2019 WSOPC €5,300 High Roller King’s Resort: Zhong Chen Ships Tournament For €66,500

WSOPC €5,300 High Roller saw a champion being crowned in one day! It was the biggest buy-in event of the 2019 World Series of Poker International Circuit King’s Resort. Zhong Chen came out on top of a 28-entry field to claim the WSOP Circuit ring and the first place prize of €66,500 ($74,692).

The 11th winner of the 2019 WSOP Circuit festival in King’s Resort, Rozvadov was Chen himself. The Dutchman, who has already amassed over $600,000 as total earnings, spoke about whether this was the biggest victory of his poker career.

“Absolutely. But it's not about whether the ring or the money is nicer; they're both equally nice.”

Chen is a true poker enthusiast and can be spotted at poker tables around the world. He made two six-figure amounts of cash in 10k events in Barcelona alone last year. In fact, it is also pretty common to see him in one of the many affordable tournaments in Rozvadov or his home country. It's not the buy-in but the game itself that motivates Chen.

Chen made a serious attempt to become the Netherlands' #1 ranked player on the 2018 GPI leaderboard. Unfortunately, while he lost his place to Tobias Peters, Chen’s runner-up position portrayed his poker skills as the very best. This might be Chen's lucky year and winning the WSOPC €5,300 High Roller will definitely be the highlight of the year for him!

2019 WSOP €5,300 High Roller Final Result

Final result

Action of the Day

The tournament saw a total of 28 entries; re-entries were allowed up until the end of the eighth level and Viktor Walter claimed the honor of entering the most bullets into the pot. He fired three rounds from his chamber but came up short each time. Walter's third attempt brought him to the final table, but a sixth-place finish didn't net him cash.

With just three places worth some green, nearly everyone else missed out on the money as well, including King's high stakes stalwarts Martin Kabrhel and Michal Mrakes. Kabrhel went down early after losing jacks versus nines. Mrakes did make it to the final table but missed out on a money finish and finished in seventh place.

The Germans, as always a force to be reckoned with in pricier events, found themselves in prime shape to divide the lion's share of the prize money. No fewer than four Germans were among the final six players, but Walter, Fabian Gumz, and Jakob Miegel all went down before the money.

Miegel, the eventual bubble boy, lost what was probably the biggest coin flip of the day when he went under with ace-queen versus Chen's pocket jacks for heaps.

Anton Morgenstern was the only German out of the four who was able to leave with more than he came in with. He held the chip lead throughout the majority of the day up until the final four. In fact, he recently had a big victory at the 2019 Aussie Millions.

After losing ace-king versus Miegel's pocket nines, it was Blasko who followed up on it by running a daring bluff with ten-high on Morgenstern. The bluff got through, and Morgenstern busted not long after, an anti-climatic end to a strong showing throughout.

Blasko moved into the heads-up phase with Chen full of confidence. The Slovakian kept up the aggression, put Chen to the test multiple times, but every time at showdown, Chen was somehow able to find an exit route.

Chen doubled three times in a row to work himself back from crumbs to even stacks, before moving into the lead by winning another showdown with ace-ten versus ten-nine. Soon after, Chen won his fifth all-in in a row with ace-king versus king-deuce, which finally forced Blasko to wave the white flag.

For more of the best poker news, blogs and poker deals, continue reading PokerShots!