Ronny Kaiser Wins PSC Barcelona €10,300 High Roller For €735,000

(Photo: Pokerstars.com)

For someone who doesn’t venture onto the live tournament scene very often, Switzerland’s Ronnie Kaiser makes it a habit to perform excellently whenever he does leave his high stakes online grind, yesterday taking down the €10K Pokerstars Championship High Roller for a cool €735,000 ($867,297).

Barcelona has been playing host to the PSC for the past week and a huge field of 557 players sat down to vie for almost €5.5million in prize money, including the likes of John Juanda, Steve O’Dwyer, Philip Gruissem and Ben Tollerene who all made their way into the 72 paid places.

Kaiser is a well-known name, if not face, at the nosebleed stakes, playing under the name 1-ronnyr3 preferring PLO at $100/200 and $200/400 blinds and pitting his wits against the likes of Jens Kyllonen (Jeans89) among others, but his pedigree in live tournament play is also more than decent.

His EPT Tallinn Main Event victory back in 2011 seemed like the launch of a live career, but he has rarely played more than 1 or 2 events per year on the circuit.

"I think I played the EPT here last year and that was the last time I played a NLHE tournament,” he admitted after his title win yesterday.

Coming into the final day of the Barcelona High Roller with little live practice behind him didn’t phase the young Swiss man, however, Kaiser explained:

"This was the first tournament I wasn't emotionally attached to. I went for every bluff and it worked," adding, “It's the best feeling in poker to win a tournament. I feel great."

The victory came after a 3-way deal with Markus Durnegger and Benjamin Pollak, the latter still on a high after his 3rd spot in this year’s WSOP Main Event in Vegas – and the €10K the trio left over to play for, plus the trophy, saw Kaiser emerge triumphant - the trophy a particular target as he wanted it for his girlfriend.

Final Results €10,300 High Roller

*denotes deal of the last three players