Party Poker Live’s Germany tour took over the King’s Casino just across the border in Rozvadov, Czech Republic this week and it was German pro Michal Mrakes who scooped the Main Event, fighting off 819 other hopefuls to take home the €200,000 first prize to continue his successful run on Czech soil.
The King’s has become the go-to place for European poker action, with many national tours holding their events or grand finales in the massive poker-room which is the creation of high-stakes amateur poker player Leon Tsoukernik, himself in the money this week with a 4th spot and $1.8million cheque in the Super High Roller Bowl in Vegas.
Party Poker’s adventure in the ‘tiny town with a big casino’ saw a $1million guarantee for the €1100 buy-in event, with both online and live opening days enticing a huge number of players, but it was the day 3 and final 26 who had the big money in their sights.
While the majority of big names were headed to Vegas or elsewhere for the beginning of their summer poker festival fun, the tables were a mix of good journeymen pros, young hopefuls and enthusiastic amateurs trying to make a name for themselves.
One of those, Party Poker sponsored pro Natalia Breviglieri ran deep yet again, the English woman who came ‘agonisingly close to winning a gold WSOP bracelet,’ outlasting ‘the majority of the 819-strong field’ in last year’s Ladies Event at the WSOP, finally falling in fourth-place’, and here ion Rozvadov it was a similar story – a final table but eventual 6th spot when she fell victim to Mrakes’ rampage through the final nine.
When he also knocked out two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Eddy Scharf and also 3rd-place Pole Grzegorz Gosk, he took a 7:1 chip lead into the heads-up and it looked increasingly unlikely that Mrakes would be prevented from hitting his biggest pro score.
So it proved when Netherlands’ Sandro Pitzani ‘called off his stack with queen-ten of diamonds’ according to the Party Poker blog. ‘Mrakes showed a pair of eights, which improved to a set on the flop. Mrakes’ hand held, busting Pitzani in second-place and winning him the Party Poker LIVE Million Germany Main Event.
The full Final Table results were as follows:
| 1 | Michal Mrakes | Germany | €200,000 |
| 2 | Sandro Pitzani | Netherlands | €120,000 |
| 3 | Grzegorz Gosk | Poland | €80,000 |
| 4 | Eddy Scharf | Germany | €58,500 |
| 5 | Raul Cuc | Germany | €45,000 |
| 6 | Natalia Breviglieri | England | €32,500 |
| 7 | Sonay Kehya | Netherlands | €22,500 |
| 8 | ‘Silverer’ | Germany | €15,000 |
| 9 | Frederic Femot | Belgium | €10,000 |