Congratulations to Marcin Wydrowski: WPT Prague Champion (€325,000)

The WPT Champions Club trophy is going to have a new country engraved on it, because Marcin Wydrowksi is the PartyPoker World Poker Tour (WPT) Prague Champion, the first-ever champion from Poland.

Wydrowski topped a field containing 567-players to take the first prize of €325,000, a prize that also contains a $25,000 seat in the WPT Championships in the Bellagio, and membership to the WPT Champions Club fraternity.

Here is the recap of the final day of a great contest.

The day started with just 15-minutes remaining of Level 25. Short and sweet, but it still gave us more than enough time to lose our first player. Romania’s Alin Grasu opened to 75,000 on the button and Tony Chang defended his big blind. The pair were soon staring at a flop of [Qc] [7s] [7d] and Chang check-called a 130,000 Grasu bet. Fourth Street brought the [4h] out of the deck and Grasu moved all-in once checked to. Chang called instantly, and why not? He was holding [Jc] [7c] for trips and Grasu held [Ad [Qd] for top two pair. The [2h] on the river finished of proceedings and Grasu was out in sixth place.

Level 26 saw the exit of Michael Gagliano in fifth place. It was a cruel way to go for Gagliano, who hadn’t put a foot wrong, all tournament. Tony Chang opened to 90,000 in first position, Michael Gagliano three-bet to 225,000 in the cutoff and the chip leader Bodo Sbrzesny four-bet to 475,000 on the button. Chang folded, Gagliano moved all-in and Sbrzesny called. It was pocket aces for Gagliano, pocket queens for Sbrzesny and the American was odds on favourite for a double up. The pair waited patiently for the flop and the [Qd] appeared to send Gagliano to the rail. Sbrzesny became the monster chip leader.

Tony Chang was the next person out of the door. The Macau regular was bleeding chips by the time he bumped into Alexander Lakhov. It was a single raised flop of [6s] [5s] [3s] when Chang open shoved for around a million chips, holding nothing but a gut shot and a prayer ([kc] [2c]). Lakhov made the call with two pair – [5h] [3h] – and Chang was out.

With three players remaining, all of the smart money was on Bodo Sbrzesny to be the next WPT Champion, but then it all went horribly wrong for the PartyPoker Team Pro. Sbrzesny six-bet jammed with [Kd] [Qs] only to be called by Marcin Wydrowski and pocket kings. The kings held strong and Sbrzesny became the short stack, while Wydrowski became the new chip leader.

Sbrzesny never really recovered from that hand and was eliminated in third place. Marcin Wydrowski opened from the small blind and then called a shove from Sbrzesny in the big. It was a flip with Wydrowski holding [Ad] [Jd] and Sbrzesny holding pocket sixes, an ace on the river sending the German out in third place to set up a heads up encounter between Wydrowski and Lakhov.

It was 12.8 million for Wydrowski and 4.2 million for Lakhov. The match-up didn’t last long before the pair got it in. It was pocket sevens for Wydrowski and [7s] [6s] for Lakhov. The sevens held and Wydrowski’s hand was held aloft in triumph.