Have you ever wondered how you win a one million euro/dollar/sterling/gold/brass buttons, slot machine jackpot?
One way I don’t recommend, is to play for €1k per spin.
That’s the Leon Tsoukernik way, and like a Cassowaries, in a cockfight, the King’s Resort owner has just reaped the big rewards.
Tsoukernik was at the Casino Seefeld in Austria during the CAPT Seefeld Festival. According to reports, the casino owner, and high stakes star, busted from the €5,400 No Limit-Hold’em High Roller and won the €1,372,500 jackpot while blowing off steam on the €1,000 per spin Novostar II slot machine.
Putting his slots win into perspective, it’s higher than 15 of this 16 live tournament results. Only his 4/56 finish in the 2017 Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB) in Las Vegas for $1.8m puts it into the shade.
Who knows why Tsoukernik was in town.
Business?
High stakes cash games?
Nostalgia?
In 2011, Tsoukernik finished runner-up to Willi Fuhrer in the €2,000 NLHE Main Event at the CAPT Innsbruck, and in 2018, he won a €25,750 NLHE event, beating Manig Loeser, heads-up, for the €370,000 first prize.
CAPT Seefeld runs from 9-19 Jan, with a €2,160 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) Main Event.
Prague Business
In November, Tsoukernik gave an interview to PokerStars after purchasing the Casino Atrium at the Hilton Hotel in Prague where he said the previous owners were too focused on ‘slot revenue, rather than live cash poker revenue.’
Ironic.
Tsoukernik acquired the Prague casino because he had ‘nothing to do’ while there with his family. He bought it ahead of the European Poker Tour (EPT) Prague and got involved in operations immediately.
Tsoukernik has big plans for the casino, aiming to make it as mighty as the King’s Resort in Rozvadov, but it seems like PokerStars are not part of those plans. The online poker giant recently announced 21 live events for 2020, and EPT Prague is not one of them.
Only 3 of the 21 events are EPT events, incredible considering how this live tournament series once held the industry by the scruff of its neck. Prague has been an ever-present on the EPT schedule since Arnaud Mattern won the Main Event in Season 4 (2007). Other stars who have made a name for themselves in the Czech capital include Roberto Romanello (Season 7), Martin Finger (Season 8), Hossein Ensan (Season 12).
And it’s not as if EPT Prague struggled for numbers.
In 2019, Mikalai Pobal beat 1154 entrants to win the €1,005,600 first prize, becoming only the second player to win two EPT Main Events after Victoria Coren-Mitchell.
EPT Prague also has a place in Tsoukernik’s heart. The casino owner beat Charlie Carrel, heads-up, to win the €50,000 NLHE High Roller in Season 6 for €741,100, only the second win of his career at the time.