Lee Davy provides an update on the biggest buy-in event of the year: the $500,000 Super High Roller Bowl at the Aria Resort & Casino, as Day 1 comes to a close.
The most expensive buy-in of the year has begun, and with it launches the meat that will be piped into the Poker Central pastry. The $500,000 Super High Roller Bowl has kicked off in style, and David Peters leads the way, at the end of Day 1, with 2.1m chips.
It was envisaged that the event would attract 50 players. It was advertised as a $25m prize pool, with an expected first prize of $8.2m. The forecast wasn’t that far out of alignment. 43 players entered to create a $21.5m prize pool and $7.5m awaits the winner, making it the biggest tournament of the year, with only the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event having any chance of topping it.
Here is a quick fire run down of all the Day 1 action courtesy of live reporting from PokerNews.
For many years these high roller tournaments have attracted more Germans than a set of poolside loungers without any towels. This one was no different, but they didn’t get off to the best start. Fabian Quoss was the first player to be eliminated after Brandon Steven got lucky on a board of [Qd] [3d] [2s]. The money went in with Quoss holding pocket aces, and Steven holding [Kh] [Qh]. A second king hit the turn hard, and Quoss vanished.
Tobias Reinkemeier would soon follow. Brian Rast took a chunk out of his stack to become the first player to peek over a million chips, and then Sam Trickett finished things off in a AA v QQ cooler.
Antonio Esfandiari eliminated Dan Smith when his open ender got there against Smith’s pair of Kings, Doug Polk was eliminated by David Peters AJ<77 all-in pre, and Max Altergott moved up the ranks coolering Christoph Vogelsang AA v KK. Vogelsang would double back through Altergott before losing out to Steven 66<99.
Recent WSOP Poker Player’s Championship (PPC) runner-up Jean-Robert Bellande wasn’t happy with the speed at which Byron Kaverman made his moves. He made the entire set aware of his feelings of discontentment. His derision drew a few laughs, but it was Kaverman who laughed loudest when his pocket kings sent Bellande’s pocket queens quietly and slowly to the rail.
The coolers continued as Jason Les was eliminated by Timofey Kuznetsov set over set, and the dangerous Fedor Holz was ousted by Scott Seiver after his [Ks] [Ts] rivered a flush against the former WCOOP Main Event winner’s pocket jacks.
Isaac Haxton’s tournament ended when his pocket three’s couldn’t win a flip against the ace-king of Connor Drinan, Jason Mercier was eliminated by Ben Lamb QQ<KK, Ole Schemion was eliminated by Dong Kim AJ<77, and Kaverman was given his marching orders after his KQdd could out flop the pocket three’s of Drinan.
Phil Ivey was playing his second tournament of the summer. It ended as badly as the first. Ivey limping out of the contest in the following hand against Scott Seiver.
Seiver opened to 25k from the HJ and Ivey called in the CO. The flop was [Ad] [Jd] [4s], Seiver bet 30k and Ivey called. The turn was [Kc], Seiver bet 65k and Ivey called. The river was the [7d], Seiver put him all-in and Ivey called. Seiver showed [Ac] [Js] and Ivey mucked.
Esfandiari soon followed when his deuces couldn’t over turn the odds against the aces of Ben Sulsky, John Morgan hated to see the jack on the flop when his pocket fives were all-in against the ace-jack of Daniel Negreanu, and Cary Katz was eliminated after his T7dd failed to find the right combination of cards necessary to beat the pocket kings of Sulsky.
27 players survived the reg-heavy field.
Here are the top chip counts and payouts.
Top 10 Chip Counts
1st. David Peters – 2,153,000
2nd. Scott Seiver – 2,008,000
3rd. Connor Drinan – 1,875,000
4th. Bill Klein – 1,170,000
5th. Andre Robl – 1,154,000
6th. Dong Kim – 1,060,000
7th. Max Altergott – 968,000
8th. David Sands – 940,000
9th. Dan Colman – 851,000
10th. Ben Lamb – 846,000
Payouts
1st. $7,525,000
2nd. $5,160,000
3rd. $3,225,000
4th. $2,150,000
5th. $1,505,000
6th. $1,075,000
7th. $860,000
Legends of the game: Daniel Negreanu (839,000), Erik Seidel (546,000) and Bobby Baldwin (485,000) are still in contention.
