The 2021 World Series of Poker Europe is down to the final stretch, as just seven players remain out of 688 total entries. The original intent going into Tuesday’s Day 4 was to call it a night when only six players still had chips, and they had time to get there, but in the end, they decided seven worked just fine, so one extra player will return Wednesday evening.
Josef Gulas, Jr. leads the way with 20.200 million chips. At the all-European final table, Gulas is the only one from host venue King’s Resort’s home country, the Czech Republic. At the outset of Wednesday’s play, it looks like a three-horse race, with Alexander Tkatschew and Johan Guilbert trailing Gulas, holding 17.375 million and 13.025 million chips, respectively. After them, it is a 7 million-chip dropoff (though, admittedly, the gap between Gulas and Guilbert is also about 7 million). Athanasios Kidas has 6.025 million chips, Thomas Denie has 5.500 million, Stanislav Koleno has 3.400 million, and Alexsandar Trajkovski has 3.250 million. Those four men will likely have to take some risks to get back in contention.
From the “watching paint dry” files, one of the more incredible – and boring – hands you’ll ever see happened with 21 players remaining. Brian Kamphorst raised pre-flop and Johan Guilbert called. On the 9-8-5, two-club flop, Kamphorst check-called a 125,000-chip bet from Guilbert. When the Jack of spades landed on the turn, putting a flush possibility out there, it was another check-call for 325,000.
Then, with a red King on the river, Kamphorst checked. Guilbert bet 1.075 million, after which Kamphorst pondered his move for two minutes before finally shoving over the top all-in for 2.645 million.
Fairly standard to this point, but this is where the fun starts, or stops, as it were. Guilbert tanked. And tanked. And tanked some more. After six minutes, tournament officials stopped the clock. Guilbert then agonized over his decision for another TEN minutes. Having had enough waiting, Narcis Nedelcu called clock, after which Guilbert was granted another 30 seconds. When that countdown was finished, he still didn’t make a move, so his hand was declared dead and Kamphorst took the pot.
In all, it appeared that Guilbert tanked for a total of 17 minutes. I am actually surprised that his tablemates let it go on for that long. He certainly has every right to think about what he wants to do, but his opponents were generous to give him enough time to watch one-and-a-half episodes of The Eric Andre Show.
2021 World Series of Poker Europe – Final Table Chip Counts
Josef Gulas, Jr. – 20,200,000
Alexander Tkatschew – 17,375,000
Johan Guilbert – 13,025,000
Athanasios Kidas – 6,025,000
Thomas Denie – 5,500,000
Stanislav Koleno – 3,400,000
Aleksandar Trajkovski – 3,250,000