Czech Republic player Roman Hrabec proved his high roller skills are as sharp as ever last night as he claimed victory in the $25,000 Super High Roller Series opener in Northern Cyprus. Winning the $316,000 top prize, Hrabec’s win came at the expense of Indian emerging poker star Santosh Suvarna, who Hrabec beat heads-up.

A Stunning Setting for Poker

Of all the world’s venues to play poker in, the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel and Spa in Northern Cyprus may be one of the finest. Taking the first title on offer amid the glittering coastlines and five-star luxury resort, Roman Hrabec’s victory in Event #1, the $25,750-entry No-Limit Hold’em 8-Max event is even more impressive because when the money bubble came, he was the shortest stack in the room.

With a total of 39 entries, only six players made the money – the final table of six to boot. So, the pressure was on Hrabec when he was short with seven left and the chance of leaving without any of the near million-dollar prizepool. Hrabec survived, however, after Brian Kim ran pocket nines into the pocket tens of Santosh Suvarna to leave with nothing.

Down to six players, the Polish player Maksim Vaskresenski cashed for $62,000 when he was all-in with ace-king.  In a three-way pot, the Polish player couldn’t overcome Sam Greenwood, with the Canadian making a straight to triumph and reduce the field to five players.

Mokri and Maue Miss Out

Roman Hrabec was on the rise, doubling through Suvarna when pocket aces easily swept aside king-ten. A couple of hands later, Hrabec had the fortune to find pocket rockets again and called when German player Leonard Maue moved all-in from the small blind with king-four. Maue lost and dropped down the leaderboard as Hrabec rose.

With five left, Sam Greenwood had produced the last elimination but was the victim of the next. Calling off his stack with jack-ten, Greenwood was dominated by the shove of Norwegian player Kayhan Mokri with ace-jack and no luck on the board sent the Canadian home with a cash of $83,000.

Soon after, Maue found himself on the rail for the first six-figure score of the series. All-in with queen-jack, he needed to hit against the pocket fives of Suvarna, but although flop and turn gave him plenty of outs, he missed them all on the river to head from the cardroom with a result worth $116,500.

At the time, Suvarna held the lead with half of the chips in play, while Hrabec was short but another double, this time at the expense of Mokri, levelled up the chance of the chasing pair. Mokri it was who exited in third place for $158,000 as, down to ten big blinds, he busted with eight-deuce, falling with two live cards to Suvarna’s ace-king to set up the heads-up showdown for the title.

Hrabec the Hero as Suvarna Goes Close

The Indian player Suvarna has not been in the game of high stakes poker for long but has already established a reputation as a player who often gets to the business end of events. In fact, in recent months, he’s overcome the ‘bridesmaid’ tag of missing out on big titles by bagging his first WSOP bracelet among other accolades.

Here, however, Suvarna entered the heads-up battle with 2.28 million chips, some way behind Hrabec’s stack of 5.52 million, with blinds at 50,000/100,000. When Hrabec’s pocket aces improved to the nut flush, his lead was better than 6:1 and Suvarna shoved with ace-deuce. He was a long way behind Hrabec’s pocket kings, though, and after no ace or running cards fell for the Indian player, the Czech player Hrabec had the win, banking $316,000 to Suvarna’s runner-up finish worth $220,000.

Hrabec’s win may have been massive for his bank balance, improving him to over $8.67 million winnings on The Hendon Mob, but he still has some way to go to make the top 40 who’ll qualify for the season-ending PGT Leaderboard million-dollar freeroll. Now 221^st on the leaderboard in that regard, Hrabec will continue to push for glory in Northern Cyprus, while Santhosh Suvarna returned to the top ten and now sits on 1,339 PGT points.

After winning the Triton Jeju $100,000 Main Event back in March for $4.33 million, Roman Hrabec’s latest reminder to the poker world comes soon after his first WSOP bracelet arrived in the $333 No-Limit Hold’em Triple Treys online event this summer. It may be the first of several big scores in Northern Cyprus this week for the high roller superstar.