Kings and Rings!

Here at PokerTube we don’t often bombard you with tournament results and updates, unless it’s the WSOP, WCOOP or special events such as the recent Devilfish Cup, but this week we’re going to make an exception!

The King’s Casino, situated in Rozvadov in the Czech Republic, will see the return of November Nine hero Vojtech Ruzicka, and I will personally be on hand to see how he fares in the WSOP Circuit Main Event – and report back on the warm welcome expected for the 5th place final table finisher, as well as all the other happenings from the legendary land-locked ‘poker island’.

‘14 rings in 19 days’ reads the King’s Casino slogan for the festival which is underway at Leon Tsoukernik’s gaming oasis close to the German border, and several thousand hopefuls have descended on the casino in the hope of walking off with a coveted ring or just sharing in the million euro prize-funds on offer.

Leon himself won’t be around, the enigmatic poker fanatic off celebrating his birthday with his family somewhere exotic, but he has left the casino in good hands – hundreds of staff working around the clock to keep the players fed and watered.

Hungry for success!

To give you an idea of how big the tournament is in practical terms, with the 150+ poker tables open 24/7 so far during the Circuit event more than 2,000 eggs for omelettes and breakfast eggs, 200 pizzas, 300kg of meat and fish - as well as more than 500kg of salads and sides have been consumed. Maestro chef Brando and his team have been serving up magic for the guests; steaks, pasta, salads and of course tenderly melting desserts.

OK, enough about the food, what about the poker?

Well the King’s just happens to be the biggest poker room in the whole of Europe – and it’s expanding rapidly – so they have space aplenty to run multiple tournaments and still have cash tables running around the clock – plus their Livestreamed Cash Kings nightly events.

The WSOP Circuit festival kicked off with almost 2000 players entering the first of the coveted ‘championship ring’ events, with Croatian Ivan Curic scooping the €84,199 ($91,809) top prize.

Another huge crowd appeared to battle for ring number 2, the €550 Monster Stack seeing 963 entries which almost doubled the €250,000 guarantee! And to show that there really is something for everyone in Rozvadov, the €250 buy-in Seniors Event (Ring #3) brought 80 young at heart players to the tables.

With multiple side-events and cashgames -NLHE from €1/3 up to €25/50, PLO from €2/2 to €25/25 and also Seven Card Stud and OFC, there has barely been a minute without action since play got underway last week.

Breaking it down into numbers again, King’s Casino reckon that:

"Over 4,600 guests have visited in the last 10 days, 7,245 entries in the tournaments created prizepools of €1,489,581, and more than 100 dealers and ten floormen were there 24/7 to create the best conditions for the players.”

What’s in store for the WSOP Circuit second week?

More rings and more action! The second half of the WSOP Circuit will see some of the bigger games kick in. Two sessions of Cashkings (NLH €100/100 and PLO €100/100) are taking place as I write this, the high rollers no doubt looking forward to mixing it with the big winners over the past week.

In tournaments as well, that is, with a €2,000 PLO High Roller, the €8,888 Super High Roller and then the €5,300 High Roller before we get to the Main Event, a €1,650 NLHE tournament with a massive €1,000,000 guarantee. Although I won’t be playing in it myself, hundreds of other hopefuls will be as I stand on the side-lines and follow the best of them as they seek fame and fortune.

Although Vojtech Ruzicka will be the main draw – the man of the moment, so to speak – he won’t have an easy time of things as King’s draws some of the very best players from both eastern and western Europe – a fact which has not gone unnoticed in the wider poker world, leading to a recent mega-deal and €20million expansion plan.

Looking ahead

The King’s Casino deal with Caesar’s will see the WSOP Europe take place there in the autumn of both 2017 and 2019, with a guaranteed €5,000,000 prizefund and a minimum of 10 bracelet events, followed in the even years by spring and autumn WSOP Circuit events, as well as Circuit events in the spring of the next three odd-numbered years, 2017,2019 and 2021.

Ambitious plans are the bread-and-butter of Tsoukernik’s business-oriented mind, but he is quick to point out that his love of poker often takes precedence in his decisions.

"I love the game of poker. I love every aspect of it and I love everybody that plays it, that's why I want King's to be the best possible place for poker players."