‘One bad call’: Komorowski denies Barny Boatman €1K PLO trophy at EPT Prague

Since donning the PokerStars ambassador patch in March this year, Barny Boatman has been wearing it (or the distinctive blue EPT hoodie here in Prague) into the cash in 15 tournaments around the world, including in five €1,100 PokerStars European regional Main Events. These recent ambassadorial cashes alone (from a 25-year set of results totalling over $5.5 million) include five final table appearances and one win (in the PLO8 at EPT Cyprus in October).

He nearly made that two wins, in the €1,100 high-only version of that game here in Prague, finishing runner-up to tenacious Polish player Adam Komorowski after two days of play.  From mid-stacked midday to firm chip leader five-handed, Boatman then gave Komorowski the double up that would flip the stacks and start him on the path to victory instead.

Bad timing, good bluff, or both?

Just after Daniel Habl’s exit in 6th place (€11,000), the blinds had risen to 50K/100K, with an average stack of 27 big blinds. No one was super-short, and dust was gathering on exactly none of the stacks.

Three-way to a flop of (a button raise from Samuel Stranak, called by small blind Boatman and big blind Komorowski), action took off – in slow motion. Boatman checked, Komorowski bet 300,000. Over to Stranak, who spent a minute or so in the tank considering (you can watch the whole hand below and experience the tension for yourselves, or watch PokerOrg’s condensed version of a Main Event timebank-drain to experience similar tension faster).

Finally, Stranak pushed out a raise to 850,000. Boatman check-raised the pot swiftly (effectively all in). Komorowski got out of the way while Stranak said, “Oops oops, oops.” This did not give the rail confidence he would call. He didn’t. 

“Bad timing,” said Stranak, showing three-quarters of his hand: .

“Good bluff,” another tablemate countered, comfortingly.

Above: the three-handed big decision in real time. Below: Main Event version in timelapse.

Komorowski turns the tables

Komorowski’s tournament life hinged on the performance of some single-suited aces five-handed. A preflop raise from Boatman first to act (to 475,000) meant the pot could take Komorowski’s shove. It wasn’t immediate, but Boatman did eventually announce, “I call.”

Boatman:
Komorowski:

The board ran out and the usually quiet Komorowski leapt up from his chair as he not only stayed in contention for the trophy but took the chip lead from the man a half dozen phones were sporadically filming.

Though Boatman had replenished his chips by busting new short stack Stranak in 5th place, it was Komorowski who continued to pick up the pace, eliminating Daniel Alioto next (unsuited aces vs. Alioto's single-suited jacks) and taking a shot at busting Stanislav Anufriiev in 3rd, too. This hand had seen Anufriiev move all-in preflop as a very short stack, called by both opponents.

The flop of was checked through, but Boatman led out on the turn, getting rid of the chip leader and facing down Anufriiev’s with .  The river took the tournament down to its last two competitors from a field of 277.

‘I shouldn’t have called’

So said Boatman in a quick post-match interview of this hand that spelled the beginning of the end heads up. 

With the blinds a hefty 100K/200K, Komorowski led out 500K on a flop, called by Boatman. Both players checked the turn. The river saw Komorowski announce ‘pot’ and put Boatman to a 2.4 million chip decision. Finally, Boatman called to receive the bad news of the flopped nut straight ().

It was a matter of moments before the final hand saw Komorowski pot it on the button preflop (600K – about half of Boatman’s remaining chips). Boatman called and then moved in quickly on the flop. Komorowski saw his aces hold one final time vs. Boatman’s to clinch the victory. “Thank you for the game,” he said, continuing the trend of polite exiting that had held throughout the final (many a ‘GG’ was spoken softly on the way to the cash desk).

Of his runner-up finish, Boatman said, “It was horrible heads up – I never had the best hand!”

The only pots he had won were small and, it can be concluded, won with bluffs.

“I shouldn’t have called,” he added, remembering that jack-high straight. “I had a straight, but I thought he had ten-jack. It was a bad call.”

Komorowski, at 28 years old, having been alive about as long as Boatman has been racking up Hendon Mob flags, learned the game thanks to father Pavel and his university friend Konrad (to whom he gave a shout-out before going to collect his prize money – along with ‘everyone in Kielce’ – you know who you are).

Asked whether he would be back in action at EPT Prague, he said, “I will look in the calendar and see if there’s something I want to participate in,” which sounds like a yes to us. He has only been playing tournaments for around five years, travelling to festivals in places ‘where it’s nice’ with live PLO his favourite game. Asked about whether Thursday’s inaugural Mixed Game Main Event held any appeal, he considered for a moment and answered, “I need to learn first!”

Adam Komorowski dedicates his victory to his dad and uni mates who got him into the game

€1,100 PLO final table payouts

Bubble bursts in the Main Event

Meanwhile, the biggest €5,300 EPT Prague Main Event in history (1,458 entries) has hit the money on Day 2, with 216 places in total paid from a €7,071,300 total prize pool. The winner will receive €1,146,500.

Running kings into aces in a giant cooler on the bubble is one way to stop hand-for-hand. Bogdan Munteanu left the tournament one place shy of a €4,275 min-cash; 25 players followed him to the rail before the end of play, including PokerStars ambassador Fintan Hand, Paul Carr, Morten Klein, Preben Stokkan and Ranno Sootla. 

The temperature in Prague no match for the cooler exit of Bogdan Munteanu

Yauheni Tsiareshchanka leads overnight with just shy of a million chips, around 100K ahead of nearest stacked Sylwia Studniarz (pictured below). He has already packed one spade trophy here in Prague, winning the PokerStars Cuatro Knockout event earlier in the festival for €60,000.

Sylwia Studniarz stacked for Day 3

Start-of-day leader Jacob Amsellem kept up the pace, ending the day in 6th place, while other notables making it through include PokerStars Ambassador Sam Grafton, Jason Wheeler, Davidi Kitai, Grzegorz Glowny, Anton Wigg and last year’s Main Event third place finisher Umberto Ruggieri, along with the 2023 champion Padraig O’Neill.

EPT Prague Main Event – top stacks

^{Images courtesy of Manuel Kovsca and Danny Maxwell @Rational Holdings Ltd}