This week’s Super High Roller Bowl tournament attracted some of the finest poker talent on earth to Macau, generating a huge prize pool of just over HK$145,000,000 (approx. US$18.5 million) with its HK$2.1 million (approx. US$270,000) buy in. Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius were in attendance along with the usual array of High Roller regulars.
Isaac Haxton looked like an early contender after bagging up a strong chiplead after day 1. In the end though, he could only manage 8th place, just missing out on the final table of 7 players. Antonius did not miss out however and was a serious force throughout the final table.
Fedor Holz fires a massive 7 bullets, in for US$1.87 million
Germany had a strong showing in this event, as we have come to expect in Super High Rollers, but their star man, Fedor Holz had an uncharacteristically difficult time of it. The German pro may have one of the most gigantic bankrolls in the world, but even so, he would have been stung by the astonishing 7 rebuys he made during this event – without even cashing at the end of it all.
Spoiler: I’m currently playing the biggest poker tournament of all times, with a buyin of 12,000,000HKD.
— Fedor Holz (@CrownUpGuy) March 21, 2018
You could certainly say that Dominik Nitsche and Rainer Kempe had a better day at the office, but ultimately neither could lift the title, as they fell in 4th and 3rd respectively.
Justin Bonomo claims the title
Despite these two stellar High Roller specialists falling away, the tournament had lost none of its appeal for those who loved watching star names play, with Patrik Antonius and Justin Bonomo squaring off for the money. After gaining the upper hand in the match, Bonomo managed to flop a flush and see Antonius complete a straight in order to relieve the Fin of all his chips and take the title. Bonomo picked up a career best score of US$4.8 million, moving up to 6th on poker’s all-time money list, while Antonius adds US$3.1 million to his already profitable year.
The final payouts for the event are as follows:
1 – Justin Bonomo, HK$37,830,000 (US$4,820,000)
2 – Patrik Antonius, HK$24,735,000 (US$3,152,000)
3 – Rainer Kempe, HK$16,005,000 (US$2,039,000)
4 – Dominik Nitsche, HK$13,095,000 (US$1,668,000)
5 – David Peters, HK$11,640,000 (US$1,483,000)
6 – Stephen Chidwick, HK$10,185,000 (US$1,297,000)
7 – Bryn Kenney, HK$8,730,000 (US$1,112,000)
Article by Craig Bradshaw
