EPT: William Kassouf Chops His Way to High Roller Title
William Kassouf decided to celebrate his birthday, well, like a boss. The British poker pro took down the last-ever European Poker Tour High Roller Event after a heads-up deal with Patrick Serda.
Kassouf put his table talk to good use, negotiating a heads-up chop where he took home a little over €530,000 but got the trophy and the winner photo in addition to credit as the winner. Patrick Serda took home €719,000 for second place.
He may have wheeled and dealed his way to the win once it got to heads-up, but Kassouf certainly played a ton of poker to earn the win. The €10,300 buy-in High Roller drew a record-setting field of 407, resulting in an almost €4 million prize pool.
When play began on the third and final day of the event, 24 players remained and Kassouf was near the bottom of the counts. He doubled up more than once to survive in the early goings. By the time the final table rolled around, Kassouf was one of the big stacks at the table.
At the final table, Kassouf and Serda battled back and forth for the honor of big stack. Serda surpassed Kassouf when he eliminated Jens Lakemeier in eighth place. Lakemeier shoved all-in on the river of an 
board and Serda called with 
for aces up and Lakemeier could only show a small pair and a busted draw.
Kassouf took a chunk out of Serda, but Serda clawed back in contention when he eliminated Grzegorz Wyraz in sixth place, calling Wyraz’s all-in preflop shove holding 
to Wyraz’s 
. Serda continued to plow through the competition, calling Paul Leckey’s three-bet shove with 
to Leckey’s 
. His superior ace held up and the field was down to four with Serda way out front with more than double his next closest competitor, Kassouf.
That lead got bigger after Viliyan Petleshkov was eliminated in fourth place. He ran pocket deuces into Serda’s pocket eights to exit. Serda was up to 13 million after that and picked up his fourth KO of the final table.
With three players remaining, talks of a chop began, but Tue Ullerup Hansen wasn’t swayed by the ICM numbers and declined, willing to take his 3 million and change up against Serda’s 14 million and Kassouf’s 2.5 million.
Kassouf doubled through Ullerup Hansen to get him rather short, but Serda was the one to finish him off. Serda shoved on the button with 
and Ullerup Hansen called holding 
. Serda hit a queen on the 
board to take the action to heads-up.
Outchipped by more than a 4:1 margin, Kassouf opted to take less money than an ICM chop would pay and take the winner photo to finish out the last High Roller event in EPT history.
Here are the final table results from the EPT Prague High Roller
- William Kassouf – €532,500*
- Patrick Serda – €719,000*
- Tue Ullerup Hansen – €351,000
- Viliyan Petleshkov – €283,850
- Paul Leckey – €224,600
- Grzegorz Wyraz – €172,910
- Matas Cimbolas – €128,700
- Jens Lakemeier – €93,170
* denotes a heads-up deal
