Dominik Nitsche Wins 2017 WSOPE €111,111 High Roller for One Drop For €3,487,463

There was a certain inevitability about a German player winning the $111,111 buy-in High Roller for One Drop at the WSOP Europe in Rozvadov, and so it proved when Dominik Nitsche outplayed a field of the world’s best to scoop not only a whopping €3,487,463 ($4,049,782) payday, but also his 4th WSOP bracelet.

As well as being one of the biggest tournaments of the year for the world’s leading players, the One Drop sees a huge chunk of money going to charity, and the 88 buy-ins plus 44 re-entries demolished the prizepool and raised almost $1million for the clean water campaigns which the One Drop Foundation operates in third-world countries around the world.

Helping less fortunate people aside, the €10,000,000 guaranteed event itself drew the likes of English high-roller expert Charlie Carrel, the Poker Masters champion Steffen Sontheimer, fellow German Christoph Vogelsang and Belgium’s well-liked Kenny Hallaert, as well as Phil Hellmuth, Boris Becker and host of former November Niner’s who failed to cash this time at Leon Tsoukernik’s King’s Casino.

As it transpired, there was €12,980,000 ($15,072,343) up for grabs, with 20 players sure of a cash, and it was Vogelsang who came into the final day with an immense chip lead - more than double anybody else’s stack. By the time they reached the final table, however, Nitsche was applying the pressure, leading the German charge…

…and started by knocking out local favourite Martin Kabrhel, and then also Ahadpur Khangah, to take over the top spot.

When it came down to heads-up play, Nitsche was facing one of the three other Germans who’d made it to the final nine - the least-fancied of the quartet Andreas Eiler – who was guaranteeing himself a record payday with his deep run.

Heads-up against an experienced winner such as Nitsche, however, can be a thankless task, and Eiler soon found himself being ground down, a 6-1 chip deficit in place when the final hand appeared.

Eiler got what was left of his stack in holding K♣ 9♣ with Nitsche showing the Q♦10♥ and when the flop came 10♠ 8♠ 3♥ Nitsche had taken the lead, with the bracelet secured after the board ran out 5♦ 10♦ giving Nitsche unneeded trip tens, to lift the title and the lion’s share of the money.

“It’s not about the bracelets for me, mostly,” Nitsche explained to WSOP reporters after his massive win. “It’s about playing really well. I’m more proud of how I played rather than that I won."

He added:

"The bracelets are nice, but the bracelets show me that my hard work pays off. I’m not the kind of guy to go trophy chasing. I’m more the kind of guy to play in a high roller because I love competing against the best,” although he did say, “I'll be looking forward to winning number five now because winning tournaments is fun."

Final Table results