German Poker Pro Wins Cyprus High Roller Event

It’s been a good August for Perica Bukara, who beat the high rollers in Cyprus.

Serbian-born poker player Perica Bukara had the chance to grab his biggest live tournament cash a week ago when he was one of the early chip leaders at EPT Tallinn in Estonia. Bukara’s dreams of riches came to a halt when he busted from that tournament in 14th place, but he made another early run count by winning the $25,000 Merit Cyprus Classic High Roller event last night.

Bukara entered the final table of the 36-player high roller tournament with the chip lead against a table full of formidable opponents, including Carter Phillips, Jon Turner and November Niner John Dolan. He extended that lead by taking out former pro soccer player Sam Trickett on the money bubble with a higher straight than Trickett’s and then knocking out David Benyamine with Q-Q against J-J. Bukara was behind Ori Miller when heads-up play began, but he managed to overtake him and then finish him off with K-5 against A-J on the final hand.

The $373,207 first-place prize is easily the biggest score of Bukara’s career, and it’s also his third live tournament cash in August. He finished sixth in the Unibet Open in Prague at the beginning of the month before booking his 14th-place finish at EPT Tallinn. All told, the Germany-based poker pro now has $459,447 in career earnings.