German poker pro Dominik Nitsche expanded his collection of WSOP gold bracelets last night by winning the first ever High Roller for ONE DROP tournament on European soil. The player emerged as the victor after dominating performance during heads-up against his fellow countryman Andreas Eiler.
Aside from his fourth WSOP piece of gold, Nitsche also scooped his career’s largest live cash of €3,487,463.
The German was crowned the victor from a field of 132 entries, of whom 88 unique ones. The tournament ran as part of the ongoing WSOP Europe festival at King’s Casino in Rozvadov, the Czech Republic. It took three days of play before the name of the winner became clear. Participants included some of the world’s most accomplished high roller players, including Fedor Holz.
Last year, the young German won an impressive number of high roller tournaments in different parts of the world, scooping more than $16 million in winnings in the process. It was actually last year when Holz topped the field of the WSOP High Roller for ONE DROP in Las Vegas. However, he was less fortunate during the inaugural European edition of the tournament as he busted in 25th place and shortly before the money bubble burst.
Speaking of the money bubble, it burst in the second half of Day 2. The top 20 finishers split the amount of €10 million.
Final Day of Action
Day 3 of the tournament began with 10 players still in contention for the gold bracelet and the hefty first-place payout. The finalists were led by 2017 Aria Super High Roller Bowl champion Christoph Vogelsang. The player had a massive chip lead over his remaining opponents when cards were thrown in the air. However, it did not take long before he lost the majority of his chips and it was only a matter of little more time before the player busted in sixth place for €606,694.
Aside from Vogelsang and the eventual winner, there were two more Germans at the eight-handed final table of the event, those being the first winner of Aria’s Poker Masters Purple Jacket Steffen Sontheimer and Nitsche’s head-up opponent Andreas Eiler.
It took 65 hands of play for the final table fleet of eight to be reduced to just the final two. Heads-up began with Eiler holding the chip lead with 152.65 million in chips to Nitsche’s 111.35 million.
Nitsche needed only several hands to assume the chip lead and the player never let go, despite his opponent’s continued effort. Hand #121 was the final one to be dealt for the evening. It saw Eiler shove for his last eight big blinds and Nitsche call. The former turned over [Kc][9c] against the latter’s [Qd][10h]. The board ran out [10s][8s][3h][5d][10d] to lock the victory for Nitsche and send his final opponent to the rail. Eiler scooped a payout of €2,155,418 for his runner-up finish.
Collecting his first seven-figure payout, Nitsche boosted his poker bankroll to $11,357,338, which made him his homeland’s fourth most profitable poker pro.
