Daniel Strelitz prevents Mike Sexton from winning a second World Poker Tour event with victory at the LA Poker Classic, and Dan Colman, Jake Schindler, and Rainer Kempe pick up wins in the ARIA High Roller series.
The poker heater bug has bitten Mike Sexton. The World Poker Tour (WPT) commentator and member of the Poker Hall of Fame finished fourth in the $10,000 buy-in WPT LA Poker Classic this past weekend.
Sexton, who won the C$3,850 buy-in WPT Montreal for $317,817 in November, earned $300,690 for his efforts and is now the primary challenger behind Benjamin Zamani in the race to be crowned the Season XV Player of the Year. Sexton trails Zamani by 500 points with plenty of events left until the season draws to a close.
Daniel Strelitz was the eventual winner. The former WPT Ones to Watch beat the World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner, Simeon Naydenov, in heads-up action to take the $1m first prize.
Final Table Results
1. Daniel Strelitz – $1,001,110
2. Simeon Naydenov – $672,190
3. Jared Griener – $431,340
4. Mike Sexton – $300,690
5. Jesse Martin – $230,380
6. Richard Tuhrim – $191,490.
Other notables to make deep runs include Matt Berkey (7th), Joe Serock (8th), and Dzmitry Urbanovich (11th).
The event attracted 521 entrants.
Next up is the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Stars.
Aria High Roller Round Up
Dan Colman continues to run hotter than a gas mask wearing welder in Burning Man after taking down a $25,000 High Roller at the ARIA. The former One Drop winner defeated a field of 31 entrants to take the $342,240 first prize after beating Adrian Mateos in heads-up action. The Global Poker Index (GPI) Player of the Year, David Peters, finished third; current 2017 GPI Player of the Year leader, Bryn Kenney, finished fourth, and Erik Seidel crept closer to Daniel Negreanu at the top of the All-Time Live Tournament Money Earners list with a fifth place finish.
Colman has now won close to $2m in live tournaments in the first two months of the year including over a million earned in the PokerStars Championships in the Bahamas, and a victory in a Six-Max event at the Triton Super Series in Manila for close to half a million bucks.
Colman’s victory came in one of two $25k buy-in High Rollers in the ARIA. Jake Schindler defeated a field of 33 entrants to win the top prize of $364,320 in the other one. Kenney finished third, and Seidel once again cashed finishing fourth. It was the fourth time Schindler had won a $25k buy-in event at the ARIA.
But the biggest Lollapalooza was reserved for the Super High Roller Bowl champion, Rainer Kempe. The German star topped a field of 24 entrants in the $50,000 buy-in Super High Roller event beating Jan-Eric Schwippert in heads-up action to take the $576,000 first prize. Sean Winter came in third, and Cary Katz was fourth.
