Super High Roller kicks off summer of poker in Vegas 49 players converged at the Aria for this mammoth Super High Roller, with a good mixture of wealthy hopefuls and big name pros. Many of the players will have seen this event as a warm up for the WSOP trials ahead, with Erik Seidel, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Fedor Holz, Daniel Colman and Jason Mercier all in attendance. The USD$300,000 buy in for each player all went into the prize pool with no entrance fee being taken. The tournament even had an extra USD$300,000 added to the prize pool, which reached $15,000,000.
Players fall and final is table assembled
Antonion Esfandiari was the first to hit the rail, with Ike Haxton, Scott Seiver and several other joining him on day 1. Among the top stacks after the first day were Jason Mercier, Phil Galfond, Daniel Negreanu, Fedor Holz, and Daniel Colman. By the time day 2 had also wrapped up Timofey Kuznetsov had gone from chip leader to spectator on the rail, and Matt Berkey had taken the lead. Seidel, Mercier, Hellmuth and Holz all had top ten stacks. Final table As the action ceased at the end of day 3, only 7 were left standing. German pro Rainer Kempe who had been quietly sitting in the middle of the counts on days 1 and 2 had burst into the chip lead by the time the final table was set. He held 5,545,000 chips, with his nearest challenger being Fedor Holz with just 2,190,000. Hellmuth and Seidel will have been pleased to reach the final table, even as short stacks, and they will be very glad of their eventual finishing positions of 4th and 3rd considering that fact.
Heads Up Play
The heads up battle was an all German one, as the two biggest stacks at the start did a very professional job to be the final two left in contention. Kempe enjoyed a near 2 to 1 chip lead when heads up play began, and Holz could do little to stop him from going on to claim the title. Rainer Kempe walks away with USD$5,000,000 for 1st place, and puts his name very much on the map as far as High Rollers are concerned.
Reiner Kempe & Feder Holz (Photo Joe Giron)
The final payouts are as follows:
– 1st Rainer Kempe – USD$5,000,000
– 2nd Fedor Holz – USD$3,500,000
– 3rd Erik Seidel – USD$2,400,000
– 4th Phil Hellmuth – USD$1,600,000
– 5th Matt Berkey – USD$1,100,000
– 6th Bryn Kenney – USD$800,000
– 7th Dan Shak – USD$600,000
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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