It’s been a profitable weekend for German poker pro Dominik Nitsche, who has soared to the top of Germany’s biggest poker earners after his Euro 3.4 million win in the Euro 111,111 buy-n One Drop High Roller event at the World Series of Poker Europe in Rozvadov, which carried a Euro 10 million guarantee.
Nitsche also took home his fourth WSOP winner’s bracelet, and boosted his career live tournament earnings to just over $1.1 million, after defeating a field of 132 entrants – 88 of them unique players.
The good turnout generated a prize pool just short of Euro 13 million, with the organisers at host Kings Casino pointing out that the number of registrations actually surpassed the 130 recorded the last time the event was offered in Las Vegas.
However, the most important number must surely be the almost Euro 1 million the competition raised for developing nation clean water charities with which the World Series of Poker has partnered; this brings the total amount generated for the charity by the One Drop competitions over recent years to more than $20 million.
This year’s list of top players in the event included Bryn Kenney, Eugene Katchalov, Nick Petrangelo, Koray Aldemir and Kenny Hallaert, who were all among the twenty players to cash, but did not make the final table.
Thomas Muehloecker held the chip lead when the final table formed, but Nitsche soon ousted him from that position and dominated the action, although at several points he was challenged by Mikita Badziakouski and Andreas Eiler.
It was Eiler who eliminated Badziakouski at third for Euro 1,521,312 to qualify as the heads up opponent facing Nitsche, entering the finale with a 41 million chip lead over the German.
Nitsche soon addressed the imbalance to take the lead, building it over the 56-hand stage to around 7 to 1 before busting Eiler, who cashed $2.5 million as runner-up.
The fourth to ninth places at the final table enjoyed cashes ranging from $1,282,561 down to Charlie Carrel’s $345,303.
Next year the Big One for One Drop competition will return to WSOP Las Vegas with a buy-in of $1 million.