Siamek Tooran Wins His First Bracelet
Siamek Tooran has been crowned champion of Event #6: €25,500 Short Deck High Roller No-Limit Hold’em, taking home €740,996 and his first-ever WSOP bracelet. The German came out top of the pack after the three-day tournament at the 2019 World Series of Poker Europe.
111 players entered the Short Deck High Roller and the prize pool came out to €2,636,250, of which Siamek Tooran took home a large proportion and beat some of the biggest names in poker while doing so.
€25,500 Short Deck High Roller Day One
The first day of the tournament was played on Saturday the 19th of October. This is was first ever €25,500 Short Deck High Roller No-Limit Hold’em event at the World Series of Poker Europe and drew 65 entries on the first day.
Only 30 players bagged up chips at the end of the night but late registration was still open until Level 13 which was played on day two.
At the end of play on day one the chip leader in the star-studded field was Besim Hot, who is from Switzerland with a stack of 6,397,000 chips. He has previously made over $1,600,000 in total live winnings but as yet has not managed to win a coveted WSOP bracelet.
Behind Hot on day one of the tournament was Jonathan Depa, who had 5,540,000 chips. Depa, from the United States, has previously made multiple WSOP final tables and very nearly won a bracelet earlier this year. He ended up getting sixth in the $2,500 Mixed Big Bet at the 2019 WSOP this summer.
Rounding out the top three after the first day was Renato Nowak who bagged up 3,936,000 chips. The German has made a total of $261,256 in total playing live poker and has never won a WSOP bracelet before.
Many big names playing on the first day of the tournament and multiple previous champions made it through to the second day of play alongside the chip leaders. Daniel Negreanu bagged up 1,709,000, Jan-Peter Jachtmann finished the day with 1,461,000 chips, Chris Ferguson had 1,160,000 chips at the end of the play and Sam Higgs bagged up 1,100,000. All of these players have won bracelets before.
Not all of the big names in the competition made it through to the second day of play though. Phil Ivey, who is regarded by many as one of the all-time greats and who has 10 WSOP bracelets to his name dropped out of the tournament on the first day. This came after he shoved his stack in pre-flop with ace eight of spades. Unfortunately for Ivey, he was called by Renato Nowak who dominated his hand with a pair of aces. This led to Ivey hitting the rail on the final hand of the night.
Shaun Deeb, Dario Sammartino, and Tony G were among some of the other big names to crash out before the end of the day.
Phil Ivey was one of the big names to crash out of the tournament on day one. ©www.wsop.com
€25,500 Short Deck High Roller Day Two
With 65 entries on day one of the competition, the €25,500 Short Deck High Roller was played at a frantic pace during the first two levels of day two. After the end of late registration and re-entries were no longer accepted, there was a field totaling 111 entries. This consisted of 61 unique entries as well as 50 re-entries.
With this many entries, the guaranteed prize pool was surpassed leaving the top 17 places in the competition to split €2,636,250.
Once the second day of play had concluded, only seven players remained in the competition, despite many High Roller regulars and players who are skilled at Short Deck poker having a shot at only the second WSOP bracelet in the Short Deck game-type. The rules of Short Deck poker are such that every card from two up to five is removed from the deck. This leaves a 36-card deck rather than 52. Much like in regular Hold’em, players make up hands using one or both of their hole cards and the five cards which come down on the board. The hand rankings change as a result of the altered deck, with flushes beating full houses and in some games three of a kind beating straights. In the game played at the WSOPE, there were no blinds but instead set antes which each player paid into the pot before each hand.
Orpen Kisacikoglu jumped into the chip lead at the end of the day after a late surge. He had 22,925,000 chips after play had ended. Kisacikoglu who hails from Turkey and is a regular in High Roller and Super High Roller competitions was followed by Netanel Amedi who had 22,300,000 chips, the chip leader at the end of day one Besim Hot who bagged 21,600,000 at the end of the evening and in fourth was Siamek Tooran, the eventual winner with 20,925,000. Each of these players had 140 or more antes going into the final day of play.
The beginning of the day was very fast paced with all-ins coming thick and fast. Alex Foxen, Joray Aldemir, Tony G, Chin Wie Lim, Ryan Riess, Cary Katz, Mikita Badziakouski and Ben Lamb were among the High Roller regulars who took a shot at the tournament via late registration but who unfortunately left with nothing to show for their efforts.
Yake Wu was the player who was unlucky enough to bubble in the tournament. With one of the shorter stacks in the tournament, Wu shoved all-in with an ace queen. He was called by Renato Nowak with king ten suited. Wu hit top pair on the flop, but this was not enough to save his tournament life as Nowak made up a straight on the river.
There were big names who missed out on the final table of the tournament in day two Daniel Negreanu, who has six WSOP bracelets busted early in the money.
Phil Ivey managed to hang on with a short stack once the bubble had burst and managed two double-ups, but his luck eventually ran out and he finished the tournament in ninth place.
The final table of the 6-max €25,500 Short Deck High Roller. ©www.wsop.com
€25,500 Short Deck High Roller Day Three
The final day of the €25,500 Short Deck High Roller came to an end with Siamek Tooran winning his first WSOP bracelet.
The German defeated Thai Ha heads-up as he achieved his career-best score to become the second ever player to win a WSOP Short Deck event. The first event was played in Las Vegas earlier this year, and Thai Ha could only manage a second-place finish then as well.
There were four big stacks going into the final day, but Ha had the second shortest of all on the final table. Thai Ha and fellow countryman Jonathan Depa were thought to be the odds-on favorite because of their Short Deck experience in cash games.
Ha was eventually eliminated in second place after he open-shoved for 43,900,000 and was called by Tooran. Thai Ha had shoved with ace seven off-suit and was called by Tooran with an unsuited ace king. Despite a dominant hand, Ha had outs after the turn, with a flush draw but the turn also gave Tooran a pair of kings. The river card was the 7 of spades, leaving Ha to settle for second place, a familiar feeling for the man who lists “Usually finish 2nd“ in his Twitter bio, and Tooran to take home the top prize and a bracelet.
