Team PokerStars Pro Igor Kurganov won his second PokerStars Championship High Roller yesterday, taking down the second €25,500 Single Day High Roller at the Hilton Hotel Prague for €371,250.
With 40 players and 12 re-entries, the prize pool of €1,274,000, exceeded that of the first €25.5k which was won on Wednesday by Albert Daher, and which drew two fewer entries.
None of the players who cashed in Wednesday’s event and who also signed up for yesterday’s high roller made the money this time around, with Daher perishing early on, Ryan Riess and Rocco Palumbo dropping during the second half of the day, and Oleksii Khoroshenin falling just three off the money.
The unfortunate bubble boy was German pro Christoph “Tight-Man1” Vogelsang whose 
ran into JC Alvarado’s 
. He was joined on the rail the very next hand when Erik Seidel’s 
came up against Stephen Chidwick’s 
, although Seidel was able to collect €67,000 for his 7th place finish.
A few minutes later and JC Alvarado took out another player. Vladimir Troyanovskiy had committed his last 344k chips with 
from the button after a cut-off raise from Alvarado who eventually called with 
. After a safe flop the 
turn spelled the end for Troyanovskiy who left in 6th, good for a €83,000 payday.
Above: JC Alvarado took out several players in the final stages of the tournament and ended up doing a deal heads-up with eventual winner Igor Kurganov
Play continued 5 handed for just under an hour but with the blinds now up at 15k/30k with a 5k ante there was only so long short stack Thomas Muehloecker could hang on. He ended up making the wrong call after Christopher Kruk had shoved all-in preflop. Kruk turned over 
while Muehloecker could only muster 
. He failed to improve and left in 5th place to collect his €108,000 winnings.
Kurganov, who had also been dicing with elimination for some time on a short stack now began to chip up. He took a big pot from Kruk in a blind on blind battle. Kruk had made a move with 
and was looked up by Igor Kurganov’s 
. A blank board saw Kurganov leap over 1m chips when he had been languishing at under 400k for some time. With over 2m chips still in his stack, however, Kruk was still a big chip leader at this stage.
Kurganov was soon to take the chip lead though after winning another big pot from Kruk. The Canadian had tried a huge 725k bluff holding 
on a 
board, only for the PokerStars pro to call with 
to take the 2.35m chip pot and the lead.
Ten minutes later Kurganov moved further ahead when he busted a short-stacked Stephen Chidwick who pushed his straight into Kurganov’s . Chidwick took 4th and €140,000 payout.
Kruk was gone soon after as his 
couldn’t outlast JC Alvarado’s 
after a King was the first card out on the flop. Kruk won €185k for his 3rd place exit.
Although Kurganov started heads-up play with a 3.35m to 1.85m chip advantage Alvarado evened the match up on the first hand of heads-up play showing a full-house in a 1.4m chip pot. With stacks almost exactly even the two remaining players agreed a deal whereby they split the winnings (well, €2k in Kurganov’s favour) bar €50k which they would play for heads-up.
Play lasted close to an hour and eventually it all came down to one big pot. On a 
board and after some heavy betting on all streets Alvarado shoved the river with 
for top pair. This was no match for Igor Kurganov’s rivered straight as he snap-called with . Alvarado ended up with €319,750 while Kurganov can now add this title (and his €371,250 winnings) to the €50k title he won back in August in Barcelona.
Final Result €25,500 Single-Day High Roller II
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize (EUR) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Igor Kurganov | Russia | €401,000 |
| 2 | JC Alvarado | Mexico | €290,000 |
| 3 | Christopher Kruk | Canada | €185,000 |
| 4 | Stephen Chidwick | United Kingdom | €140,000 |
| 5 | Thomas Muehloecker | Austria | €108,000 |
| 6 | Vladimir Troyanovskiy | Russia | €83,000 |
| 7 | Erik Seidel | United States | €67,000 |
Source : www.highstakesdb.com
