Roman Hrabec Wins Super High Roller Series Event #1 for $316,000

The 2024 Super High Roller Series is underway from the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel & Spa in North Cyprus, and it is Roman Hrabec securing victory in Event #1: $25,750 No-Limit Hold'em (8-Max) to claim his first PGT title. Hrabec was the shortest stack when on the money bubble, but he rode some good fortune, good luck, and good cards all the way to his third career title.

Hrabec topped a 39-player field to secure victory and claim 190 PGT points to move into 221st on the PGT leaderboard. Hrabec now sees his lifetime tournament earnings improve to more than $8,674,000, according to The Hendon Mob., where he trails only Martin Kabrhel on the Czech Republic All-Time Money List. Hrabec's poker career dates back to 2018, but it wasn't until 2024 that he secured his first tournament victory. Hrabec won the Triton Jeju $100k Main Event in March for $4,330,000 and followed that by picking up his first WSOP bracelet during the summer by winning the $333 No-Limit Hold'em Triple Treys online event for $100,228. 

Play kicked off with Sam Greenwood doubling when his ace-queen held true against Dejan Kaladjurdjevic's ace-ten, while Brian Kim doubled through the chip leader Mokri when he rivered a four-flush. Kaladjurdjevic was then all-in with queen-jack, but ran into the ace-king of Santhosh Suvarna. Kaladjurdjevic flopped a straight draw but was unable to improve upon queen-high, and was eliminated in eighth place to put the final seven on the money bubble.

Following a Suvarna shove from the button, Maksim Vaskresenski called all-in with queen-nine to be trailing Suvarna's king-jack. Fortunately for the Polish poker pro, he rivered a gutshot to stay alive in Event #1. Hrabec was now the shortest stack, and he found himself all-in with pocket eights against the king-queen of Mokri and doubled before Kim would be the unfortunate bubble boy when his pocket nines ran into Suvarna's pocket tens.

With that hand, Suvarna had moved into the chip lead, but it would be Leonard Maue taking it shortly after when he picked off Mokri's king-high bluff on the river with third pair. Vaskresenski would be eliminated in sixth place when he was all-in with ace-king in a three-way pot, but was outdrawn by Greenwood's straight to put Event #1 down to the final five players. Hrabec managed to find pocket aces and found a double through Suvarna's king-ten suited to move off the bottom of the leaderboard. He found pocket aces again a few hands later and snap-called all-in from the big blind when Maue shoved the small blind with king-four. Hrabec held and now moved into the overall chip lead heading into the break.

Greenwood was the next to fall when he called all-in with jack-ten against Mokri's ace-jack. Both players flopped top pair, and although Greenwood turned straight outs, his tournament ended in fifth place. Maue was then all-in with queen-jack against the pocket fives of Suvarna, and although held a plethora of outs, he was the fourth-place finisher.

Suvarna held nearly half the chips in play, but it would be Hrabec looking to do some damage against Mokri as he was all-in with pocket nines against Mokri's ace-king. Hrabec flopped top set, and Mokri was down to ten big blinds. Hrabec started winning pots left, right, and center before Mokri was all-in with eight-deuce against the ace-king of Suvarna. The board blanked out for Mokri, and Suvarna entered heads-up play with 2,280,000 to Hrabec's 5,520,000 with blinds at 50,000/100,000 and a 100,000-big blind ante.

Both players traded pots back-and-forth as Hrabec retained his sizeable lead. Hrabec then pushed out to a nearly five-to-one chip lead when his pocket aces improved to a flush on the river against Suvarna's one pair. Hrabec put Suvarna all-in, but the two-time WSOP bracelet winner folded and dropped to ten big blinds. After both players took turns moving all-in, Suvarna eventually found ace-deuce but ran into the pocket kings of Hrabec. Suvarna flopped a deuce but was unable to improve any further and would settle for a runner-up finish to Hrabec. Hrabec collected the $316,000 first-place prize, 190 PGT points, and PGT Gold Cup.

2024 Super High Roller Series Event #1 Results

After his victory, Roman Hrabec moves to 221st on the PGT leaderboard. The biggest mover is Santhosh Suvarna, as he climbs back into the top ten on the PGT leaderboard with 1,339 PGT points. Suvarna leaps ahead of Kristen Foxen with his sixth cash of the PGT season, and now has more than $6.275 million in PGT earnings for 2024.

Kayhan Mokri, Sam Greenwood, and Maksim Vaskresenski all collected their first cash of the PGT season, while Leonard Maue claimed his second and moved to 282nd on the PGT leaderboard with 140 PGT points. Unfortunately for seventh-place finisher, Brian Kim, he missed out on an opportunity to cement his position in the top 40 on the PGT leaderboard. Kim currently sits 20th with 1,125 PGT points.

PGT Leaderboard Top 10 

These are the leaderboard standings as of Sunday, August 18, 2024. The complete and current PGT leaderboard is at pgt.com/leaderboard.

The next event on the Super High Roller Series schedule is Event #2: $25,750 No-Limit Hold'em (7-Max) on Sunday, while on Monday will be Event #3: $25,750 No-Limit Hold'em (6-Max). Beginning on Tuesday, the buy-ins will escalate to $51,500 and $102,000 before the $306,000 buy-in Super High Roller Bowl IX.

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