Event 4 (€500 buy-in): 28th March 2008

As the tables were set for the fourth and largest event of the Prague Poker Palooza festival, a number of storylines were emerging:

1. After commanding performances in the first 2 events, the dominance of the local players appeared to be on the wane with nary a Czech cashing in Event 3’s $25,000 Freeroll.
2. Event 4 marked the fourth consecutive event sellout and packed house. Clearly a return to Prague was in the cards.
3. The festival highlighted the many contrasts in poker styles: east vs. west, online vs. live, youth vs. experience. Of these, the latter would prove to be the defining storyline of the tournament.

Familiar Faces

When the players took their seats in anticipation of the largest prize payout of the festival with over CZK 850,000 up for grabs, it was fascinating to see the impact of three previous evenings of tournament competition. Faces were becoming familiar now and many of those who had competed as complete strangers during Event 1 were now on a first name basis with those sitting across the table. More importantly, the more savvy players were starting to make book on the styles and strategies of the players they considered as threats.

One such threat was Prague’s Tomas Hanzlik. Having won the first event in convincing fashion, the 26 year old was gutted to miss the sold out second event thereby removing him from Leaderboard consideration. This didn’t deter him from showing up regardless and proceeding to do some damage on the cash game tables that buzzed throughout the festival. With his Event 4 buy-in squared away, Hanzlik appeared focused to add the main event title to his laurels with a respectful competitor touting him as easily ‘the best player in the field.’

Another highly visible face in the tourney was Dutchman Ruben Visser. After going out on the bubble in Event 2 to secure himself a bonus seat in Event 3’s $25,000 Freeroll, Visser proceeded to make a name for himself in the festival with his uber aggressive style of play. One poker pundit knocked out by Visser in Event 4 referred to him as a ‘human raising machine,’ expressing his utter incredulity at Visser’s ability to repeatedly re-raise and his maddening penchant to reveal every nut or donk hand he held confounding his opponents to no end.

One player benefiting from his relative anonymity to date was Welshman Adrian Hopkins. Busting out early in both previous events, Hopkins was riding low on the radar screen as Event 4 commenced. A former student rep at Aberystwyth University and an avid live player playing as many as four live tourneys each week, Hopkins knew firsthand the fickle hand of poker fate. Victimised by an especially cruel bad beat in Event 2, Hopkins nonetheless proved resilient and as one player after another fell on the chopping block in Event 4, he found himself heading onto the final table with a healthy chip stack and a hunger to cash.

Final Table Drama

Following two fairly pedestrian knockouts, the field was now down to the lucky seven guaranteed to cash. With a finish in the money safely squared away, these elite players could now focus on the larger goal of winning the final event and tournament leaderboard outright.

Czech Jakub Schejbal was the first to fall. Following his 5th place finish in Event 1, Schejbal was looking to be a lock for the leaderboard cash if not the Event 4 title outright, but his K4 unsuited ran aground against A7 with a further 7 on the flop sending him to the sidelines.

Next up, Visser continued his aggressive play with a gutsy gambit to steal the pot with 10.4 offsuit. The ‘human raising machine’ found himself called with a pair of eights however leaving a massive hole in his chip fortress. Short stacked and the blinds climbing, Visser went all in pre-flop with AK a few hands later and shipped the last of his stack across the table when he failed to pair up against pocket nines.

AQ was the undoing of Hanzlik when his strong starting hand was outdrawn by A2 with a deuce on the river and he was followed in quick succession by Englishmen Joe Geraghty whose pocket Queens were summarily dismissed by AK with a further Ace on the flop followed by a King on the turn.

And then there were 3: Czech René Oberfalcer, Wales’ Adrian Hopkins and David Rosický, a Canadian resident of Prague.

At this point, Rosický a tight player with a knack for opportunistic raises pulled off one of the more memorable hands of the festival. Going all-in with King D & Queen H against Oberfacler’s Ace D & King H, the flop revealed A28 putting Oberfalcer in the driver’s seat with Rosický’s face obviously dejected. The quiet Canadian’s mood brightened considerably when the Queen of Clubs appeared and when at last, the Queen of Diamonds appeared on the river to complete his runner-runner three-of-a-kind to topple Oberfalcer’s bullets, Rosický reacted with one of the classier moves of the tournament commiserating with his busted out Czech compatriot over the misfortune of an obviously unlucky draw.

This left Hopkins and Rosický headsup with Hopkins owning a fairly considerable chip advantage. After some initial back and forth, the two appeared very evenly matched. With both men elated with the evening’s results, they agreed to a 50/50 split of the remaining cash and finally to play on to determine the winner and holder of the Main Event Championship Trophy.

As headsup play progressed with both men holding comparable stacks, Hopkins dealt Rosický a crippling blow when both players went all-in with Hopkins showing QKc to Rosický’s A10d. The board came down 5c5dJdKs8h, Hopkins taking the pot and surging to a massive chip advantage with Kings and Fives. Rosický then proceeded to win three consecutive all-in pushes creating parity amongst the two men’s chips stacks and a very real concern on the face of Hopkins that the trophy and the moment were slipping away. Finally, fortune smiled once more on Hopkins when his 76 unsuited found the straight draw on the river with Q2985 to best Rosický’s A10 unsuited to capture the remaining chips and the title of Prague Poker Palooza Champion.

With the gallery applauding and the flashbulbs popping, the clearly ecstatic Adrian Hopkins raised his trophy in celebration revealing to the assembled onlookers that he was now due to paint the town red following an earlier promise to treat the attractive ladies of the Spearmint’s serving staff to a night on the town should he win.

As we retired to the bar to celebrate with flutes of champagne and revel in the many thanks of the players in attendance and their pledge to return for Prague Poker Palooza 2, we took a moment to savour the quality of the event and the play on display. It was truly a week to remember and more than a few of us were disappointed at the prospect of leaving Prague following the next night’s Post Tournament Party. Thankfully, we will return bigger and better with Prague Poker Palooza 2.

Ship it!

Lee Ferris – Victor Chandler Poker: On location at the Prague Poker Palooza

Event Four Winners