The Asian Poker Tour (APT) Super High Roller Championship has crowned its champion here inside Red Space, Taipei, and it is Czech crusher Roman Hrabec who took the title after a dominant final table performance.
Hrabec closed out the tournament in style, defeating Thailand’s Alex Wice in a speedy heads-up match that lasted just six hands to secure the TWD 13,398,721 (~USD 429,450) top prize, the coveted Rose Gold APT Lion Championship Trophy, and a USD 10,000 seat into the APTC Main Event.
This marks a fitting conclusion to a record-breaking event that drew 81 entries (56 unique) and generated a massive TWD 59,519,521 (~USD 1,907,680) prize pool, making it the richest non-Main Event tournament in APT history. The finale lived up to the billing as one of the festival’s most talked about events, with a world-class lineup featuring some of the best online crushers, and multiple poker hall of famers.
Hrabec navigated the elite field with confidence throughout the tournament and brought that same composure to the final day. Six players returned with Hrabec as the chip leader and he never took his foot off the gas, outlasting the accomplished final tableists and ending the dreams of fellow pros Danny Tang and Manuel Fritz along the way.
APT Super High Roller Championship Final Table Results
*also wins an APTC Main Event Seat
The Final Day's Action
When the final six took their seats and cards hit the baize, Hrabec picked up exactly where he left off the night before, raising at every chance and putting the middling stacks straight into ICM jail. A few players pushed back with three-bet jams and Hikaru Hishinuma even shoved an overpair after facing a check-raise, but none of it fazed him. Hrabec kept the pressure on and continued grinding down the table until he eventually made his own luck.
It did not take long for the first elimination of the day. Manuel Fritz returned with one of the shorter stacks and looked to have found the perfect spot when he correctly called off with king-high in the big blind after Hrabec jammed jack-nine from the small blind. Two nines on the flop sealed it, and Fritz was the first to head to the payout desk, collecting TWD 3,197,300 (~USD 102,480) for his efforts.
Mauel Fritz
With five players left, Hrabec slipped back into the middle of the pack after losing a pot to Wice’s two pair and then being forced to fold pocket jacks to Hishinuma’s double-barrel bluff with a small pocket pair. But he didn’t stay down for long. Hrabec soon got his revenge when he turned a boat with pocket sixes to trump Hishinuma’s two queens. Unable to find a fold facing a river raise, Hishinuma was left with barely half a big blind.
On the very next hand, Hishinuma hit the rail with pocket sixes of her own after Hrabec turned a pair of tens to scoop the pot and knock her out in fifth place for TWD 4,322,200 (~USD 138,530).
Hikaru Hishinuma
Danny Tang had been pretty quiet for most of the final table, mostly because the deck was not giving him much to work with, but the seasoned pro showed he still had plenty of moves. Tang picked the perfect moment to fire off a well-timed river bluff-raise, getting Hrabec to fold pocket tens and giving himself a much-needed boost.
Wice came into the day with the toughest seat in the room, stuck directly to the right of Hrabec while they sat first and second in chips. It did not take long for the Czech crusher to go after him. In a blind-versus-blind pot, Hrabec turned yet another full house and still got paid when Wice rivered a backdoor straight. That pot sent Hrabec soaring past fifty percent of the chips in play and gave him the freedom to run over the remaining three players.
After the break, Tang found some much-needed momentum, winning a flip to double through Hrabec, and just a few hands later his ace-six held against Hrabec’s jack-six to score another double, climbing back into contention with over ten big blinds.
France’s Axel Hallay was the next to fall, bowing out just short of a podium finish when his pocket fours couldn’t win the race against Wice’s Big Slick. Hallay still walked away with TWD 5,920,900 (~USD 189,770), the third-biggest result of his career.
Axel Hallay
Three handed, Hrabec kept the pressure on with Tang's stack in the danger zone, which forced Wice to play snug. One wrong move against the chip leader could cost him a fortune, so he had to play carefully while Hrabec continued to play aggressively
Tang’s short-stack survival finally paid off when he picked up Big Slick in the small blind after another button min-raise from Hrabec. Tang shoved, Hrabec called, and Tang was stunned to see Hrabec actually holding a real hand with pocket jacks. The board offered no help and Tang exited in third place for TWD 7,697,100 (~USD 246,700).
Danny Tang
A Quick Heads-Up
Hrabec entered heads-up play with a two-to-one chip lead and wasted no time extending it. He picked off a two street bluff from Wice with second pair, and once Wice surrendered on the river, Hrabec tightened his grip on the match. From there it felt like only a matter of time before the trophy was heading his way.
Wice stole a few pots to stay afloat, but the end came fast. Six hands into heads-up, Hrabec opened, Wice three-bet, and a click four-bet from Hrabec tempted Wice to shove his last 43 big blinds with king-jack. Hrabec snapped with queens and rivered yet another boat to clinch the TWD 13,398,721 (~USD 429,450) top prize, the Rose Gold Lion Trophy, the APTC Main Event seat worth USD 10,000, and one of the most prestigious titles on the APT calendar.
Alex Wice & Roman Hrabec
Stay tuned to the APT blog as coverage continues throughout the series, with the highly-anticipated APTC Main Event now just around the corner.
Roman Hrabec
Alex Wice
Roman Hrabec
Alex Wice
Alex Wice & Roman Hrabec
Play Is Now Heads Up
Danny Tang
Danny Tang
Roman Hrabec