Romania’s Marius Alexandru Gicovanu won the €350 Ola Poker Tour Main Event at King’s Resort in Rozvadov, Czech Republic, on Sept. 14, collecting €41,475 in cash plus a €3,000 King’s Million European Poker Championship package after a four-way deal at the final four.
Vikesh Shah of Great Britain was runner-up for €37,675 plus a package after losing heads-up. The event drew 724 total entries and generated a significant overlay against its €400,000 guarantee. In the festival’s Bounty High Roller, KKPoker Ambassador and poker.pro friend Jon Kyte of Norway claimed the title, adding another trophy to a career built across the biggest stages in European poker.
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Who Is Marius Alexandru Gicovanu?
Gicovanu is from Vâlcea, Romania, and has been a consistent presence on the European circuit for most of the past decade, with King’s Resort at the center of his results. He plays online under the alias AAlexandru Nec and has nearly $2.3 million across more than 200 cashes, according to The Hendon Mob, ranking him seventh on the Romania All-Time Money List.
His biggest career cash is $437,409, earned as runner-up in the €1,100 NLH National Championship at EPT Barcelona in August 2017. His two biggest wins before the Ola title were the Swiss Poker Open at King’s Resort in November 2023 for €111,350 and the EPO Mystery Bounty at King’s Resort in December 2024 for €115,350, the latter including a €10,350 WSOP Europe seat. At that EPO event, the runner-up took more in total because of a €100,000 top bounty, but Gicovanu had the trophy. He also won the €1,100 PLO Mystery Bounty at the Irish Open in March 2024 for €44,975, finished 10th in the Irish Open Main Event in April 2025 for €36,700, and cashed in the 2026 WSOP Main Event, finishing 316th for $45,000. He has cashed at King’s Resort more than anywhere else and now adds the Ola Main Event title to a resume largely built in Rozvadov. The Ola win is his largest first-place prize to date.
The Walsh Blow-Up
No player defined the Ola Poker Tour Main Event more completely than Ireland’s Ian Walsh, and no player suffered a more brutal final day. Walsh led the field after his starting flight. He led again after Day 2, carrying 7,355,000 chips into the 16-player final, comfortably clear of the Netherlands’ TFFT in second and Gicovanu in third. He was the clear favorite to win.
The final table changed everything. Walsh lost several large pots early and fell steadily back through the field, eventually left short against Vikesh Shah. A 3-bet shove with J♠7♥ missed, leaving him six big blinds. The final hand: Walsh’s K♠2♠ ran into Shah’s A♥Q♥. The K♦ on the turn gave Walsh a flicker, but the 6♥ on the river completed Shah’s flush. Walsh finished ninth for €9,150. The chip leader from two consecutive days, gone in ninth.
The DACH Run
Six German-speaking players reached the 16-player final, the strongest national contingent at the festival. Sascha Christian Frick came closest, fighting back from two big blinds before running pocket sixes into Umberan Akhtar’s queens to finish 10th for €6,785 total. Frank Michael Andreew went 11th when his sixes ran into TFFT’s A-K and the ace hit the river. Thomas Koehler finished 12th when a flopped set of eights cracked his pocket jacks. Bela landed 14th, Klas Klinker 15th and Alexander Fischl 16th.
The Four-Way Deal and the Final
With four players remaining, Gicovanu, Shah, Ori Ben Avraham and Umberan Akhtar agreed to a deal. The original first prize was €58,500 plus the €3,000 package. After the deal, Akhtar went fourth for €33,950 total and Ben Avraham third for €36,350 total, clearing the way for the heads-up.
Gicovanu held 24.8 million chips to Shah’s 11 million. Shah doubled once before the final hand ended it. Gicovanu called from the button with K♠Q♦; Shah checked with J♥8♥. The flop came K♥4♥5♦. Gicovanu bet, Shah raised to 3 million, Gicovanu moved all-in for 24 big blinds, and Shah called. The 8♣ on the turn gave Shah additional outs but the 10♠ on the river changed nothing. Top pair held, and the title went to Romania.
€350 buy-in | 724 entries (284 unique, 440 re-entries) | €336,000 prize pool
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1st |  Marius Alexandru Gicovanu | €44,475* |
| 2nd |  Vikesh Shah | €40,675* |
| 3rd |  Ori Ben Avraham | €36,350* |
| 4th | Umberan Akhtar | €33,950* |
| 5th |  TFFT | €19,150 |
| 6th |  Giuseppe Cangemi | €14,400 |
| 7th |  Kayser Soze | €11,700 |
| 8th |  Milan Manojlovic | €9,575 |
| 9th |  Ian Walsh | €9,150 |
*Four-way deal. Totals include cash plus King’s Million EPC packages where applicable.
Jon Kyte Wins the High Roller
Jon Kyte is a KKPoker Ambassador, a poker.pro friend and one of Norway’s finest tournament players. He relocated from Norway to Vienna several years ago after changes to Norwegian online poker laws made it difficult to grind from home, and has since built a career centered around the European circuit with results across EPT, WSOPC and Nordic events. His biggest live cash is $692,246, earned as runner-up in the EPT Prague Main Event, and his career earnings now sit above $2,155,521 across hundreds of cashes. His X bio describes him as “6X EPT, WSOPC and Nordic Champion.” There is already an interview with Kyte on poker.pro from his time representing the team at EPT Barcelona. He is not new to this site, and he is not new to Rozvadov.
At the Ola Poker Tour, he played the full week, including a Main Event starting flight, before directing his attention to the €700 Bounty High Roller. The event drew 75 entries (59 plus 16 re-entries) for a €50,000 guarantee, with 12 places paid, a €29,725 regular prize pool and €15,000 in total bounties in play. Kyte made the final table alongside three German players and ran through the field to reach heads-up against Poland’s Donat Norbert Dutkiewicz. He finished Dutkiewicz off to claim €8,374 from the main prize pool plus €2,000 in bounty rewards. Dutkiewicz took €5,175 plus bounties for second.
€700 buy-in | 75 entries (59 + 16 re-entries) | €29,725 prize pool + €15,000 bounty pool
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1st |  Jon Kristian Kyte | €8,374 |
| 2nd |  Donat Norbert Dutkiewicz | €5,175 |
| 3rd | Jiang Pu | €3,620 |
| 4th |  Dushko Bogoevski | €2,631 |
| 5th | Claudiu Descultu | €1,990 |
| 6th |  Honeybadger | €1,569 |
| 7th | Stefan Piechowiak | €1,291 |
| 8th | Uncle | €1,112 |
| 9th | Sven Johannson | €1,004 |
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- Photos and info courtesy of the Ola Poker Tour
- Article originally produced at poker.pro.
