Marcin Wydrowski Wins the WPT Prague!
After 5 days of play, the last man standing from the 567-player field at the WPT Prague was Marcin Wydrowski. Wydrowski is the first Polish WPT champion ever, and he'll take home €325,000 for his achievement.
 |
| Marcin Wydrowski |
What happened?
Shortest stacks out first - The 2 players who entered the final table with the least chips also hit the rail first. Romanian Alin Grasu moved all-in holding 
on a 
board and ran into the 
of Tony Chang to exit in 6th. Soon after, American Michael Gagliano went out in heartbreaking fashion - his Pocket Aces got it all-in preflop against the Pocket Queens of Bodo Sbrzesny. The young German pro made a set on the flop, and the table was 4-handed.
Tony Chang out next - Until the final table, it seemed that no one could figure out how to handle Tony Chang's unorthodox poker style. When shorthanded however, Russian Alexandr Lahkov finally cracked the code and caught Chang bluffing with minimal equity. On a flop of 
, Chang bet, Lahkov raised holding 
for two pair, and Chang moved all-in for a million more chips with just the 
. Lahkov snapped him off, Chang's inside straight draw never came, and the Asian businessman was out in 4th.
Bodo's collapse - German Bodo Sbrzesny entered 3-handed play with the most chips and the most experience, but he got overly aggressive in a massive pot against Marcin Wydrowski. Lahkov opened from the button to 125,000, Wydrowski 3-bet to 300,000 from the small blind, Sbrezsny 4-bet to 680,000, Lahkov folded, Wydrowski 5-bet to 1.1 million, and Sbrzesny 6-bet all in. Wydrowski called and showed 
and Bodo was way behind with 
. The board ran 
, and Sbrzesny became the shortstack.
A bit later, Sbrzesny 3-bet all-in from the big blind with 
and was called by Wydrowski who held 
. The board ran 
, and the tournament was heads-up.
Wydrowski wins - Polish online pro Marcin Wydrowski continued cruising through the final table when he reached heads-up play against Alexandr Lahkov. After winning some smaller pots, he called off a 4-bet shove with and was way ahead of Lahkov's . The flop of 
brought a sweat, but the turn and river ended the event with the WPT's first ever Polish champion.
WPT PragueFinal Payouts |
||||
| Place | Name | Prize | ||
| 1st | Marcin Wydrowski | €325,000 | ||
| 2nd | Alexandr Lahkov | €213,775 | ||
| 3rd | Bodo Sbrzesny | €137,470 | ||
| 4th | Tony Chang | €101,800 | ||
| 5th | Michael Gagliano | €76,315 | ||
| 6th | Alin Grasu | €61,150 | ||
| Players: 1 (567) | Prize pool: €1,683,990 | ||||
Qualify for WPT National Ireland
It is too late to qualify for Prague but you can start the new year in style by playing in the WPT National Ireland main event.
The $1,750 main event takes place in Dublin between January 3 to 6, and you can win a $3,000 package which includes accommodation and travel expenses.
The event takes place at Dublin's Citywest Hotel, where last time out Dave Shallow took down the title for €222,280.
Qualifiers start at daily freerolls and culminate in weekly direct entry satellites with a buy-in of $162, every Sunday at 14:50 ET.
Qualifiers are running now exclusively on PartyPoker and WPT Poker.
Create a PartyPoker account now!
Create a WPT Poker account now!
by Matt Kaufman
