As with almost every Martin Kabrhel story, the victory didn’t come without a dose of table-side chaos and controversy.
A Wild All-In Early at the Final Table
The final table began eight-handed, with about €200,000 up top. Kabrhel started second in chips, holding roughly 21% of the total chips. While the prize pool was smaller than its Vegas counterpart, the field was filled with familiar European grinders.
Our first notable hand featured Claushuis moving all-in with . Kabrhel 3-bet over the top holding — not exactly a powerhouse. I’m not a PLO expert, but that doesn’t look great.
Then Yankov, holding , decided to back-jam all-in, creating a massive three-way pot.
The tension built as Kabrhel stalled, counting chips and asking for clarification.
“How much?" Kabrhel asked. "Put the clock and tell me how much it is.”
Eventually, Kabrhel called — and the board ran out in true Kabrhel fashion.
Flop:
He had literally called for “three jacks,” and the deck delivered.
By the river, Kabrhel had a full house, skyrocketing to 3.8 million chips and taking a commanding lead.
The Controversy: “Open Your Hand”
Later, four-handed, Dario Alioto was short-stacked, holding . He opened preflop, and Kabrhel called with — also with hearts, but worse ones.
The flop came with two hearts, giving Alioto top two plus the nut-flush draw, and Kabrhel a gutshot with a ten-high flush draw.
Alioto shoved his last 110K into a pot already nearing 800K. Then came the moment everyone would talk about.
Kabrhel leaned forward and said,
“Open your hand.”
Alioto, perhaps misunderstanding, flipped his cards face-up, revealing everything to the table, while Kabrhel had not yet called.
"Thank you," said Kabrhel with a sly smile.
So now we’ve got this bizarre situation — Dario is all-in for his tournament life, his cards are exposed, and Martin still hasn’t officially acted.
My problem here is that Martin kind of makes a motion that looks like a call. And clearly, that’s what Alioto thought. If you’ve caused your opponent to open their cards by accident — even unintentionally — at that point, I think you’re supposed to just follow through with whatever action you were going to make anyway.
In this spot, realistically, just call. It’s 110K into an 800K pot.
He only needs around 12 or 13% equity to make this call correct. Even if you’re dominated in a million different ways, you can still at least chop on a jack or outright win on a jack here. And of course, you could improve to hands like a backdoor wheel or trip queens. So, I don’t love this fold from Martin — it feels a little unfair to me, but once again, I’m curious what you guys think.
Now, Kabrhel does fold, of course.
I assume the equities we’re seeing on screen are with card removal, because I don’t think he’d really be sitting around 21%. Still though, I think it’s wrong to fold. You just win on a jack or a queen unless your opponent hits a flush or a boat — plus, you’ve got backdoor outs. I don’t know. This seems like a call to me. It’s such a small call. But whatever — once again, I’m not the PLO expert here.
The drama isn’t done yet, though, because Alioto calls for the floor.
“He said, how much is the all-in? He asked five times. 100K. He said okay.”
Martin immediately replies, “I said only 'Open your hand.' Yeah, he accidentally exposed the hand. So he should get some warning.”
Martin pushes back: “What? I said open your hand. Nothing else. He didn’t like this, okay? No, no, no. Check the camera! I made no move. What are you talking about? I didn’t even have chips in my hand!”
“Relax, okay?” the floor says. “Can you stop the clock, please?”
Martin laughs it off. “Why? Nothing happened. Hit the clock — we can have conversation. I said ‘open your hand’ jokingly, and he opened his hand. For what? For what? I was joking! I didn’t do anything wrong. I jokingly said ‘open your hand,’ and he did it. What should I do?”
Now, to defend Martin here — I listened as closely as I could, and I did not hear him say “okay.” I only heard “open your hand,” and that’s what Dario reacted to. But the situation was clearly confusing, even for the commentators, who weren’t exactly sure what he said either.
There was a hand motion, though — that part we know.
Martin also claimed he didn’t have chips in his hand, which is technically true, but misleading. Because when he said it, he was reaching for them.
Let this be a lesson to everyone at home: always make sure you know what’s going on before you show your cards, put chips in the pot, or make any action at all. Because when there’s money on the line, people will always try to defend themselves — or even convince themselves that they’re right. In poker, when real cash is on the table, everyone’s memory suddenly gets a little foggy. So protect yourself.
Alioto and Kabrhel Clash After the Controversy
The next big hand once again features Alioto and Martin Kabrhel. And this time, Martin holds and flops a boat — . Because, of course, he does.
Alioto’s sitting on , which makes things interesting. The bet is 160K. Alioto’s not folding here.
The turn? Is a , giving Dario the nut straight — but on a paired board, that’s never where you want to be.
Martin bets 280K, and Alioto makes the call. There’s now 1.1 million in the pot.
The river comes the . Martin bets again — 760K — and Dario quickly calls. He sees the bad news.
Kabrhel shows the full house. Alioto drops down to 740K, while Martin moves up to just under 4.4 million.
That’s three straight streets of value for Martin, milking Dario the whole way down. The rest of the table is starting to chip up a bit, but Martin’s got his foot right back on the gas and is pulling away again.
The Biggest Pot of the Entire Tournament
Rob Cowen’s in the small blind with — a really strong hand.
He’s a little annoyed by Martin's chip handling preflop, but not too much — because he’s just flopped top set on . Martin, meanwhile, has a gutshot, and decides to call Cowen's 60K bet.
He’s got the raw gutshot — probably not going to be folding. And sure enough, he makes the call.
Turn: the .
Now Martin picks up another gutshot. Rob checks, and Martin goes for it — and bets 200K.
Such a wild spot for Rob. He’s obviously doing great here, sitting with top set, and he’s also got the jack blocker, which makes it very hard for Martin to have a set of jacks himself.
Still, Rob decides to take the aggressive line — he raises to 810K, which means 610K more for Martin to call.
The turn improves Martin to a double gutter with that jack of hearts. Rob, who blocks top set, sets the trap with a check. Martin barrels almost full pot, and Rob springs the trap with a full-sized check-raise.
You’d think calling here would be loose with just the double gutter, but not for Martin.
“810k total?” he confirms. “610k more?”
The off-suit rolls off on the river — an absolutely disgusting card for Rob. Just brutal. Every possible straight gets there — , , — it’s all complete now.
Rob checks. Martin takes a long look at the board, then pots it — full pot on the river.
You’d think Rob could find a fold here — after all, he’s losing to everything — but this is a massive pot and an even bigger spot. Can he find the fold?
And yeah, I made it sound like he was going to call, but he didn’t. Gotta keep you on your toes here at PolkerNews Productions.
At that point, though, the snowball was rolling downhill — Kabrhel’s stack getting bigger, the momentum unstoppable.
That brings us to the final hand of the tournament — and Martin calls it ahead of time.
“This is going to be the last hand of the day.”
He opens with . The flop comes , giving Martin the wheel, while Cowan hits top two. On these short stacks, there’s no way either player’s getting away.
Did you hear what Martin said? “Can you muck your hand?”
Bet size: 100K.
Here we go. Rob raises — Martin shoves.
“Come on, man. No drawing deck. No outs. I don’t think so. You want free massage?” Martin grins.
Turn:
River:
And that’s it.
Robert gives him a quick hug across the table — he fought hard, but couldn’t fade it. Martin Kabrhel takes it down, wins the €10K Mystery Bounty PLO, and claims his fifth WSOP bracelet.
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