(Photo: Partypoker.com)
The Kings Casino in Rozvadov has become a happy hunting ground recently for 29-year old Russian pro Anatoly Filatov, taking down the Party Poker Live German Championship €5k High Roller this week - just two months after doing the same at the Party Poker Millions event.
Kings in Rozvadov, the home of super-high rolling amateur Leon Tsoukernik who has been much in the news this summer, has become the go-to place for European, and even world poker tours - the biggest card-room outside of Vegas having recently expanded and always sure of a huge turn-out for German events given that it is a stone-throw across the Czech/German border.
The €5K High Roller attracted a field of 43 players to kick off the festival, and the likes of Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Marcel Luske, last year’s ‘November Niner’Vojtech Ruzicka and Phillip Gruissem all took to the tables in search of a share of the €270,750 prizepool, boosted by 14 re-entries along the way.
The last few years have seen Filatov rise through the ranks to become one of the best players in his homeland, if not Europe, and he joined Party Poker as an ambassador earlier this year, as well as making the Moscow Wolverines team in the GPL.
With the bigger names, including Pierre Neuville, busting out long before the final table, it was Englishman Jack Sinclair – fresh from his amazing run and 8th place finish in the WSOP Main Event – who was attracting a lot of attention, and his short-stack seemed to be no problem, doubling up with regularity as others around him fell by the wayside.
Filatov, however, had other plans for Sinclair, and took him out in the space of two hands – firstly winning a race with pocket fives against Sinclair’s ace-ten, and then producing the same Ace-ten himself to land the killer blow, leaving Sinclair with €30k and another great run to his name.
Final table deals are not unusual with so much on the line, and when the remaining trio of Filatov, Nguyen and Benoit finally came to an arrangement, it was the Frenchman Benoit who took the lion’s share of the cash spoils – but Filatov the title and trophy as they played on for honours, the Russian emerging victorious.
Final Result €5,300 High Roller
Place | Winner | Country | Prize (EUR) | Prize (USD) |
| 1 | Anatoly Filatov | Russia | 64,125 | 75,472 |
| 2 | Van Tiep Nguyen | Czech Republic | 64,125 | 75,472 |
| 3 | Benjamin Benoit | France | 80,000 | 94,156 |
| 4 | Jack Sinclair | United Kingdom | 30,000 | 35,264 |
| 5 | Moritz Dietrich | Austria | 20,000 | 23,509 |
| 6 | Sander van Wesemael | Netherlands | 12,500 | 14,693 |