Onyx High Roller Series Main Event Won by Raoul Kanme in Cyprus

Taking place across two Day 1 flights, a pulsating Day 2 and a nine-handed third and final day at the felt, the $25,500 Onyx High Roller Series Main Event at the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa was a thrilling finale. With a $6,120,000 prize pool and a top prize of $1,250,000, a seven-figure Onyx Main Event champion was produced after an exciting final day at the felt.

Big Slick Fails to Stick on Day 2

The $25,500 Onyx High Roller Series Main Event saw a total field of 255 entries across two Day 1 flights reduced to just 38 players at the start of Day 2, where play brought about the nine-handed final table. By the time it had, the drama to get to that point had thrilled poker fans.

British player Ravi Sheth, who also won big at the final table of the $15,300 event at the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa in Northern Cyprus, had a big sweat to survive with 10 left in the $25,500 Main Event. All-in with ace-king, he managed to fade a Broadway straight draw to double through the queen-jack of Anze Smajd, an ace coming on the flop to prevent the queen on the river from meaning anything to the Brit. Sadly for Sheth, his stay of execution was temporary. All-in with ace-king again, Sheth couldn’t win a flip against the pocket jacks belonging to Raoul Kanme, who survived the ten-high board with ease, vaulting to chip leader in the process.

Kanme led the final table with 10.8 million chips, marginally clear of the Austrian Daniel Rezaei on 10.2m chips. At the bottom of the chipcounts, Bulgarian tournament titan Fahredin Mustafov was on just 260,000 chips at blinds of 50,000/100,000. It wouldn’t take long for those chips to be committed.

Early Exits

One final night’s sleep later, Mustafov got his chips in bad and quick. All-in soon after the restart with ten-three of hearts, he ran into Jordan Woodall’s pocket kings, which easily held through the flop of A-8-7 only for a jack on the turn to present Mustafov with a gutshot to a miracle. Only a nine would save the Bulgarian, but it never came, and he slid out of contention for $143,000 in ninth place.

Anze Smajd crashed out with pocket kings in eighth place for $171,000. Calling all-in with the cowboys pre-flop, he was a superb position to double up when the pre-flop aggressor, the chip leader Raoul Kanme had pocket queens but flopped a queen and two sixes to move ahead with a full house. Smajd’s redraws to the king or running sixes for a superior hand failed to land and he busted as the leader got more table control.

The Italian player Italo Modena bowed out in seventh for $200,000 in the most brutal pre-flop way to exit a poker tournament invented. All-in with pocket kings to Matthias Lipp’s pocket aces, Modena caught nothing on the ace-high board, an ace on the river confirming his exit. Soon, he was joined on the rail by a surprise name – Daniel Rezaei. The Austrian poker powerhouse was the most experienced player at the final table but fell when losing a flip with pocket nines, Aliaksandr Shylko’s queen-jack flopping top pair of a queen and rivering a flush to send Rezaei (below) to the rail with $250,000 in sixth place.

Kanme is the King

Another Austrian player was the next to go, as Manuel Fritz forfeited his stack in fifth place for $320,000. All-in pre-flop with ace-jack, he ran into Jordan Woodall’s pocket kings and the German player, who until that moment had only won $141,496 in his career, continued to go from strength to strength as while Fritz hit both an ace and a jack, Woodall’s king of clubs matched four of the board to flush his opponent’s chances away.

The Belarussian Shylko lost a flip to fall foul of fortune in fourth, cashing for $420,000 as Kanme continued to run well, and Woodall soon joined him on the rail after suffering the same fate. All-in pre-flop with ace-king, he couldn’t hit against Kanme’s pocket tens and left in third for $600,000.

Heads-up, Kanme had an unassasilable lead of 9:1 in chips and soon improved it further, shoving three times without a call. When Lipp pushed his stack over the line in the next hand with king-three, he had a quick call and was unlucky to be dominated by Kanme’s ace-three. A safe board pronounced Kanme the champion for $1,250,000 and the biggest cash of his professional career, with Matthias Lipp claiming $800,000 as runner-up (below).

“It’s been a stressful few months. I’ve put the work in. I had a bad year up until now and all I feel is relief. I’m of course super happy, but relief is the word I’m looking for. I want to dedicate this trophy to my cousin.”

When asked about the reasons for thinking of his family, Kanme confessed that it had been a hard time for those close to him with regards to his cousin.

“He [was] diagnosed with cancer like three or four months ago and I’ve been thinking about him the whole time,” Kanme said. “Just thinking about him gave me strength, and I want to dedicate this to him. I’m very happy I could make it happen. So, cousin, you know who you are. This one is for you.”