Vojtech Ruzicka Wins the partypoker MILLIONS High Roller

The Czech Republic’s Vojtech Ruzicka is £284,210 richer than he was a couple of days ago because he triumphed in the £10,300 High Roller at the partypoker MILLIONS at Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham.

Ruzicka came out on top of a 110-strong field who were playing for a share of a guarantee-busting £1.1 million and won more than a quarter of a million British pounds after a heads-up deal was struck with Poland’s Bartlomiej Machon.

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Vojtech Ruzicka	Czech Republic	£284,210*
2	Bartlomiej Machon	Poland	£220,790*
3	Tom Hall	UK	£142,000
4	Chris Backhouse	UK	£110,000
5	Joao Simao	Brazil	£85,000
6	Jason Wheeler	USA	£65,000
7	Laszlo Bujtas	Hungary	£50,000
8	Stefan Schillhabel	Germany	£40,000
9	Daniel Merrilees	UK	£30,000
10	Oliver Waters	UK	£20,000
11	Govert Metaal	Netherlands	£20,000

*reflects a heads-up deal

The star-studded field was whittled down to 12 players over the course of two days with the 12th place finishers, and the unfortunate bubble boy, being Jan-Eric Schwippert who committed the rest of his stackj with on a flop and couldn’t get their against Machon’s .

With Schwippert out of the way, the remaining 11 players were guaranteed at least £20,000 for their efforts in the £10,300 High Roller, but with £320,000 awaiting the champion none of them wanted to claim that sum.

Dutch high roller Govert Metaal came unstuck in 11th place when he pushed all-in on a flop with and partypoker ambassador Joao Simao called with the dominating . A ten on the turn and a nine on the river sent Metaal to the rail.

Oliver Waters was the next to fall before the United Kingdom’s Daniel Merrilees found himself all-in with queens against the pocket tens of Ruzicka but a ten on the turn brought Merrilees’ impressive run to an abrupt end.

Germany’s Stefan Schillhabel was the next to fall, doing so in eighth-place for £40,000 and he was joined at the cashier’s cage by Laszlo Bujtas of Hungary, the seventh-place finish.

The field lost one of its most dangerous players when Jason Wheeler moved all-in from the small blind for around 20 big blinds with and Machon called in the big blind with . Neither player paired their hole cards so Machon’s ace-kicker was enough to eliminate Wheeler in sixth-place.

Joao Simoa at the MILLIONS High Roller

Partypoker’s Brazilian ambassador, Simao, bust in fifth place and banked £85,000. Simao was in the blig blind with and saw Ruzicka moved all in from the small blind. Simao had less than 10 big blinds in his stack and made the call, only to see Ruzicka turn over . A jack on the flop left Simao drawing extremely thinly and an ace on the turn confirmed his exit.

With only four players remaining, the tournament was paused and the players sent home to bed because the amazing blind structure meant the finalist could have been playing well into the next day and sunrise was already approaching.

The final four returned on April 19 and were reduced to three when Chris Backhouse’s 10 big blind shove was called by Machon and the latter’s prevailed against Backhouse’s .

Heads-up was set when British star Tom Hall three-bet all-in for 18 big blinds with what turned out to be ace-deuce and Ruzicka put in the extra calling chips while holding pocket sevens. The five community cards failed to come to Hall’s rescue and he exited stage left.

The heads-up pair discussed a deal to split the remaining prize pool, Machon locking up £220,790, Ruzicka £234,210 and the eventual champion claiming the trophy, glory and an additional £50,000.

That champion turned out to be Ruzicka, who reached the final table of the 2016 World Series of Poker Main Event, when the final hand went his way. With blinds now at 200,000/400,000/40,000a, Machon moved all-in for 3.84 million with and Ruzicka called with . By the river the board read , which bust Machon and left Ruzicka to add another title to his name.