Despite the ongoing Coronavirus situation, international poker players have taken time in their schedules to compete in the first ever MILLIONS Super High Roller Series. The festival is currently taking place at Casino Sochi, Russia and is scheduled to occur from 6-15 March, 2020. Partypoker, in partnership with PokerGo and Triton Poker, is hosting a total of 9 events within the 10-day period with buy-ins ranging from $25k – $250k. Scheduled games will play in either the No Limit Hold’Em or the Short Deck format.
With more than half of the events already completed, we are yet to see more champions be crowned in the coming days, along with the most expensive organized tournament in the history of Russia, the Super High Roller Bowl Russia.
Paul Phua Earns Malaysia 3rd Trophy from Event #6: $100,000 No Limit Hold’em
Just today, Paul Phua came out triumphant in his fourth final table for the series. Phua bagged a huge $1,512,000 in cash prize adding to his over $16 million in live winnings. The Malaysian high roller returned as the shortest-stacked player among the last nine finalists and proved to be a tough opponent to beat. With 42 entries joining the tournament, the total prize pool reached a burly $4,200,000 to be distributed among the top six finishers.
The final table seemed demanding with the best international players battling it out on the felt. Phua claimed the trophy after making the right calls and correct bets against the strongest players in the industry. His heads up battle against Austrian national, Matthias Eibinger ended with the latter making an incorrect read with bottom pair against Phua’s flopped two pair. Eibinger saying “I don’t believe you” and prompted a call for all his chips on the river, still cashed a great profit of $1,008,000 for second place.
Full payouts indicated as follows
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1 | Paul Phua | Malaysia | $1,512,000 |
| 2 | Matthias Eibinger | Austria | $1,008,000 |
| 3 | Webster Lim | Malaysia | $672,000 |
| 4 | Adrian Mateos | Spain | $420,000 |
| 5 | Michael Addamo | Australia | $336,000 |
| 6 | Kahle Burns | Australia | $252,000 |
Wai Kin Yong wins Event #5: $50,000 Short Deck after defeating Ivey
The third short deck event for the series drew in a total of exactly 50 entries with Wai Kin Yong being the last player to jump in. This generated a nice prize pool of $2.5 million to be split among the top 8 players for the tournament with a hefty $800,000 along with the trophy for the top prize. A number of high profile international players joined the battle with names such as Phil Ivey, Paul Phua, Aaron Van Blarcum, Seth Davies, Cary Katz and so on.
The challenging player pool, however, did not faze Malaysian professional, Wai Kin Yong, son of the Triton Poker Series founder, Richard Yong, as he emerged victorious after a dramatic heads up battle with poker legend, Phil Ivey. Yong started the battle with a little less than half of Ivey’s chips bringing him to a disadvantage against his opponent.
With pressure from the blinds rising at 150k/300k, fortunes were eventually reversed when short-stacked Yong moved his whole 4,800,000 into the middle with jack-ten offsuit preflop and was easily called by Ivey’s pocket rockets. Unluckily for Ivey, the flop brought ten-ten-nine giving Yong trip tens with neither of the two Aces catching up on the board. Not long after, Yong eliminated the Tiger Woods of Poker as he turned a straight against Ivey’s top two pairs on the flop. With Wai Kin Yong running hot, Ivey was sent off the rails taking the runner up spot and a $525,000 paycheck.
Final payouts listed below:
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1 | Wai Kin Yong | Malaysia | $800,000 |
| 2 | Phil Ivey | United States | $525,000 |
| 3 | Sam Greenwood | Canada | $350,000 |
| 4 | Cary Katz | United States | $250,000 |
| 5 | Aaron Van Blarcum | United States | $200,000 |
| 6 | Mikhail Rudoy | Russia | $150,000 |
| 7 | Seth Davies | United States | $125,000 |
| 8 | Paul Phua | Malaysia | $100,000 |
Wai Leong Chan takes Down Event #3 for $457,500
Malaysian professional poker players have indeed been gracing the Asian poker circuits with their prowess bagging multiple wins against the toughest opponents. For Event #3, Malaysian national, Wai Leong Chan outlasted 61 total entries for the $25,000 Short Deck tournament which created a prize pool of $1,525,000. Having already started the week with a 5th place finish in the first iteration of this event type, Chan finally picked up his second partypoker LIVE MILLIONS trophy in this format and $457,500 in cash prize, bringing his recorded Total Live Earnings to over $12 million in winnings.
Wai Leong Chan entered his second Short Deck final table as chip leader, over a million chips clear of nearest rival Thai Ha. After four hours of play, all of them fell short except for Paul Phua who faced Chan for the title. Phua, who was fairly active throughout the final table, had a decent chance against the chip leader after knocking out half of his opponents in this crucial stage. The heads up battle lasted about an hour with Phua whittled to 3,000,000 with the big blind ante at 200,000. His chance of a double up came in when Chan raised him for all his chips preflop with king-ten and he took a stand with ace-jack. The king-high board, however, set him to accept second place once more, along with the accompanying $305,000 in prize money.
Final payouts are as follows:
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1 | Wai Leong Chan | Malaysia | $457,500 |
| 2 | Paul Phua | Malaysia | $305,000 |
| 3 | Thai Ha | Vietnam | $213,500 |
| 4 | Ivan Leow | Malaysia | $152,500 |
| 5 | Danny Tang | Hong Kong | $122,000 |
| 6 | Aaron Van Blarcum | United States | $91,500 |
| 7 | Dmitriy Kuzmin | Dominica | $76,250 |
| 8 | Sergey Lebedev | Russia | $61,000 |
| 9 | Sam Greenwood | Canada | $45,750 |
Others Winners
Event #1: $25,000 Short Deck – Jiang Xia He -$378,000
The first player to win a MILLIONS Super High Roller trophy was Jiang Xia He as he took down Event #1: $25,000 Short Deck and earned himself an additional $378,000 to his roll. The first event attracted a total field of 42 runners bringing the prize pool to the seven digit range. The final table did not last very long after a crucial hand against Wai Leong Chan, who limped with ace-king offsuit and found He putting on maximum pressure with king-jack offsuit – the chip leader’s 5 million all-in preflop vs. second-in-chips Chan’s 4 million. A rivered full house for He against Chan’s broadway on the turn brought a massive chip lead for the crowned champion who eliminated all his other opponents in less than half an hour.
Payouts
| Place | Name | Country | Prize |
| 1 | Xia He Jiang | Spain | $378,000 |
| 2 | John Cynn | USA | $252,000 |
| 3 | Aaron Van Blarcum | USA | $168,000 |
| 4 | Cary Katz | USA | $105,000 |
| 5 | Wai Leong Chan | Malaysia | $84,000 |
| 6 | Stephen Chidwick | UK | $63,300 |
Event #2 Sam Trickett – $435,000
British pro, Sam Trickett, claimed victory for Event #2 of the partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Super High Roller Series adding $435,000 to his already $21.3 million in career earnings. With only the top 9 players earning profit for this tournament, 58 entrants battled it out on the felt for a total prize pool of $1,450,000. Coming in to the final table, Malaysian high roller, Ivan Leow held half the chips in play bringing in maximum pressure to his opponents. Trickett, on the other hand, slowly ran up his chip stack as they headed on nose-to-nose in a heads up battle. Trickett’s aggression paid off after setting Leow in with ace-four offsuit against his opponent’s ace-queen of hearts. Unfortunately for Leow, four spades on the deck brought Trickett a flush, sending him $290,000 for the runner-up spot.
Full payouts below
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1 | Sam Trickett | United Kingdom | $435,000 |
| 2 | Ivan Leow | Malaysia | $290,000 |
| 3 | Matthias Eibinger | Austria | $203,000 |
| 4 | Adrian Mateos | Spain | $145,000 |
| 5 | Timothy Adams | Canada | $116,000 |
| 6 | Artur Martirosyan | Russia | $87,000 |
| 7 | Phil Ivey | United States | $72,500 |
| 8 | Paul Phua | Malaysia | $58,000 |
| 9 | Webster Lim | Malaysia | $43,500 |
Event #4 – Mikita Badziakouski – $765,000
With double the buy-in compared to the first three events of the series, Event #4 brought a bigger payout to Belarusian poker professional, Mikita Badziakouski. This event posted a $50,000 buy-in and 45 entries to create a prize pool of $2,250,000, the largest so far for the duration of the series. The star-studded final table did not stop Badziakouski from emerging victorious and collecting $765,000 in top prize. It seemed long enough as the heads up battle against Artur Martirosyan trickled to three levels of action only reaching an end as Badziakouski successfully rivered his flush against his opponent’s flopped trips. Martirosyan picked up $495,000 for his second place finish, in addition to the $87,000 he took for sixth place in Event #2: $25,000 No Limit Hold’em.
Payouts
| Place | Name | Country | Prize |
| 1 | Mikita Badziakouski | Belarus | $765,000 |
| 2 | Artur Martirosyan | Russia | $495,000 |
| 3 | Luc Greenwood | Canada | $337,500 |
| 4 | Aaron Van Blarcum | United States | $225,000 |
| 5 | Sam Greenwood | Canada | $180,000 |
| 6 | Cary Katz | United States | $135,000 |
| 7 | Wiktor Malinowski | Poland | $112,500 |
Louis Hartwell
Graduated in Media Communication at the University of Lausanne, Louis Hartman is a co-founder of somuchpoker.com. He began his career in Cambodia as freelance journalist. In same time he was making his living by playing poker every night at that time. Intense learner, he read dozens of poker strategy books to improve his skills during many years. With a strong interest about poker "behind the scene" in Asia and his communication skills, Louis launched Somuchpoker in 2014.
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