Kahle Burns Wins First Career Bracelet
Kahle Burns from Australia has won his first career bracelet in the WSOPE €25,500 Platinum High Roller tournament played in Rozvadov, Czech Republic. The high roller was the victor of the 3-day competition which featured a star-studded line-up. This did not, however, hold Burns back on his quest for his maiden bracelet.
The eighth event in the World Series of Poker Europe played at King’s Casino had a total of 83 entries and a prize pool of €1,971,250 which was split between the top 13 players in the tournament.
WSOPE €25,500 Platinum No-Limit Hold’em Day One
The first day of the competition was played on Sunday the 20th of October. The beginning of the tournament was delayed initially but once the cards began to be dealt it was business as usual for the players.
It was none other than Phil Ivey who finished the day with the chip lead, bagging up 3,895,000 chips after the 12 levels that were played on Monday. 30 other players also bagged up chips to go into the second day of the tournament.
Ivey only played three levels on the first day and yet still managed to come out with the chip lead. He entered the tournament after the final rest break of the night, but he managed to win the largest pot of the tournament at the time. Phil Ivey knocked Abdelhakim Zoufri out of the tournament when he flopped a straight with a flush draw. He completed his flush on the turn whilst Zoufri had the nut straight. Ivey bet all three streets and was paid off on the river when he shoved all-in which was called by Zoufri.
Behind Ivey, in second place at the end of the first day was Timothy Adams, a regular at high roller tournaments, who bagged up 3,65,000 chips. He managed to win the majority of his chips after he flopped a set of eights against Yusuf Kurt who had top pair and an open-ended straight draw. Adams filled up to a full house on the river to win a pot of over 2,500,000 chips and to knock Kurt out of the competition.
Only two other players of the 29 other players left in the tournament at the end of play bagged up over three million chips. These were James Chen with 3,500,000 chips and Kahle Burns who had 3,090,000.
The nearly 90-minute delay before the tournament did not lead to any shortage of action once the day of play got underway. Each player was given a 500 big blind starting stack, but even so, there were two eliminations before the first break of the day. Sam Grafton and Alex Foxen were both knocked out and forced to re-register to the competition.
A total of 54 players registered for the tournament on the first day.
Sam Trickett and Kahle Burns were the final two players in the tournament. ©MasterTux on pixabay.com
WSOPE €25,500 Platinum No-Limit Hold’em Day Two
After the second day of the tournament, the chip lead was held by the eventual winner Kahle Burns who bagged up 33,650,000 chips, equivalent to 67 big blinds.
The day was completed with 26 minutes left in level 24 after the competition got down to the final six players. Each of these players was guaranteed at least €95,962 but they all had their eye on the first-place prize of €596,883 and a coveted WSOP bracelet.
This is not the first cash of the WSOPE for Burns, who has already collected two cashes in Rozvadov. He has, however missed out on the final table twice. Burns eliminated both Phil Ivey and Tony G over the course of the day which saw him become the leader going into the final day of play.
So far in Rozvadov Burns has finished in 12th place in the WSOP International Circuit Event for €12,250 and in ninth place in the €2,500 8-Game Mix. The money he was guaranteed after day two of the €25,500 Platinum High Roller Event eclipsed the amount won from these two competitions combined.
After day two Burns was followed in the chip counts by Hossein Ensan, the current WSOP Main Event champion. Ensan had a short stack during the bubble, but managed a double-up during it and subsequently won four successive all-ins against Daniel Negreanu to get to the top of the chip counts. Ensan concluded the second day of play when he eliminated Anton Morgenstern. Morgenstern held ace six and Ensan was behind with ace four. A board that contained three sevens, a ten and a four gave him a full house. This beat Morgenstern and allowed Ensan to go into the final day with 22,000,000 chips.
The other four players to make it to the final table were Timothy Adams, Alex Foxen, Abdelhakim Zoufri and Sam Trickett. All of these players bagged fewer than 20 big blinds, however and had their work cut out for them in day three of the tournament.
WSOPE €25,500 Platinum No-Limit Hold’em Day Three
The final day of the tournament ended with Kahle Burns winning his maiden WSOP bracelet and €596,883. Sam Trickett, from Great Britain, was the runner up and took home €368,899. The 2019 WSOP Main Event champion Hossien Esnan was looking to win his second bracelet of the year but was knocked out of the tournament in third place. In fourth place was Hakim Zoufri from the Netherlands, who finished above Canadian High Roller Timothy Adams who came in fifth. Alex Foxen was the first player to bust on the final table and finished in sixth.
Burns remained calm after his victory, saying: “Yeah, it was sort of smooth sailing: a very fast final table. I was lucky to come in with the chip lead and sort of didn’t have any all-ins myself. Other people knocked themselves out and there was one hand against Sam [Trickett] where I sort of jammed light and both woke up with hands. That changed things a bit, but everything went fast and smooth, no complaints.”
He added: “I won a lot of chips on Day 2 and managed to maintain it, this was nice. It is always good to have all the chips around the bubble.”
The final outcome of the tournament was all but decided after a massive clash between Kahle Burns and Sam Trickett when they were the final two players in the competition. Sam Trickett had previously won two relatively small hands to bring the stacks of the two players to relatively equal numbers of chips. Each player then picked up a monster hand, which led to 98% of the chips in play being pushed into the middle. Burns had pocket queens up against the ace-queen of Sam Trickett. Burns limped into the pot and Trickett then raised to 5,000,000. Burns re-raised to 12,500,000 and after some thought, Trickett shoved all in for 42,000,000 chips. Burns snap-called for 40,000,000. No ace came down on the board made up of jack, nine, two, four and another four. This left the brit with just two big blinds and all but secured the tournament for Burns.
The last few chips which remained for Trickett were shoved into the middle in the next hand. Trickett had seven four suited against Burns’ king four. Trickett did not hit anything on the jack, jack, five, nine, jack board and that was the end of his competition. This was the second time in his career that he has finished one spot away from a bracelet. He walked away with €368,899 however, which took his lifetime winnings to over ¢21 million.
