As the world’s greatest poker players arrive in Las Vegas for a week of high-stakes poker action, we bring you a roundup of Day 1 of the Super High Roller Bowl and the rest of the Aria action.
The greatest players in the world are currently hiding in the Aria like bats fearing the sunset.
The reason?
If you spend most of the year competing in poker tournaments with buy-ins ranging from $25k to $1m, then right now it’s Christmas.
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event, once the dream of every professional poker player, may well have been replaced by the $300,000 buy-in Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB).
The opportunity to win $6m, with only 55 players standing in your way, seems a hell of a lot easier than having to navigate your way through close to 7,000.
To cater for the SHRB crowd the Aria laid on a feast of High Roller action, and here are the results.:
The first event was a $10,500 buy-in, and Justin Bonomo topped a field of 30-entrants to win the $138,000 first prize.
$10k Payouts
1. Justin Bonomo – $138,000
2. Adrian Mateos – $75,000
3. Fedor Holz – $42,000
4. Martin Kabrhel – $27,000
5. Rainer Kempe – $18,000
32-entrants created a $768,000 prize pool in the first $25,000 High Roller event and Tony G, fresh out of his European Parliament suit, took down the $353,280 first prize and donated the lot to charity. Like a camel, Kabhrel now had two lumps and not one after cashing in successive events.
$25k Payouts
1. Tony G – $353,280
2. Martin Kabrhel – $192,000
3. David Peters – $107,250
4. Jake Schindler – $69,120
5. Tom Marchese – $46,080
The $50,000 event attracted a whopping 56 entrants, and once again it was the pink-haired Bonomo taking down the tournament and banking the $779,50 first prize after chopping with a businessman who would prefer to remain anonymous. David Peters registered his second cash of the series, finishing in fourth.
$50k Payouts
1. Justin Bonomo – $779,520
2. Unknown – $779,520
3. Stephen Chidwick – $322,560
4. David Peters – $215,040
5. Christian Christner – $188,160
6. Brian Rast – $161,280
7. Nick Petrangelo – $134,000
8. Ben Tollerene – $107,520
The prelude to the $300,000 SHRB was the $100,000 Aria Super High Roller. 54 entrants created a total prize pool of $5.2m, and three players walked away with a million bucks plus in their back pocket, including Christian Christner who banked the most.
David Peters cashed in his third successive event, and Ben Tollerene cashed in his second.
$100k Payouts
1. Christian Christner – $1,454,720
2. Steffen Sontheimer – $1,223,264
3. Ben Tollerene – $1,026,416
4. David Peters – $423,360
5. Christoph Vogelsang – $370,440
6. Erik Seidel – $317,520
7. Adrian Mateos – $264,600
8. Daniel Negreanu – $211,680
Day 1 of the Super High Roller Bowl
The first day of the SHRB is in the books, and 12 people have fallen by the wayside.
Erik Seidel won’t be making it three SHRB cashes on the spin after his AT failed to beat the KK of Cary Katz when the New Yorker found himself short and only one move to make.
The opportunity for the SHRB to help reduce suffering in the world took a punch to the guts when John Juanda and Igor Kurganov fell by the wayside, and we also lost the world’s greatest player Phil Hellmuth.
Talk about hardships.
Firstly, Hellmuth lost a ton of chips in a 3-bet pot against Bonomo. Bonomo 3-betting with 86hh, and Hellmuth calling with pocket tens. Bonomo flopped the nuts, and Hellmuth flopped top set. The money went in on the turn, and the river card bricked for the man with white magic oozing out of his fingers.
“This fucking guy is going to fucking try to outplay me! The best player in the world!” Hellmuth muttered under his breath as he passed his chips to the dealer. “I am just going to re-raise Phil with 86, he’s going to flop top set, and I am going to flop a straight.”
Bonomo grinned.
He’s used to it.
The coolers didn’t stop there. Hellmuth eventually finding the door marked exit after losing, set over set versus the King Cobra Kevin Hart.
The debauchery begins again on Day 2 with Byron Kaverman leading the final 44 players.
Here are the Top 10 Chip Counts:
1. Byron Kaverman – 1,247,000
2. Leon Tsoukernik – 912,000
3. Fedor Holz – 803,000
4. Cary Katz – 677,000
5. Jake Schindler – 648,500
6. Justin Bonomo – 620,500
7. Jason Mercier – 605,000
8. Nick Petrangelo – 592,500
9. Andrew Lichtenberger – 585,000
10. Rainer Kempe – 517,000
Kevin Hart ended the day with 298,500, and the 2015 winner Brian Rast ended the day with 375,500.
