Breno Heleno Wins the Grand Prix KO Main Event

The Grand Prix KO Series concluded on October 4 and it is fair to say Brazilians dominated on the final day. Breno Heleno won the $109 Main Event, Luiz Fernando Vieira took down the $11 Mini Main Event, while Fabiano Kovalski came agonisingly close to triumphing in the $530 High Roller.

Heleno Walks Away With $48,864

Brazil’s Breno Heleno is not only a Grand Prix KO Series Main Event champion, but he is also $48,864 richer than a couple of days ago thanks to his victory.

The seven-handed final day was soon down to six when Dalton Hobold, also of Brazil, jammed for less than ten big blinds with from late position and was looked up by Josh Boulton holding the dominating . A queen-high flop was no help to Hobold and he bowed out in seventh.

Another Brazilian, Victor Hugo Bonifacio, was the sixth-place finisher. Bonifacio was down to less than five big blinds when he open-shoved with from the cutoff. Heleno thre-bet all-in with from the button, folding out the blinds. Heleno came from behind to win on the board.

Start-of-the-day chip leader Sebastian Sikorski was the next to fall by the wayside. Boulton min-raised to 8,000,000 with before calling Sikorski’s 71,823,121 jam that he made with . The board sent Sikorski to the showers.

Fourth place and a combined $13,680 went to Russia’s Dmitriy Danilov. The action folded to Heleno in the small blind, who had just doubled up through Boulton, and he raised three-times the big blind to 15,000,000 with . Danilov responded with an all-in bet of 83,721,526 with . Heleno called. A queen-high board reduced the player count by one.

The dangerous Jack Sinclair crashed out in third place to send the tournament into the heads-up stage. Sinclair, a WSOP bracelet winner, limped in for 5,000,000 from the small blind with only for Boulton to raise to 16,000,000 with / Sinclair responded with a shove worth 109,883,549, and Boulton snapped him off. The tens of Boulton held as the five community cards fell .

Boulton went into the heads-up clash holding a 311,340,921 to 207,178,040 chip lead over Heleno. It does not matter who leads when the one-on-one battle begins, it is who finishes with all the chips. Heleno was that man.

With blinds of 3,500,000/7,000,000/875,000a, Boulton moved all-in for 110,652,881 with , and Heleno called with . The board failed to melt Heleno’s snowmen and he became the 2021 Grand Prix KO Series Main Event Champion.

Grand Prix KO #07 Main Event Final Table Results

Place | Player | Country | Bounties | Prize
1 | Breno Heleno | Brazil | $19,150 | $29,714
2 | Josh Boulton | United Kingdom | $5,830 | $29,657
3 | Jack Sinclair | United Kingdom | $3,248 | $18,455
4 | Dmitriy Danilov | Russia | $1,352 | $12,328
5 | Sebastian Sikorski | Canada | $1,998 | $8,418
6 | Victor Hugo Bonifacio | Brazil | $2,053 | $5,975
7 | Dalton Hobold | Brazil | $1,228 | $4,148

Vieira Victorious in the Mini Main Event

Luiz Fernando Vieira took down the $11 Mini Main Event, making it a Brazilian double in the Grand Prix KO Series. There was bound to be a Brazilian champion because four of the seven finalists hailed from the home of samba.

Michel Hortencio, Michael Hamann, and Darragh Curtin busted in succession before the elimination of Germany’s Marcel Fischer left three Brazil stars to fight it out for the title.

Andrei Checchetto ran out of steam in third, before Vieira defeated his fellow countryman Sandro Possel to bag a combined top prize worth $9,093 and, of course, the title of champion.

Grand Prix KO #06 Mini Main Event Final Table Results

Place | Player | Country | Bounties | Prize
1 | Luiz Fernando Vieira | Brazil | $3,125 | $5,968
2 | Sandro Possel | Brazil | $853 | $5,947
3 | Andrei Checchetto | Brazil | $273 | $3,696
4 | Marcel Fischer | Germany | $819 | $2,465
5 | Darragh Curtin | New Zealand | $409 | $1,680
6 | Michael Hamann | Malta | $590 | $1,190
7 | Michel Hortencio | Brazil | $506 | $823

Sklenicka Claims High Roller Title for the Czech Republic

Michael Sklenicka of the Czech Republic outlasted more than 1,000 foes to become the Grand Prix KO Series High Roller champion. Victory came with an impressive $73,980, made up of the $34,998 top prize and $38,982 worth of bounties.

A substantial part of that bounty payment stemmed from eliminating Brazil’s Fabiano Kovalski heads-up. Kovalski had eliminated ten opponents on his way to heads-up and had $7,951 on his head. Sklenicka banked that, plus his own bounty when he came out on top of the final battle.

Grand Prix KO #10 High Roller Final Table Results

Place | Player | Country | Bounties | Prize
1 | Michael Sklenicka | Czech Republic | $38,982 | $34,998
2 | Fabiano Kovalski | Brazil | $7,951 | $34,944
3 | Ian Modder | Canada | $11,300 | $23,139
4 | Dobromir Tsolov | Bulgaria | $3,033 | $15,571
5 | Aleksei Tcepkov | Russia | $4,181 | $10,357
6 | Dennys Ramos | Brazil | $8,148 | $7,627
7 | Aki Virtanen | FInland | $921 | $5,304