David Stamm has notched up a mark in the amateur win column by defeating Sam Soverel to take the $306,554 first prize, and title, in the $10,000 $1m GTD Venetian High Roller as part of the Venetian DeepStack Extravaganza III.
There was a time when I would repeatedly moan and groan about the professional poker playing brethren choosing to play poker at the Venetian. I have quickly realised I am facing a losing battle – like keeping the shower clear of pubic hair – and so here you go; a complaint free snippet from The Venetian DeepStack Extravaganza.
The Venetian Poker Room were smart to organise a $10,000 High Roller as part of their festivities, especially with so many players who eat these things up for breakfast, skirting around the perimeter hungry for action.
The final attendance figure rang in at 107 entrants, and it was a pretty impressive final table featuring heavyweights from all over the globe. Nine champions with Hendon Mob statistics heading into the millions, and yet the man who won isn’t even a professional poker player.
The professionals may have owned the World Series of Poker (WSOP) One Drop High Roller, and the Poker Central/Aria Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB), but it was time for the amateur to take a few bucks out of the poker economy for once in the Venetian’s first stab at a meaty high roller.
David Stamm is the CEO of a California-based software company, and when he began Day 2 flitting around the bottom of the chip counts searching for scraps, nobody thought he would end up searching for a comb as the camera guy prepared to take the winner’s photo.
Stamm entered the heads-up phase of the contest with a 1.9m vs. 3.3m chip disadvantage against Sam Soverel. The tale of the tape showed Soverel’s $4m in live tournament earnings squaring off against the $230,000 of Stamm.
But who cares about statistics?
This is poker; anyone can win, and David Stamm did.
The final hand saw Soverel calling an all-in from Stamm, on the turn, with the board showing AcQcQs9c. Soverel held Q5 for trips, but Stamm had made a flush with 84cc. The river bricked for Soverel, leaving Stamm with the headache of finding room in his travel bag for a new trophy.
The Venetian DeepStack Extravaganza III continues until July 23 where more than $23m will be doled out in prize money, hence the reason people take a seat and play.
Here is the full schedule.
Final Table Results
1. David Stamm – $306,554
2. Sam Soverel – $190,064
3. Paul Volpe – $133,862
4. Chris Hunichen – $97,076
5. Christian Christner – $71,530
6. Martin Kozlov – $53,136
7. David Peters – $42,918
8. Darren Elias – $34,743
9. Adrian Mateos – $27,950
