WSOPC Slovakia: Alexandru Popa's Swift Sprint to the Main Event Title

This year’s €1,500 Main Event will go down in history as a record-breaking affair, attracting a whopping 1,160 entries. This pushed the total prizepool to an impressive €1,472,120, comfortably surpassing the million-euro guarantee.

The final table, featuring the top nine players, was unexpectedly swift. Unlike the typical poker marathons, this was a true sprint, with the winner decided in just 3.5 hours and exactly 70 hands.

The local crowd had high hopes for two representatives of the Czech-Slovak scene who made it to the elite nine. Slovak pro Tomáš “masuronike” Kubaliak displayed solid play throughout the tournament but finally settled for fourth place and a €82,300 reward after his A s Q d clashed with Hungarian Bence Paris's A d K c.

Czech player Petr Svoboda ended his tournament journey in sixth place when his A c J d couldn't hold up against the pair of 8 s 8 h of the eventual winner. Alexandru Popa, who started the final table in seventh place, entered heads-up against Rostyslav Sabishchenko with a significant lead.

In the final showdown, it took just 10 hands for Popa to find a set with J s J d on the board 3 s J c K s 2 c 8 s. Sabishchenko called his opponent's all-in on the river with K d 8 c and had to settle for second place. Popa claimed his most prestigious victory and doubled his career tournament winnings.

You can watch the full final day's coverage with English commentary on YouTube:

Results of the WSOPC Slovakia Main Event Final Table:

Sources: WSOP Live, FB, YouTube

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