. Back in August, Kaiser emerged on top of a field of 557 entries after cutting a deal with Markus Durnegger and 2017 WSOP Main Event finalist Benjamin Pollak to take home €735,000 for his efforts.
Jan Subik opened the action with a raise to 550 and Koray Aldemir called out of the small blind. Steve O'Dwyer in the big blind three-bet to 2,500 and forced a fold from Subik, while Aldemir called. On the flop both players checked before Aldemir bet the turn for 4,000, O'Dwyer called.
The fell on the river and Aldemir bet once agai, this time for 17,000 and more than the size of the pot. O'Dwyer reluctantly called and mucked when he was shown for trips sevens.
A raising war between Boris Kolev from under the gun and Jean-Noel Thorel in the big blind saw both players invest 13,000 each to see a flop of and Thorel instantly moved all in for more than two times the pot. Kolev called as quickly and both players turned over their cards.
Boris Kolev:
Jean-Noel Thorel:
The turn and river were both blanks and Kolev doubled for 48,775 while the decent start of Thorel has all but vanished.
Omid Mojaverian raised to 1,100 and Max Silver three-bet to 3,600. Eric Sfez called the three-bet on the button and Mojaverian clicked it back to 10,700 when the action was on him. Silver moved all in for 27,150 and Sfez quickly folded, while Mojaverian called even faster.
Max Silver:
Omid Mojaverian:
There ws no help for the 2017 WSOP bracelet winner on his first bullet as the board ran out and Silver headed to the rail. Below are the chip counts of the remaining six players on his former table.
There were already more than 27,000 in the middle and the turn showed a board of . Alexander Timman in the small blind bet 23,000. Hossein Ensan called with a stack of around 60,000 and Ali Reza Fatehi on the button moved all in. The shove was for 75,550 and Timman called all in for less, as did Ensan to create a massive pot and three-way showdown.
Hossein Ensan:
Alexander Timman:
Ali Reza Fatehi:
"Come on, pair the board," Ensan demanded, but the on the river was a blank to send Ensan and Timman to the rail. Ensan, who was born in Iran, shook hands with Fatehi and they exchanged some more words before the EPT12 Prague Main Event champion headed to the rail.
The $10,000 Single Re-entry High Roller has reached its dinner break after six 60-minute levels. But before the players (and us reporters) go and grab a main course, here's are your high roller hors d'oeuvres (i.e. a quick run through what's happened so far).
Romain Lewis raised to 1,700 and Eric Sfez three-bet to 5,200 on the button. Antoine Saout four-bet to 13,300 from the small blind and Lewis quickly folded, while Sfez called. On the flop, Saout was about to bet 7,600 but the chips were not pushed forward yet, while Sfez had already announced his all in.
"I call, I was gonna make a small bet but I call his all in," Saout clearly said to the dealer and Sfez's shove for 38,000 stood, as did the call.
Eric Sfez:
Antoine Saout:
The turn and river were both blanks and Sfez headed to the rail. He was joined there by Jonas Lauck, who got it in with against the of Helio Neves on the turn. The river was a blank and Lauck was gone on bullet number one.
At the end of the previous level, Thomas Muehloecker faced a raise to 1,800 by Xixiang Luo and three-bet to 6,000, then called the four-bet to 15,200 by Luo. The latter bet the flop for 11,600 and was called before check-shoving the turn to a bet of 18,500 by Muehloecker. The Austrian quickly called and Luo was drawing dead once both players revealed their cards.
Xixiang Luo:
Thomas Muehloecker:
The on the river was a mere formality and the stacks were briefly counted, but Muehloecker had Luo covered and sent the Chinese to the rail for the second time in this event.
"Unlucky man," Conor Beresford said to table Ben Heath after he had just cracked the superior pocket pair of the fellow Brit while also dispatching Ran Azor in the same hand as well. Azor had the shortest stack going into the three-way preflop all in for around 13,000 in the cutoff and the cards were as follows:
Ran Azor:
Ben Heath:
Conor Beresford:
The board came and Beresford turned a straight to score the double knockout. Romain Lewis was also eliminated at the same time from one table over.
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flop both players checked before Aldemir bet the 
turn for 4,000, O'Dwyer called.
fell on the river and Aldemir bet once agai, this time for 17,000 and more than the size of the pot. O'Dwyer reluctantly called and mucked when he was shown 
for trips sevens.
river were both blanks and Kolev doubled for 48,775 while the decent start of Thorel has all but vanished.
and Silver headed to the rail. Below are the chip counts of the remaining six players on his former table.
. Alexander Timman in the small blind bet 23,000. Hossein Ensan called with a stack of around 60,000 and Ali Reza Fatehi on the button moved all in. The shove was for 75,550 and Timman called all in for less, as did Ensan to create a massive pot and three-way showdown.
flop, Saout was about to bet 7,600 but the chips were not pushed forward yet, while Sfez had already announced his all in.
river were both blanks and Sfez headed to the rail. He was joined there by Jonas Lauck, who got it in with 
of Helio Neves on the 
turn. The 
river was a blank and Lauck was gone on bullet number one.
flop for 11,600 and was called before check-shoving the 
