Alexandre Reard Wins the WSOP International Circuit High Roller for €55,727 and 2nd WSOP Circuit Ring
In the tenth level of play on the final day of the €2,750 High Roller, France’s Alexandre Reard has taken down the tournament here at the World Series of Poker International Circuit in Holland Casino Rotterdam. Reard beat Tom Vogelsang heads-up in a 75-man strong field for the WSOP Circuit Ring and the first-place prize of €55,727 ($61,737).
This win isn’t Reard’s first by any means, this cash actually only just scraped into his top ten cashes in his lifetime career. But what this has done, it has taken Reard really close to the $2.5 million-mark in life-time earnings according to the database on The Hendon Mob. This isn’t the first WSOP Circuit High Roller that he has won. Reard took down the €4,000 Super High Roller at the WSOP International Circuit in Cannes seven months ago for €32,000.
The final table was filled with players from five different countries and five of them where from the Netherlands which was to be expected.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (EUR) | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alexandre Reard | France | €55,727 | $61,737 |
| 2 | Tom Vogelsang | Netherlands | €37,121 | $41,124 |
| 3 | Teun Mulder | Netherlands | €26,517 | $29,437 |
| 4 | David Hu | Netherlands | €17,787 | $19,703 |
| 5 | Simon Burns | United Kingdom | €11,713 | $12,975 |
| 6 | Gary Hasson | Belgium | €7,948 | $8,804 |
| 7 | Rasmus Larsen | Denmark | €5,784 | $6,407 |
| 8 | Zhong Chen | Netherlands | €4,820 | $5,339 |
| 9 | Abdelhakim Zoufri | Netherlands | €4,820 | $5,339 |
Hectic Start
The High Roller attracted 57 entries on Day 1 with 21 players making it through to Day 2 but as the registration and reentry period was open during the first two levels, some new players jumped in from the start of the day and some at some point during the first 95 minutes. Hossein Ensan traveled to Rotterdam just to play this High Roller and fired two bullets which were both unsuccessful in the end. The current WSOP Main Event champion left the tournament stage without much commotion and will return to the Netherlands next week for the Masters Classics of Poker in Amsterdam.
He wasn’t the only one to fall during the first few levels. For example, Alberto Stegeman ran his ace-king into the tens of Simon Burns, George Rensen called Joris Ruijs’ shoved after he had raised with king-jack. Ruijs had ace-queen and flopped a pair of queens, and Ad Schaap had ace-ten when his stack went in against the nines of Gazmend Bekteshi.
Teun Mulder then took down Bekteshi in a pot worth almost 100 big blinds with pocket tens. Bekteshi had check-shoved for over 40 big blinds on the king-eight-ten flop with two clubs and failed to complete the flush draw. With the elimination of players like Govert Metaal, Vojtech Ruzicka, and Jonathan Abdellatif, the final two tables were reached.
Two Tables Left
With eleven players getting paid, it took thirty minutes for four players to bust to get to the bubble which lasted about twenty minutes. Defending champion Luuk Gieles called a shove of Rasmus Larsen for his last nine big blinds with ace-four. He was ahead as Larsen held eight-six but the eight on the turn meant Gieles was eliminated as the bubble boy.
Ruijs was next to go with Farid Chati following him in tenth place after having entered at the start of Day 2. The nine remaining players were redrawn onto the final table. Abdelhakim Zoufri was victorious in this event in 2017 but wouldn’t be winning again as he busted just before the dinner break thanks to Vogelsang.
The Final Table
Vogelsang and Reard went into the dinner as #1 and #2 in the chip counts and that would also become the heads-up match in the end. Zhong Chen, Larsen, and Gary Hasson were all taken out by Mulder. Vogelsang then eliminated Burns with the higher kicker but Mulder was back again to eliminate David Hu in fourth place after he got short as he lost a big pot against Reard.
Three-handed play would last almost an hour with the stacks getting close for a bit but then both Mulder and Reard turned a flush. All the chips went in on the river but Reard had the higher hole cards to send Mulder to the rail in third place. Heads-up was a fast-paced affair with only two hands going to showdown. Reard went into the battle with a 2:1 chip lead and never looked back. The final hand of the night they had both turned a straight but just like thirty minutes earlier, Reard had the higher hole-card for the better straight to send the Dutch player and his rail home without popping the champagne bottle which they had all been looking forward to.
This concludes the High Roller coverage but the Main Event is still going strong so make sure to keep following those updates as the PokerNews live reporting team will be there until a winner has been crowned.
