Roman Hrabec sails to $427K victory in APTC Super High Roller

Whether you go wire-to-wire for the victory or pull off an unlikely comeback, no one wins a poker tournament without at least a little luck on their side.

After three days of battle in the TWD 777K (~$25K) Asian Poker Tour Championship Super High Roller — most of it spent with the chip lead — Roman Hrabec of the Czech Republic (above, right) has finished top of the pile to claim the TWD 13,398,720 (~$427K) up top, the rose gold Lion trophy and a seat in the series Main Event.

And while the win caps off an accomplished, controlled performance, it didn’t come without a decisive moment of good fortune.

Hrabec held the chip lead for the majority of the tournament.

Lucky sixes

Having ended Days 1 and 2 with the chip lead, Hrabec lost it during the cut and thrust of Sunday’s six-handed final table, falling behind in the counts to both Thailand’s Alex Wice and Japan’s Hikaru Hishinuma (making her third final table of the series so far).

With five players remaining and the blinds at 50K/100K, Hrabec opened from the button to 200K with . Hishinuma, holding , raised to 450K from the big blind, and Hrabec called to see the flop.

Hikaru Hishinuma, at her third final table of the series, locked up a career-best cash.

Hishinuma fired a c-bet of 500K, which Hrabec called, only for the to come on the turn to complete his full house. Hishinuma bet another 900K, Hrabec called again, and the river brought the .

Hishinuma, who had Hrabec outstacked by the smallest of margins, bet over half her stack. Hrabec went all-in. Hishinuma made the crying call, and was left with less than a small blind, out in 5th the very next hand. For Hrabec, the double-up shot him to a big lead he would not surrender for the rest of the tournament.

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‘I had a little strategy for this one’

Hrabec, whose last tournament victory came early in 2025 in the WPT Cambodia Super High Roller, felt he was due.

“I was running super hot from the start and wasn't really losing my chips, I was gaining, so it was pretty smooth sailing,” Hrabec told PokerOrg following his heads-up defeat of Alex Wice.

“I've known not too many victories this year, so I'm happy that something came along. I had a little strategy for this one. I was trying to play a long game, not trying to force things — even though it probably didn't look like that!

“Obviously, I was very lucky that I won the hand with sixes vs queens postflop, and then I had most of the chips. It was a bit of a battle, 3 and 4-handed, but then heads-up was really quick.”

Wice, of Thailand, could do little to slow Hrabec's momentum.

It certainly was. Hrabec entered heads-up play with a mountain of chips, while his opponent Alex Wice had a mountain to climb. In the end the duel would last just 10 minutes or so before a 5-bet pot came about to decide things once and for all.

This time it was Hrabec who held the pocket queens, raising the 160K big blind to 325K from the button. Wice, with , 3-bet to 1.2M. Hrabec made it 2M, Wice shoved for 6.9M, and Hrabec quickly called.

The flop of gave Hrabec top set to put him firmly in the driver’s seat, though fearing the flush, and while the on the turn did give Wice a little more hope in the form of a gutshot straight draw, the on the river put paid to those hopes, and delivered Hrabec the win that had looked on the cards for the past few days.

Wice was quick to congratulate Hrabec on winning the Golden Lion.

Hrabec will be sticking around to use his free pass into the APT Championship Main Event, which starts Monday, then tells us his next stop is likely to be The Bahamas for WSOP Paradise.

But with late reg for the APTC Main open until Tuesday, there’s first another opportunity in the form of the TWD 1.5M (~$50K) Superstar Championship, which has been playing out just a few yards from the final table Hrabec has just defeated.

Entries on today's Day 1 are up to 19, and so far include Dylan Linde, Dominik Nitsche, Michael Addamo and, as of a few moments ago, Roman Hrabec.

After all, with an extra $420K+ in his pocket, a big tournament right in front of him and luck seemingly on his side, who can blame him?

'When in Rome', and all that...

APT TWD 777K Super High Roller Championship - final table results

^{Images courtesy of the APT/Enzo Arceo.}