2017 World Series of Poker Europe

Event #9: €25,000 No-Limit Hold'em High Roller
Day: 1
Event Info

2017 World Series of Poker Europe

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
aj
Prize
€745,287
Event Info
Buy-in
€25,000
Prize Pool
€2,651,545
Entries
113
Level Info
Level
26
Blinds
300,000 / 600,000
Ante
100,000

Gruissem Top Dog as Four Germans Bag in Top Five

Level 12 : 12,000/24,000, 4,000 ante
Philipp Gruissem
Philipp Gruissem

German domination of high roller events continued with Event #9: €25,000 No-Limit Hold'em High Roller at World Series of Poker Europe at King's Casino.

Four of the top five chip counts at the close of Day 1 belong to players hailing from Germany, chief among them Philipp Gruissem, who bagged just shy of six starting stacks with 2,905,000. Gruissem finds himself in very familiar territory, having won five events with buy-ins of at least $25,000 in a stellar career that's seen him rack up nearly $11 million in cashes.

Gruissem made mincemeat of poor Piotr Franczak late, first cracking his aces with pocket nines by flopping a set and then three-betting Franczak's button open with ace-king and snapping off the four-bet shove for about 30 big blinds. Franczak had ace-five and the board delivered no help.

"Philbort" is followed by countrymen Claas Segebrecht (2,675,000), Rainer Kempe (2,455,000) and Dietrich Fast (2,245,000). Sandwiched in between the final two is French super high roller Jean-Noel Thorel (2,325,000).

Kempe and Fast won late all-in pots to greatly boost their stacks and climb up the counts. The former was dealt kings and doubled the Andrew Leathem and his tens. The latter got lucky with ace-jack, hitting a jack on the river to bust fellow German Manig Loeser and his ace-queen.

The total number of entries tallied up to 104, with players allowed to reenter as many times as they wished throughout the 12 levels lasting 40 minutes apiece. As 43 players bagged with registration still open until the start of Day 2, there's still not much clarity overall in the tournament.

That said, some of the players who did make it through included 2017 WSOP Main Event final table participants Antoine Saout and Benjamin Pollak, as well as Igor Kurganov, Sam Trickett, Adrian Mateos, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and 888poker Ambassador Dominik Nitsche.

Day 2 of the High Roller kicks off at 2 p.m. local time Thursday, and again, registration remains open until that time. Blinds are set to move to 15,000/30,000/5,000, so players firing at the buzzer will have about 17 big blinds. Come back to PokerNews for more live coverage at that time.

Day 2 Seat Draw

TableSeatPlayerNationalityChipcountBig Blinds
392Adrian MateosSpain1,070,00036
393Claas SegebrechtGermany2,675,00089
394Liv BoereeUnited Kingdom900,00030
395Dietrich FastGermany2,245,00075
396Philipp GruissemUnited Kingdom2,905,00097
397Sylvain LoosliUnited Kingdom600,00020
      
402Ramin HajiyevAzerbaijan500,00017
403Igor KurganovRussia1,735,00058
404Timothy AdamsCanada580,00019
405Benjamin PollakFrance1,380,00046
406Pierre NeuvilleBelgium355,00012
407Andrew LeathemUnited Kingdom1,250,00042
      
411David PetersUnited States440,00015
412Niall FarrellUnited Kingdom1,600,00053
414Dario SammartinoItaly1,735,00058
416Jan SchwippertGermany1,190,00040
417Ivan LucaArgentina455,00015
418Daniel PidunGermany925,00031
      
421Fahredin MustafovBulgaria1,500,00050
422Dan ShakUnited States680,00023
423Ryan RiessUnited States415,00014
424Dennis YuTaiwan460,00015
427Rainer KempeGermany2,435,00081
428Thomas MuehloeckerAustria1,675,00056
      
432Pavel BinarCzech Republic325,00011
433Ole SchemionGermany1,035,00035
434Steffen SontheimerGermany470,00016
435Sam TrickettUnited Kingdom1,115,00037
437Stefan SchillhabelGermany930,00031
438Sergio AidoSpain905,00030
      
441Koray AldemirGermany735,00025
443Mike LeahCanada2,175,00073
444Ognjen ŠekularacSerbia785,00026
447Patrik AntoniusFinland975,00033
448Antoine SaoutFrance2,030,00068
451Dominik NitscheGermany420,00014
      
452Samuel GraftonCzech Republic690,00023
453Opren KisacikogluTurkey1,250,00042
456John RacenerUnited States385,00013
458Martin KabrhelCzech Republic1,105,00037
      
462Bertrand GrospellierFrance910,00030
463Paul NeweyUnited Kingdom1,505,00050
464Jean-Noel ThorelFrance2,325,00078
465Bryn KenneyUnited States905,00030
466Bartlomiej MachonPoland1,520,00051

Tags: Philipp Gruissem