Rodrigo Seiji Wins $50,000 Super High Roller at EPT Prague for Second Title and $773,000

The latest winner at the European Poker Tour tables in Prague is another double winner in the Czech capital. Yes, after Ben Heath won not only the first of the $25,000-entry single-day high rollers, but the second one too, Rodrigo Seiji from Brazil repeated the trick.

Grafton Runs into Seiji’s Rockets

In some ways, Seiji’s victory was even more impressive as he won two different format events, having already claimed victory in the opening event of this year’s EPT Prague when he won a thrilling Mystery Bounty event on the second day of play in the Czech capital.

When the third day of action in the $50,000 Super High Roller starting with just seven men at the final table, only one would walk away with the trophy. Seiji started with the slimmest of leads over Daniel Dvoress and Sam Grafton as play began, but surprisingly, it was Grafton who busted first. The recent Coin Rivet Invitational winner for $5 million was all-in with ace-king, but Seiji had woken up with pocket aces and an ace-high flop virtually doomed the British player from the off.

After Grafton left with a result worth just over $140,000, the remaining six players battled for some time without an elimination. Seiji retained the lead throughout this period and when the half-dozen players went to the first break, he had 4.7 million chips, some way clear of everyone else, as the other five players were clustered together between 1.3 million and 2.2 million in chips.

No Silva Lining for Pablo

Out in sixth place was the Brazilian high roller regular Pablo Brita Silva, who has cashed three times in the last week in big ticket events. Silva was all-in on a ten-high flop with ace-ten, but his fellow countryman Seiji called with pocket kings and a five and four on turn and river doomed Silva to a finish worth $180,000.

Next to go was the British-based Turk Orpen Kisacikoglu. He was the clear short stack when he moved all-in with pocket queens and was ahead of Seiji’s call with king-jack. That didn’t stay the case as a king-high flop catapulted the eventual winner into the lead and sent Kisacikoglu home by way of an eight turn and ten river to end the hand. Kisacikoglu earned over $226,000 for finishing in fifth place.

With four playing down to the podium places before another break, it was the Bulgarian player Dimitar Danchev who busted outside the bronze position, cashing for $293,000 in fourth. Danchev shoved for 1.7 million chips (around 21 big blinds) with ace-six and Seiji again called, this time with ace-seven. The board of Q-4-3-A-9 was an unkind one to Danchev, who was hoping for at least a chop from pre-flop but he slid out of contention instead and had to watch from the rail as over $1.7 million was fought for in the last three spots.

Seiji Seals the Deal

“It’s actually my first €50,000 buy-in [event].”

Three players remained and no-one wanted to miss out on heads-up. As it turned out, that was crucial to winning the most money possible and it was Dvoress who befell that unfortunate fate. The Canadian was all-in and at risk with jack-eight when shott and Spanish player Sergio Aido called with queen-ten of spades. An ace-high board with no jack or eight sent Dvoress home with $386,000 and that led to a deal discussion between the remaining two players.

Eventually, the numbers added up for Seiji and Aido, as they agreed a deal that saw the latter take home $667,120 and Seiji win $773,630 and the famous ‘Spadie’ trophy, his second of the EPT Prague festival so far.

After the event, a stunned Seiji tried to explain to PokerNews exactly how he’d managed such a superb feat.

“It’s actually my first €50,000 buy-in. I said when we got to the final table, they were the toughest.”

After two wins in the first handful of events, Brazilian Rodrigo Seiji can be proud of yet another strong performance in one of the toughest fields to reach a final table in 2022.

For the purposes of this article, Euros used for entry have been translated to U.S. dollars at the current rate of 1:1.