Johan Guilbert Wins Super High Roller Bowl Europe $25,000 No-Limit Hold'em Poker Tournament

A second trophy has been awarded at the 2021 Super High Roller Bowl Europe. The lone $25,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em event on the eight-event schedule attracted a field of 81 entries, building a prize pool of $2,025,000. The largest share of that money was ultimately awarded to French poker pro Johan Guilbert, who took home $506,250 for the win.

This was the largest live tournament score of Guilbert’s career, blowing away the $128,042 he earned as the runner-up in the $3,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em shootout event at the 2019 World Series of Poker. The victory increased his lifetime earnings to just shy of $1.3 million.

In addition to securing the money and the trophy, Guilbert was also awarded 672 Card Player Player of the Year points as the champion of this event. This was his first title and third POY-qualified final table of the year. With 1,048 total points, he climbed into a three-way tie for 113th place in the 2021 POY race, which is sponsored by Global Poker.

Guilbert added 304 PokerGO Tour rankings points as well, bringing his total to 501. As a result, he shot up the standings into 27th place on the leaderboard, with fie qualifying cashes this year totaling $728,850 in earnings.

The final day of this event began with ten players remaining. Stephen Chidwick was the first to fall when his pocket fives failed to hold up against the K-Q held by two separate opponents. The bracelet winner and 2019 Player of the Year award winner earned $60,750. Vladi Chaoulov finished ninth ($81,000) when his A8 ran into the KK of Guilbert. The pocket pair held up and Guilbert took a sizable lead into the official eight-handed final table.

Bracelet winner Pascal Lefrancois’ run came to an end when his J10 failed to outrun the A9 of Selahaddin Bedir. Lefrancois cashed for $81,000 as the eighth-place finisher. Guilbert earned another knockout when his AQ held up against the J4 of Saman Nakhjavani (7th – $101,250).

Ali Imsirovic was already the points leader in both the POY race and the PokerGO Tour standings prior to the start of this event. The 24-year-old Bosnian-born American poker pro had won nine titles and accumulated more than $3.1 million in earnings in POY-qualified heading into the SHRB Europe series. He made the final table in this event, bringing his total to 21 on the year. He ultimately finished sixth for $121,500 when his 77 couldn’t hold up against the 66 of Guilbert, who flopped a set. Imsirovic also earned another 224 POY points and 73 PokerGO Tour points, extending his advantage in both points races.

A battle of the blinds brought about the end of David Stamm. Guilbert shoved from the small blind with J-10 and Stamm called from the big blind with A-6. Guilbert rivered a pair of jacks to earn the pot and eliminate Stamm in fifth place ($162,000).

Christoph Vogelsang was left as the short stack heading into four-handed action. He committed the majority of his stack preflop with KQ against the A9 of World Poker Tour champion Seth Davies. The rest went in on the A62 flop, and Vogelsang was drawing dead after the 4 hit the turn. The 6 sent the 2017 SHRB champion to the rail with $202,500 for his fourth-place showing.

Despite scoring that knockout, Davies was still the shortest stack at the table. He eventually got all-in with KK against the AJ of Bedir, who flopped an ace and held from there. Davies earned $243,000 as the third-place finisher.

With that Bedir entered heads-up play against Guilbert with stacks being relatively even. The two traded small leads before Guilbert opened up a sizable advantage by winning a big pot with top pair against the second pair of Bedir. The short stack battled his way back into contention, but Guilbert remained ahead when the final hand was dealt.

Guilbert min-raised to 300,000 with A7 from the button. Bedir defended his big blind with 105 and the flop came down A74. Bedir check-called 225,000 with his flush draw and the turn brought the 6, giving his additional outs to a straight. Bedir checked again and Guilbert bet 750,000 with his top two pair. Bedir check-raised all-in for around 3.3 million. Guilbert called and the river was the 10, which locked up the pot and the title for Guilbert. Bedir earned $364,500 as the runner-up.

Here is a look at the payouts and rankings points awarded at the final table:

Winner photo provided by PokerGO News.

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