Martin Kabrhel took the long road to his sixth bracelet on Thursday at the WSOP, where he played in three different events before winning a final table that was set up by an online tournament.
The record for Major League Baseball games played in one day is three, and six teams have done it. But it hasn't been done since October 2, 1920, when the Reds and Pirates squeezed a triple-header in to close out the season.
It's way too much. There's a reason it hasn't been done since 1920. Ordinary men can't do three things in one day, but Martin Kabrhel is no ordinary man.
A big day
At dawn on Thursday, July 2, Kabrhel had chips in three different events on the WSOP schedule. By sunset, he was out of two of them, but something special was brewing in the third.
The first two were Day 2s of events that started on Wednesday. Kabrhel kicked off both the $3K Freezeout and the $600 Deepstack Championship with below-average chip stacks, and he ran around like a maniac trying to spin them up. The freezeout was promising, but an early rush fell apart in the afternoon, and the Deepstack did not go much better.
Meanwhile, Kabrhel had quietly qualified for the final table in WSOP Online Event #20, and the eight remaining players were sitting down at 4pm to play for it all. The Czech chatterbox was firmly in the middle of the pack, with Chicago's own Krista Gifford leading the way.
WSOP Online Event #20 final table chip stacks
- Krista Gifford - 2,470,000
- Brian Wood - 2,185,000
- Malcolm Traynor - 1,055,000
- Martin Kabrhel - 880,000
- Florian Pesce - 620,000
- Ivan Ruban - 545,000
- Kevin Lemmer - 475,000
- Chang Yu Chung - 215,000
You may recognize the name Brian Wood if you're a fan of Online/Live hybrid tournaments. Wood is well-known on the East Coast and is a back-to-back winner of two BetMGM Hybrid Championships played at the Borgata in 2023 and 2024. You could say he's something of a specialist — but his run at a WSOP bracelet finished in fourth on Thursday night.
The Martin Kabrhel Show
The rest of the show, as usual, belonged to Kabrhel, even if there was no livestream camera in the Horseshoe Event Center. The final table started on that side to accommodate a growing Main Event in Paris, and Kabrhel seemed to have the entire room to himself.
A three-deep rail packed the proceedings from beginning to end, but they weren't necessarily rooting for anyone. The vibes were closer to what you might find at one of Las Vegas' many street shows, with curious onlookers, tourists, and otherwise unoccupied players locked in on the absurd. There was singing, dancing, and even a giant stuffed hippo. It really had it all.
The final two traded the lead, and Gifford had the chance to win it with pocket sevens against Kabrhel's six-four.
Kabrhel had flopped top pair, and Gifford had him on the ropes, but a third six kept the Czech alive. He crawled back into it, took the lead, and drove Gifford out of the tournament.
With Shaun Deeb as Jeff Platt
It's the sixth WSOP bracelet for Kabrhel, who celebrated with his stuffed hippo and Shaun Deeb, who sat in for Jeff Platt during the bracelet ceremony.
"Martin Kabrhel, you've dominated this final table," Deeb said to a growing bank of poker media cameras. "You won your fifth bracelet...or sixth bracelet, which is it?"
"This guy is unprepared!" Kabrhel interrupted.
"I'm sorry. Sixth bracelet. Good job! But this had no fantasy points. What are you doing? That's so embarrassing. Get fantasy points."
Deeb struggled to open the bracelet. "I never put them on."
Eventually, the bracelet found Kabrhel's wrist, and he screamed "Vamos!" several times.
So, after a lot of running around all summer, Kabrhel finally has his sixth title. Will that be it? Will we hear from him again?
The WSOP Main Event is kicking off this week, so the answer is yes. But will he make a deep run? It's starting to feel like it.
WSOP Online Event #20 results
- Martin Kabrhel - $195,195
- Krista Gifford - $144,495
- Florian Pesce - $109,005
- Brian Wood - $78,585
- Ivan Ruban - $53,235
- Kevin Lemmer - $38,025
- Malcolm Traynor - $27,885
- Chang Yu Chang - $22,815
Lead image courtesy of WSOP.
