After PokerStars painted the plumbing of their Caribbean Adventure red, there were high hopes that Australia would become the epicentre of January’s high stakes poker stratum.
The Aussie Millions numbers were sound.
The Australian Poker Open (APO) was also pretty decent.
Not so, the inaugural Australian Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB), which was more worm than millipede after only 16-entrants coughed up the AUD 250,000 (USD 167,162) asking price.
One man not counting the number of legs was Timothy Adams. The Canadian whizzed through the field like a blur, defeating Kahle Burns in a three-hour heads-up battle to collect another major title, and a hayfield full of cash.
And Adams likes cash.
“Ultimately, my goal is just to win money and set myself up for my future,” Adams told the PokerGO crew after his win. “If you’re doing well on the All-Time Money List it might correlate to having more money. With big buy-ins, come big cashes, so a lot of that can be misleading. I’m happy to make as much as I can, and then at the same time move up leaderboards. My main focus is to make money.”
Well, he was focused, and he did make a lot of money, so let’s find out how?
The Nutshell Action
With the event only attracting 12-players, the deadly dozen changed the structure, with levels switching to 45-minutes, until the close of registration at the end of Level 10. After that, levels increased in length to 60-minutes, and play on Day 1 would end once the field reduced to five.
At the end of that first day, Seth Davies, Mikita Badziakouski, Orpen Kisacikoglu, Stephen Chidwick, Alex Foxen, Matthias Eibinger, and Michael Addamo flooded the rail, leaving this classy quintet to fight it out for the AUD 2,160,000 (USD 1,443,718) first prize.
Final Table Seat Draw
Seat 1: Elio Fox – 1,337,000
Seat 2: Timothy Adams – 793,000
Seat 3: Cary Katz – 356,000
Seat 4: Kahle Burns – 951,000
Seat 5: Aaron Van Blarcum – 568,000
Fox began with the chip lead, but it soon disintegrated as Play-Doh does when you leave it out of its plastic home.
According to Poker Central scribe, Timothy Duckworth, Fox lost the chip lead in a bloody mess of a hand versus Kahle Burns. Burns raised on the button, holding AcTc, and then called a Fox three-bet from the big blind, holding 9h8h. The dealer laid Kh7c4c onto the flop: Fox c-bet and Burns made the call with his nut flush draw. The Jh left the sanctity of the deck on the fourth street, and the same action ensued before the 3s hit the river, and Fox bet a third of the pot with his bluff. After using three-time extension chips, the Australian Poker Hall of Famer made the call and won with ace-high.
That hand would be the prelude to Fox’s ultimate demise, after the starting day chip leader turned a set of sevens, only to see that Burns had hit a runner-runner straight after all the money went in on the river.
Fox was the first ousted from the final day, and the bubble came into view.
Coming into Australia, Aaron Van Blarcum was one of the hottest players on the high roller circuit, and he followed that up with a third in the AUD 100,000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) Challenge at the Aussie Millions, and a sixth in an AUD 25,000 NLHE event at the APO. He wouldn’t extend that run in this one.
Despite driving his stack deep into this dive, Van Blarcum ultimately came up short right when he needed a little latitude. We don’t know what he held when he moved his final ten big blinds into the arena, but we do know that Burns found pocket nines; enough to take all of Van Blarcum’s chips, and send the remaining three players into the money.
The first to leave with a little cash in his back pocket was Cary Katz. Once a lion cub, the Poker Central Founder has become one of the leaders of the high roller pack, epitomised by his victory in 2019’s SHRB London.
Only Justin Bonomo has ever won two SHRB titles, and Katz came close to joining that little gang, only for him to lose while ahead after Adams had moved on him from the small blind, holding T8o, and Katz called and with K2o.
Heads-Up
Burns entered the heads-up phase with a 2.9m v 1.1m chip advantage over Adams. Since winning his two World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets in October, Burns had won as many heads-up matches has he had lost. Conversely, Adams had won his last two, since failing to beat Sergi Reixach in a £25k NLHE event at the British Poker Open.
Both players came into this one on the back of title-winning performances, with Burns winning the AUD 100,000 NLHE Challenge at the Aussie Millions, and Adams taking down an AUD 25,000 NLHE event during the APO.
The final fight lasted for three-hours when after taking the chip lead, Adams opened with ace-nine-suited, and then called a Burns’ jam with queen-jack-suited. Adams started ahead, improved his lead on the flop with a pair, and continued to grow even further on the turn with two-pair. Burns couldn’t keep up, and Adams added an SHRB title to his Triton title and WSOP bracelet.
Is it all about the money?
“This one is a little bit special,” said a Cheshire cat-like Adams after his win.
Final Table Results
- Timothy Adams – AUD 2,160,000 (USD 1,443,718)
- Kahle Burns – AUD 1,200,000 (USD 801,744)
- Cary Katz – AUD 640,000 (USD 427,597)
- Aaron Van Blarcum – No cash
- Elio Fox – No cash