Sam Soverel wins British Poker Open Championship

After 10 events produced nine different winners, it was Sam Soverel who won the British Poker Open, claiming £788,700 across five cashes in events featuring some of the best tournament poker players in the world.

Soverel’s record in the events he played was, to be frank, outrageous. He finished third in Event #7, the £25,000-entry Pot Limit Omaha, was runner-up in Events #2 and #3 (£10,000-entry events in both PLO and NHLE) and won Events #5 and  #8, both of which were £25,000-entry NLHE tournaments.

With five cashes, Soverel scored an incredible 780 points, which was 360 more than the eventual runner-up in the British Poker Open, Stephen Chidwick, who ended with 420 points and one title, the £25,000-entry PLO event that propelled him to the top of the current GPI Top 10.

Rounding out the Top Five players at the British Poker Open were Cary Katz, with three cashes, and Ben Tollerene and George Wolff. Katz made it to the unofficial final table of nine players on more occasions than anyone, and would eventually use that momentum to win the inaugural Super High Roller Bowl London for £2.1 million. But while George Wolff achieved his score with two heads-up appearances in PLO events, it is perhaps Ben Tollerene’s haul of £840,000 – more than Soverel himself – that is most impressive.

Ben Tollerene took down the £100,000-entry British Poker Open Main Event, beating Cary Katz to the title heads-up. But Tollerene came into the final day of action fourth of the remaining four players, off the back of a self-enforced eight-month break from poker. From soul-searching to a victory against all the odds, while having to clamber past players as tough as Mikita Badziakouski and Christoph Vogelsang on a draining final day that ran to 1am local time, Tollerene can be very proud of his performance.

It was Sam Soverel’s series, however, and the American got to take home the winner’s trophy and pose for those all-important photos, having reminded everyone who tuned into PokerGO just how special a player he really is.

British Poker Open Championship standings