Andrew ‘Luckychewy’ Lichtenberger wins the second $25,000 High Roller of the summer at The Aria, and Maria Ho leaves the Heartland Poker Tour for a fresh project called Poker Night: The Tour.
Andrew ‘Luckychewy’ Lichtenberger likes Las Vegas. It’s where he lays his hat, but more importantly, it’s where he makes most of his money.
Lichtenberger has taken down the second Aria $25,000 High Roller of the summer, after beating Erik Seidel in heads-up action, pocketing $398,160 in the process.
It’s the fourth big Vegas win for Lichtenberger in the past 12-months. It started with a third place finish in a $5,000 buy-in Six Handed No Limit Hold’em (NLHE) event at the 2014 WSOP for $242,827, it got even better after he finished second in the $50,000 NLHE Aria High Roller in Nov for $422,968, and went supernova after picking up $1,770,692 for winning the World Poker Tour (WPT) Alpha8 at The Bellagio, in Dec.
The event attracted over 40-entrants. The previous night’s winner Max Silver was not one of them. A lack of sleep steering the Brit away from the $25k, and into the more reasonable $565 Colossus.
The heads-up between Lichtenberger and Seidel would last 90-minutes after Lichtenberger sent Justin Bonomo to the rail in third spot. According to The Poker Telegraph a deal took place at 7am in the morning, with Lichtenberger taking $360,090, Seidel taking $354,000, and $38,160 left to play for.
At 8:18am the match ended.
Seidel shoved the button holding [Qc] [8c], and Lichtenberger called holding [Ks] [Jc]. The [Qd] [Td] [5c] flop gave Seidel the lead, but an ace on the river gave Lichtenberger the straight, and the victory.
That takes his total live tournament earnings to $6.2m. Seidel was coming off the back of his $2,222,222 win at the European Poker Tour (EPT) Grand Final in Monte Carlo. He now has over $24m in live tournament earnings, inching slightly closer to Antonio Esfandiari’s $26m and change.
Final Table Results
1st. Andrew Lichtenberger – $398,160
2nd. Erik Seidel – $354,000
3rd. Justin Bonomo – $176,400
4th. Dan Smith – $105,840
5th. Richard Lyndaker – $58,800
6th. Brian Rast – $47,040
7th. Paul Volpe – $35,280
Maria Ho Leaves The Heartland Poker Tour for Pastures New
On Monday morning Maria Ho tweeted that she would no longer be working alongside the Heartland Poker Tour.
After two years as co-host/commentator for the HPT, I have decided to move on. I’m grateful for the experience and wish them all the best.
— Maria Ho (@MariaHo) June 1, 2015
The two time WSOP Main Event Last Woman Standing has left to take on a new challenge, working alongside David Tuchman, in a new show called Poker Night: The Tour.
The show will be produced by Dustin Iannotti, the former Director of Content and Pro Marketing for Ultimate Poker, and will focus on the lives of the professional poker players once the chips are bagged and tagged.
Ho told BLUFF magazine that she couldn’t wait to get started on her show. “The way most poker players live their lives off the felt still fascinates me.” Ho told BLUFF. “We need a show that focuses on bringing these characters and stories to life while the cameras are rolling.”
The first season will begin filming in August at the Empire State Hold’em Championships at Turning Stone in Verona.
