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Addamo and Kabrhel Wins WSOP Europe High Roller Bracelets – Deeb Wins POY

Nine of ten WSOP bracelets have been awarded at the 2018 World Series of Poker Europe. Both High Roller events are in the books with Michael Addamo taking down the €25k Super High Roller and Martin Kabrhel taking down the €100,000 King’s Super High Roller

Meanwhile, the Main Event has concluded Day 2 play and we can officially declare what has been known for days now. Shaun Deeb is officially the 2018 World Series of Poker Player of the Year.

Addamo and Kabrhel Win High Roller Bracelets

The two High Roller events played to a conclusion over the weekend and both Michael Addamo and Martin Kabrhel walked away with the hardware. Addamo came out on top in Event #8, the €25k Super High Roller. He outlasted a final table that included James Romero, Mikita Badziakouski, Ben Pollack, Winfred Yu, and Dominik Nitsche.

This event didn’t finish until after 6 a.m. on Friday morning, but when the smoke cleared, Michael Addamo walked away with his second career WSOP bracelet and his second of 2018. According to PokerNews, Addamo didn’t come out to Europe until this event and managed to bag the Day 1 chip lead on just a couple hours of sleep. Sleep apparently is underrated because a marathon final day resulted in him winning the gold and €848,702.

Addamo didn’t rest on his win as he managed to make the final table of Event #9, the €100,000 King’s Super High Roller. Joining him at the final table yet again were Dominik Nitsche and Mikita Badziakouski. None of the repeat final tablist managed to take down the event.

That honor went to Martin Kabrhel of the Czech Republic. He made a strong comeback heads-up against David Peters to win the event, the bracelet, and the €2.62 million top prize. This was Kabrhel’s second straight final table in this event. Last year, he finished 8th.

Shaun Deeb Wins 2018 WSOP Player of the Year

Considering that none of the other top players on the POY leaderboard made the trek to Europe, it was a matter of time before Shaun Deeb could be “officially” crowned as 2018 WSOP Player of the Year. Granted, we had to wait for events to play out as some player could go on a Justin Bonomo style run and make a miracle charge.

Such a charge didn’t happen and prior to the start of the WSOP Europe Main Event, Deeb was declared as WSOP Player of the Year. This capped what was an epic year for Deeb at the WSOP. Overall, he cashed in 20 WSOP events in 2018 with four final tables and ten top 20 finishes.

He won two bracelets in Las Vegas, taking down the $25,000 PLO 8-Handed High Roller and the $10k NL Six-Handed Big Blind Antes Championship. He missed out on another bracelet at the WSOP Europe, finishing runner-up in the €1,650 Mixed PLO/NL Hold’em Event.

Many will argue that Deeb is a much more deserving champion than 2017 WSOP Player of the Year Chris Ferguson. The POY formula was revamped to put more importance on winning than cashing. Of course, there’s still a bit of controversy as Joe Cada won two bracelets and finished fourth in the Main Event.

That performance only earned him a third-place finish for POY and some argue that he should have topped Deeb. However, in the end Cada didn’t bother to go to Europe and Deeb went out and added four cashes and a final table to his totals. You have to play to win, and it’s hard to argue against the fact that Shaun Deeb played his way into WSOP Player of the Year.

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