Bulgarian player Milen Stefanov won the latest high-profile WPT Main Event, taking down the Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Florida. In doing so, Stefanov won four times his entire career winnings at the live felt, making it by far his best ever result playing poker.
With the $3.1 million prize-pool whittled down to the largest chunk of it, the six players who gathered at the final table had fairly shallow stacks, with Stefanov leading the way on just 45 big blinds.
That led to some fast action early on, with Francis Anderson all-in twice in the opening orbit. The first time, he got it through, but on the second occasion, Anderson’s luck ran out as he couldn’t win with king-queen against Stefanov’s pocket sevens. As fate would have it, Anderson was teased by a queen arriving on the turn, only for a seven to land on the river to slam what had looked to be an open door back into the action right in his face.
Next to depart was Cesar Fuentes, whose all-in move with queen-ten off-suit was looked up by Stefanovs with ace-king of clubs, and an ace on the flop did the unnecessary final damage to Fuentes. It was Roman Korenev who would follow the Venezuelan out of the room, as he too was all-in with queen-ten, albeit suited this time. Stefanovs again played Grim Reaper and had no problem at all calling it off with pocket aces to slay a third final table victim.
A gutsy yet incorrect call with third pair and a king kicker saw David Novosel become Milen Stefanov’s fourth victim at the final table, Stefanov’s river-shove with a full house of tens over jacks brilliantly disguised by the overbet.
Despite both men having their moments heads-up, Germany’s Fabian Gumz found himself with a stack that was more than trebled by his opponent Steanov, and when the Bulgarian chip leader shoved with ace-deuce, Gumz made the call with an off-suit queen-eight.
An ace on the flop made it difficult for Gumz to have any chance of the win, but the turn of a queen meant that he would double back into contention with another queen or an eight on the river to survive. Instead, the ten of diamonds landed on 5th Street to give Milen Stefanov the victory and a night he will never forget.
WPT Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open final table results:
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1st | Milen Stefanov | Bulgaria | $545,070* |
| 2nd | Fabian Gumz | Germany | $353,380 |
| 3rd | David Novosel | U.S.A. | $260,845 |
| 4th | Roman Korenev | Russia | $194,605 |
| 5th | Cesar Fuentes | Venezuela | $146,760 |
| 6th | Francis Anderson | U.S.A. | $111,895 |
*plus WPT 2020 Tournament of Champions entry
