Compared with the action in the Horseshoe, where the $10K Main Event is building to a thrilling crescendo, the vast ballroom of the Paris is relatively peaceful and serene.
Relatively, of course. While one motormouth of the 2025 WSOP won’t be seen again this week, another is very much in full flow — and seemingly expanding to fill the space around him. Almost literally.
You see, there’s another $10K event taking place today, Day 2 of the $10,000 NLH 6-Handed Championship, and Martin Kabrhel appears to be relishing one more chance to grab some time in the spotlight.
‘Can you imagine how tilted he must be to call me nice?’
“I would rather play against a table of Phil Hellmuths than this table!” Kabrhel yells across the room, possibly to one person in particular but most likely to everyone in earshot. To underline his feelings, he rises from his seat and pulls up an empty chair at the next table along. Those at the table laugh.
He sidles back to his designated seat, next to which a small crowd is starting to form on the rail. He’s in the 3-seat, on the small blind. He reaches over to his neighbor in the 4-seat, picks up the big blind from his chip stack and puts it in the pot. His neighbour smiles.
A few hands later, Kabrhel is on the big blind. The button raises. “Are you a bluffer?” booms Kabrhel. “You are! You’re a bluffer boy! I raise to 17 million!” (the chip leader at this time, with registration still open, has around 550K). The button folds. “Even Philly Boy plays better than that!” exclaims Kabrhel.
As a tournament official walks by, a player in the 6-seat stops him and gestures in Kabrhel’s direction, with a smile. “I’ve been watching Kassouf for the past three days, is there anything we can do about him?”
Kabrhel immediately stands and points at the player. “I want to make a complaint — can he please be quiet?”.
The floor laughs, the 6-seat laughs along and says, “Okay, nah, you’re a nice guy.”
“Can you imagine how tilted he must be to call me nice?” asks Kabrhel, of no one in particular.
$10K 6-Max looking like a tough one
After several days of watching the WSOP’s other ‘bad boy’ Will Kassouf smoulder, burn and ultimately explode, has the existing animosity surrounding Martin Kabrhel turned into something else?
Is he the lesser of two evils, a reminder of a time before taunting players to their faces and railing at officials became what we expected to see whenever we switched to the feature table? Are we more forgiving when ‘it could be worse’?
Or is this simply a case of Stockholm Syndrome kicking in? Has Kabrhel made us all captives of his energetic show, only for us to now sympathize with our captors? He certainly seems to elicit a wider range of emotions — including postitive ones — than the now-banned Kassouf, particularly if today’s vibe in the Paris is anything to go by.
Either way, Kabrhel’s charge in the $10K 6-Max Championship may be one of the most daunting challenges he’s faced this summer. It’s the last $10K Championship event of the summer, one of the last big buy-in events on the schedule, and comes at the end of a draining 6+ weeks of daily action.
There are players looking to put a cap on a successful series, and plenty more seeking an opportunity at redemption. Fearsome reputations lurk behind stacks at every table, and the good humor which is meeting Kabrhel’s antics surely belies the levels of exhaustion and even burnout which so many must be feeling.
Late registration closes in under an hour, there are over 150 players remaining and over $4.5M in the pot. Benjamin Chalot has the chip lead at time of writing, with 550K, though the chasing pack is filled with experienced winners.
Mike Matusow has the 2nd biggest stack, with 430K, followed by the likes of Matt Glantz (3rd, 405K), Mike Watson (5th, 380K), Blaz Zerjav (6th, 364K), Artur Martirosian (9th, 346K), David Coleman (28th, 251K), Benny Glaser (33rd, 239K), Andrew Lichtenberger (57th, 181K) and Stephen Chidwick (67th, 156K).
Whoever wins this one will have to contest an extremely strong field, at the tail end of a long, hot WSOP summer. They’ll also need to sit through one more episode of the Martin Kabrhel Show, though, for today, at least, audiences appear to be a little more forgiving.
