Suspected collusion at 25k tournament between Martin Kabrhel and Zdenek Zizka
Hi,
I would like to bring a situation to your attention that occurred at a 25k PLO tournament in Tallinn on April 13th.
Throughout this post I will be posting some hand histories. As there was no stream these hand histories could contain some inaccuracies. I tried my best to recreate them as accurately as possible as I remember them.
The 25k ran with about 15 entries before late reg ended. During the max latereg break there were 6 players remaining. Martin Kabrhel then showed up to register. He claimed that he was told that if there were 16 entrants 4 people would be paid. Shortly thereafter another Czech player called Zdenek Zizka also registered. To our knowledge at the time Zdenek and Martin didn’t know each other as they would never interact directly with one another. While Martin is more known in the poker community, Zdenek less so. He seems to be a professional backgammon player.
The prize pool was announced after the break, which was indeed 4 people being paid. This was strange as Diamond only pays the top 12% so 4 out of 17 is quite a lot. About 10 minutes later the tournament director shows up to let us know that he made a mistake when selecting the prize pool and only 3 people would be paid. Martin and Zdenek made a huge scene out of this. They claim that the only reason why they registered is because 4 people would be paid and demanded a portion of their buy in to be refunded. The tournament director said he would call around to see what he could do for them, after which play resumed as normal.
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This brings us now to suspicious Hand #1:
8 left
Kabrhel (~15bb) limps LJ
Zizka (~20bb) limps BTN
Alex (covers) completes SB
Lautaro (~15bb) iso 5bb
Kabrhel folds
Zizka jams with AA77ss
Lautaro GII with AK85ss and busts.
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There have been many plays we have seen throughout this series of people playing AA quite passively so at the time we didn’t find this hand too suspicious, just simply a bit weird. However, in the broader context of the other hand histories this hand is very suspicious.
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Hand #2:
7 left
Kabrhel (~8bb) limps CO
Zizka (~25bb) completes SB
Alex (covers) checks
Flop AJ8ssx
Zizka B50, AlexKP F, Kabrhel C
Turn 2x (SPR aprox 0.5)
Zizka X, Kabrhel B25, Zizka F
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Super strange hand. For Zizka to lead out on this flop only to x/f on a brick at this SPR?
At this point Marcus DMs me on discord asking me if I’ve noticed the suspicious hands. I told him that I would be paying a bit closer attention.
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Hand #3:
6 left
Kabrhel (~6bb) minraises
Fabian (chip leader) folds SB
Zizka (~20bb) calls BB
Flop 974ssx
Zizka X, Kabrhel minbets, Zizka Call
Turn Ao
Zizka X, Kabrhel X
River Brick non flushing
Zizka X, Kabrhel bets minbets, Zizka F
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After this super strange suspicious hand where once again there is minbetting and check folding at absurdly small SPRs I decided to DM Fabian to ask him what he thinks. He was also incredibly suspicious at this point but wasn’t sure what to do about it. After I folded the next hand I pulled the tournament director aside and told him in private that we are suspecting Kabrhel and Zizka to be colluding. The tournament director immediately took my allegations very seriously and said he would pay very close attention to the action.
After another suspicious hand the tournament director stops play and announces that he will be allowed to check the holecards of all players. From this point onwards the atmosphere at the table took a turn for the worse as play would be stopped every couple of hands with Kabrhel aggressively yelling at other players and the tournament director.
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Hand #4:
5 left, Zizka has been playing incredibly tight up to this point
Zizka (~20bb) RFI CO 3.5x
AlexKP (covers) BTN fold
Marcus (covers) SB fold
Kabrhel (~10bb) defends
Flop 882dds (SPR 1)
X/X
Turn Ks
Kabrhel ~B25, Zizka C
River 4o
Kabrhel ~B25 (non AI), Zizka F
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Tournament director is asked to check Zizka’s hand. He has QJT4dd.
Preflop is super strange in my opinion because like I said before, Zizka is SUPER tight preflop typically. So this RFI is very out of the ordinary especially considering there are 2 covering stacks behind him, and a shortstack in the BB.
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Hand #5:
5 left (remember top 3 pays)
Zizka HJ (~20bb) limps (AlexKP, Marcus and Fabian all cover)
Kabrhel SB (4bb) ISO to 3.5x
Zizka Fold
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In my opinion, this is an egregious example of chipdumping. Up to that point they had received multiple warnings from the tourney directors but they have probably learned that there is nothing that can be done in these situations. They can always claim that this is simply their strategy.
After the tournament ended with Fabian, Marcus, and Alex taking a deal after many hours of stressful and intense poker all the organizers and tournament directors from the Diamond poker tour talked with the players and were apologetic for what had just occurred. They assured us that both Kabrhel and Zizka will be refused to participate in any future Diamond events.
Given the situation we are happy with how it was handled by the Diamond Poker staff. We understand that they very much have their hands tied in situations like these and can’t just remove the players from the tournament, no matter how blatant the collusion might seem from a players perspective. So don’t take this post as any critique towards them or their tournament series.
After the tournament another player who was at the table with both Zizka and Kabrhel in the 10k tournament said that he also remembers a couple multiway hands where he was sandwiched between the two where there was also a lot of minbetting and check folding at very low SPRs. Mind you these hands in the 10k occurred quite far away from making the money still.
Upon discussing this matter with others it has also come to light that Kabrhel and Zizka were playing the same way in a small field NL tournament in Austria with 5 left and 3 paid. It is therefore unlikely to be the first, nor last time this happened in my opinion.
Kabrhel and Zizka were also seen playing the same cash game table at Kings Casino a week before the diamond MTT series.
I write this post to inform everyone of the facts that occurred at the 25k tournament and to share my personal opinion. Going forward I will personally never play a small field tournament again if either of these players is around. And certainly I will also not be playing a cash game with them.
lol
In my opinion none of the hands provide clear evidence of collusion. Some examples include multiway spots where chip dumping wouldn't make sense and the arguments for dumping in heads up pots includes one of them folding to a small bet where their bet sizing is irrelevant (why would they purposefully use sizings to make it look more suspicious?).
Not saying there wasn't collusion or that there isn't reason to suspect it (I would also not play in a similar tournament again), but I don't think anything in the post warrants public accusations.
In my opinion none of the hands provide clear evidence of collusion. Some examples include multiway spots where chip dumping wouldn't make sense and the arguments for dumping in heads up pots includes one of them folding to a small bet where their bet sizing is irrelevant (why would they purposefully use sizings to make it look more suspicious?). Not saying there wasn't collusi
You wouldn't play in a similar tournament but yet feel a public warning isn't a good thing? Seems a bit contradictory, I'd agree there's no smoking gun and maybe it should be worded differently but seems worth the post.
Kahbrel has the history of antics and suspicious play too.
You wouldn't play in a similar tournament but yet feel a public warning isn't a good thing Seems a bit contradictory, I'd agree there's no smoking gun and maybe it should be worded differently but seems worth the post.
Kahbrel has the history of antics and suspicious play too.
There is a big gap between the level of evidence that would make me uncomfortable playing a game compared to publically insinuate someone is cheating.
It’s insane that a tournament paying 4 places would only have 6 players left at the end of registration. This extreme super late registration is just asking for collusion, if not during the tournament then in how players choose to enter the tournament. This seems like a much biggest issue than anything one particular player did.
Any organizer that chooses to let a player like kabrhel enter is the reason tournament poker is dying. It is the responsibility of organizers to provide a fair playing field for participants. They fail consistently and wonder why recs have fled tournament poker at higher stakes
Kabrhel and Zizka were also seen playing the same cash game table at Kings Casino a week before the diamond MTT series.
Small correction on this: it wasn't a week before the diamond series, but about a month.
You wouldn't play in a similar tournament but yet feel a public warning isn't a good thing Seems a bit contradictory, I'd agree there's no smoking gun and maybe it should be worded differently but seems worth the post.
Kahbrel has the history of antics and suspicious play too.
Think its not contradictory at all. Playing a 25k SNG without any sort of stream / access to hole cards for staff is way more risky than i.e sitting down and playing a 25k buy in cash game. In a cash game you can just stand up and leave if you see something fishy without taking a loss.
Any organizer that chooses to let a player like kabrhel enter is the reason tournament poker is dying. It is the responsibility of organizers to provide a fair playing field for participants. They fail consistently and wonder why recs have fled tournament poker at higher stakes
While I hate tournaments tournament poker isn't dying.
Yea high stakes have super small fields and it's bc almost everyone who plays them is absolute torture to play with. And then to top it off tons of people in these small field events have swaps,share backers etc. the entire thing is a joke.They have far bigger issues than Kabrel.
There are still people who dump 6 figures in cash sessions, bet 6 figures on a hand of BJ etc that want nothing to do with the snooze fest that are high stakes tournaments.
You wouldn't play in a similar tournament but yet feel a public warning isn't a good thing Seems a bit contradictory, I'd agree there's no smoking gun and maybe it should be worded differently but seems worth the post.Kahbrel has the history of antics and suspicious play too.
Think its not contradictory at all. Playing a 25k SNG without any sort of stream / access to hole cards
I'm talking about the public warning being contradictory. (He said he wouldn't play with Kahbrel after reading this but said he shouldn't post this despite that)
Obviously a shorthanded Omaha tourney is one of the most dangerous situations for collusion. I'm quite confused where you thought I was comparing a tourney vs cash.
these arent suspicious hands this is making the most of an atrocious structure that has multiple sub10bb stacks in a 25k trying not to just have the cards on their backs determining the entire tournament
Just posting to say Martin is a beast and we need to see him more. All the euro/latam collusion rings have their jimmies perma rustled by him. Fk off OP.
While I hate tournaments tournament poker isn't dying.Yea high stakes have super small fields and it's bc almost everyone who plays them is absolute torture to play with. And then to top it off tons of people in these small field events have swaps,share backers etc. the entire thing is a joke.They have far bigger issues than Kabrel.There are still people who dump 6 figures in c
I was referring to HS tournaments. Triton does a good job of regulating non desirables but it’s run by players who are familiar to the HS landscape. Other than that no one really wants to play HS tournaments anymore it’s a bunch of vultures and people no one would play with unless they were forced to in a tournament setting.
Zizka has 1 cash at the WSOP. It was in last years tag team event. I will let you guys guess who his partner was.
these hands are not THAT suspicious in the vacuum, but with Kabrhel's extremely shady history it obviously looks very bad
plus, all the recs absolutely hate him, I play cash with this older married couple who are regulars at Rozvadov and they say playing with Kabhrel is miserable, not only is he super annoying and slows down the action, he apparently also never showers
Or cuts his fingernails
haha. I think the point is, they have a relationship, so, it's already sketch when they're buying in together to very short-handed tournaments, and even more sketch when the big stack tag partner is feeding the short stack one like this
From what I have heard Zizka is staked by Kabrhel
I do not know PLO well but some of the hands feel fishy.
That was my original thought, and then a few of the early replies made it seem as if this wasn't close to fishy. But, I am not well versed in PLO.
