In this week’s Calling the Clock we bring you up to speed on all the news from the Super High Roller Bowl and World Series of Poker, a variety of different promotions from the world of online poker and much more.
It’s not often that the World Series of Poker (WSOP) gets pushed to one side, but the Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB) has managed to do that this week.
The $300,000 buy-in event is an orphan amidst some pretty important families, but in only three years it has become the most significant high stakes poker tournament in the world.
It was the perfect way to launch Poker Central’s PokerGO subscription service, thanks in part to the inclusion of Kevin Hart. The American comedian eliminated Phil Hellmuth and Fedor Holz and kept the audience entertained until he eventually busted on Day 2 at the hands of Brian Rast.
The final day was much like last year with a single American squaring off against two German superstars, and once again the title ended back in the land of Vorsprung Durch Technik after Christoph Vogelsang overcame Jake Schindler in heads-up action to take the $6m first prize and win his first live title.
SHRB Results
- Christoph Vogelsang – $6,000,000
- Jake Schindler – $3,600,000
- Stefan Schillhabel – $2,400,000
- Leon Tsoukernik – $1,800,000
- Byron Kaverman – $1,400,000
- Pratyush Buddiga – $1,000,000
- Justin Bonomo – $600,000
The SHRB organisers took care of their players laying on a feast of Aria High Roller events either side of the main attraction. Justin Bonomo banked $900,000 after winning the $10,000 and $50,000 events; Tony G earned $353k in the $25k and donated the lot to charity. And three players etched seven-figure scores into the Hendon Mob database in the $100k with Christian Christner winning $1.4m, Steffen Sontheimer $1.2m, and Ben Tollerene taking $1m.
Then, as players busted out of the $300k the Aria held two more $50k events, and that man Fedor Holz banked nearly $800k winning them both back-to-back. Holz has been a busy man this week after launching his new audio app Primed Mind.
The World Series of Poker Begins; Hollis Wins First Bracelet; Negreanu Getting Close
The 48th Annual World Series of Poker (WSOP) has begun in their usual fashion with the $565 buy-in Casino Employee event. Entry numbers were the lowest seen since 2004, but the winner Bryan Hollis didn’t give two hoots about that. Hollis beat the former WSOP final tablist Chris Solomon in heads-up action to take the $68,817 first prize and first bracelet of the summer.
And Daniel Negreanu is getting close to filling one of those three bracelets stands he purchased ahead of his vision of coming away from this year’s festival as a thrice winner.
Team Negreanu (Negreanu, Eric Wasserson, David Benyamine, Mark Gregorich), currently has a 1.8m v 1.1m lead over Team Boeree/Kurganov with six teams remaining in contention for the first open event of the year: the $10,000 Tag Team Championship.
The other teams in the hunt for the bracelet are Anthony Ajlouny/David Fong/Mike McClain, Ankush Mandavia/Joe Kuether, Martin Jacobson/Mark Radoja, and Javier Gomez/Lander Lijo.
Last year’s $1,000 Tag Team Champions Doug Polk and Ryan Fee were the overnight chip leaders but failed to make the money.
There is $273,964 up top.
The WPT Deepstacks Expands Global Reach
Moving from one American live tournament giant to another and the World Poker Tour (WPT) showed their impressive malleability by announcing plans to host more WPTDeepstack Events in Europe and Africa.
The WPT added five more stops to the 2017 schedule including visits to Portugal, Belgium, Marrakesh, Deauville, and a return to Amsterdam. To deepen their roots, they have also created a WPTDeepstacks European Player of the Year award with the winner picking up €20,000 in live tournament packages and a shiny new trophy.
888Poker Fast BLAST; Partypoker Diamond Club; Unibet Copenhagen; PokerStars Sochi
On the online poker front, 888Poker launched a new version of their successful BLAST poker format. Fast BLAST games only last two minutes, at which time players are forced to move all-in every hand until a winner emerges from the madness. As part of the promotion, you can win a $10,000 WSOP Main Event seat for playing in $10 buy-in Fast BLAST game.
Sticking with the 888Poker theme and this week we published interviews with Dominik Nitsche, Patrik Antonius, Michael Mizrachi, Bruno Kawauti, and Ema Zajmovic all of which were carried out during 888Live Barcelona.
Partypoker launched the Diamond Club VIP program this week. The brain behind the idea is partypoker ambassador Patrick Leonard, and I managed to grab a few words with the former PocketFives World #1 to learn more about it.
The new VIP club is by invite only and players have to earn $100,000 per year to receive 50% Rakeback amongst a host of other great bonuses. You can catch up on the interview right here.
PokerStars first visit to Sochi ended this week with victory in the PokerStars Championship Sochi by Pavel Shirshikov. The Russian defeated Vladimir Troyanovskiy in heads-up action to take the $514,893 first prize, Troyanovski picked up $326,453. Other players to run deep included Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier (13th), Chris Moneymaker (15th), and partypoker MILLION Sochi winner Dmitry Chop (18th).
The Unibet Copenhagen finished in time for Tournament Director Kenny Hallaert to pack his bags, fly to Vegas, and compete in the WSOP Casino Employee event. Kaarel Lepik defeated a field of 404 entrants to win the $84,527 first prize.
And we end with the news that India successfully hosted their first-ever Poker Sports League. The victors were the Delhi Panthers who topped the leaderboard to win the $225,000 first prize. The league featured luminaries like Sam Razavi, Patrick Leonard, and Jordan ‘JWProdigy’ Westmorland.
Time Ladies and Gentlemen,
Someone has just called the clock.
