Pavel Plesuv Wins 2018 World Poker Tour Seminole Rock 'N' Roll Poker Open Main Event

Pavel Plesuv has won the 2018 World Poker Tour Seminole Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open $3,500 no-limit hold’em main event. The 30-year-old resident of the Czech Republic defeated a field of 898 total entries in the event to win his first WPT title and the top prize of $504,820.

Plesuv also earned 1,368 Card Player Player of the Year points as the champion of this event. This was his second title of 2018, having won the $3.5 million guaranteed $3,500 buy-in no-limit hold’em event at the Venetian DeepStack Championship Poker Series this summer for $640,062. With five final table finishes, 5,084 POY points and $2,456,715 in year-to-fate earnings, Plesuv has climbed into tenth place in the overall POY race standings.

Plesuv, a former billiards professional turned poker player, came into the final day of this event as the chip leader with six players remaining. It didn’t take long for the action to heat up at the final table, as former WPT WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic main event winner Ravi Raghavan got all-in on the second hand of the day with the AJ up against Marius Gierse’s AK. Neither player improved and Raghavan was knocked out in sixth place ($103,310).

Chris Kennedy was the next to go. He got all-in on a 987 flop holding the J9, only to run into the KK of Jeremy Joseph. The turn was the 4 and the river the K, giving Joseph trip kings. Kennedy took home $135,505 as the fifth-place finisher.

Gierse and Joseph may have scored the first knockouts at the final table, but as four-handed play wore on they remained the two shortest stacks. Gierse ended up getting all-in preflop with AQ. He was up against Plesuv’s 99. The board came down 76336 and Gierse was eliminated in fourth place ($179,710).

Plesuv appeared to be running away with it as three-handed action played out, chipping up to over 23 million while his two opponents combined for just over 12 million at one point. Plesuv furthered his advantage even more by knocking out Joseph in third place. With a board of 10763 Plesuv bet 1,300,000 and Joseph raised to 3,500,000. Plesuv moved all-in and Joseph called with the Q9 for flush and straight draws. Plesuv held the KK for an overpair. The river was the A and Joseph missed his draws, hitting the rail in third place ($240,945).

With that Plesuv took almost a 6-to-1 chip advantage into heads-up play against James Gilbert, who had come into the day in second chip position. It took 68 hands for Plesuv to convert his lead into a victory. Gilbert had chipped up a bit, and had around 30 big blinds by the time the final hand arose. With blinds of 150,000-300,000 with a 300,000 big-blind ante, Gilbert raised to 750,000 from the button with the 99 and Plesuv shoved all-in with AJ. Gilbert called and the board came down AQ3JQ and Gilbert was knocked out. He earned $326,565 as the runner-up finisher.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded to the final six:

Winner photo credit: Joe Giron / WPT.

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