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It’s that time again when we try to index the happenings and the handbags of the high stakes poker scene, this time the stories that landed between 26 Jan and 1 Feb, beginning with the live tournament scene.

With the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) going the way of the song inside the bird that lies between the fangs of a cat, Poker Central found their way through the smoke and the flames to take up their spot, albeit for the high roller brethren.

Here are the results.

Event #1: AUD 10,000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) – Mike Watson
Event #2: AUD 10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) – Andras Nemeth
Event #3: AUD 25,000 NLHE – Timothy Adams
Event #4: AUD 25,000 PLO – Farid Jattin
Event #5: AUD 25,000 NLHE – Stephen Chidwick
Event #6: AUD 50,000 NLHE – Luk Greenwood
Event #7: AUD 100,000 NLHE – Michael Addamo

Heading into Event #7, five players had garnered enough points for the potential lump in the throat moment that accompanies being a champion. Andras Nemeth, led, and would have won had the Hungarian not failed to make the money, allowing Stephen Chidwick to take the honours, once Kahle Burns bubbled. Chidwick collected an additional AUD 50,000 for the win, his second Open Championship after winning the US Poker Open in 2018.

With the APO in the rearview mirror, Poker Central rolled out the red carpet for the AUD 250,000 Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB) Australia. It was a bit of a letdown with only 16-entrants, but Timothy Adams wasn’t bothered superimposing the win over his APO victory, sending him into Jeju in fine form.

Wait, there is no Jeju!

Due to the Coronavirus outbreak in China, Triton Poker officials had no option but to postpone the Triton Poker Super High Roller in Jeju pending more news on the potential pandemic. You can expect a further announcement on Feb 10.

The problem with postponing the event is when to reinstate. The high stakes scene is getting pretty hectic these days, and two more live tournament series announced more games this week.

partypoker announced their MILLIONS events for 2020/21, and there were a few surprises. Dusk till Dawn (DTD), The King’s Resort, The Playground Club, and anywhere in South America is off the list. Taking their place are events in Cyprus, Prague and London.

The London event ties in with the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series. It takes place at the Hilton Park Lane and is an innovative new scheme with the £5,300 buy-in NLHE Main Event limited to online satellite qualifiers and VIPs, with at least one VIP per table when the event begins.

The only nitty-gritty we have comes from the MILLIONS Cyprus schedule. The Merit Crystal Cove Hotel & Casino in Kyrenia hosts and there is plenty for the high rollers to look forward to with a $15,500 NLHE event, a $25,000 NLHE event, a $25,000 Short-Deck (SD) event, a $50,000 NLHE event, and the $5,300, $5m GTD NLHE Main Event.

Finally, the live tournament series that’s been around as long as cave paintings released its high roller schedule last week.

Here is the World Series of Poker (WSOP) High Roller schedule.

May 29 – $25,000 NLHE
May 31 – $25,000 NLHE Heads-Up
Jun 5 – $50,000 NLHE
Jun 17 – $25,000 PLO
Jun 22 – $50,000 Poker Players’ Championship
Jun 27 – $250,000 NLHE
Jul 7 – $50,000 PLO
Jul 9 – $50,000 NLHE
Jul 11 – $100,000 NLHE

There will also be a standalone High Roller Leaderboard, although details are as elusive as a jellyfish’s throat.

Online Poker

Only one story to bring you from the land of online poker, and that’s an update on the Phil Galfond Challenge.

As the weekend drew to a close, Galfond was down €553,516.95 after ten days of heads-up PLO versus VeniVidi1993. Galfond has only won one of the ten sessions the paired has played, and that was a small win. In contrast, VeniVidi1993 has been the Hulk Hogan of the pairing. With more than 18,000 hands still to whizz through, many people in the poker community are beginning to worry about the three-time WSOP bracelet winner.

Galfond, however, is not one of them.

Interviews

Kahle Burns is one of the hottest poker players on the planet right now, and the recent Australian Poker Hall of Fame inductee appeared on the ‘Podker’ podcast facing the host, WSOP Player of the Year, Robert Campbell.

Check it out.

JC Alvarado may have retired from poker, but he hasn’t retired from appearing on poker podcasts. The Mexican star appeared on Olivier Busquets’ ‘Two Lives With Olivier’.

Check it out.

Finally, he doesn’t play in many $25k+ buy-in events, but he has in the past, and given that I am the host, I will also give a shout out to Martin Jacobson’s appearance on RunItOnce’s Hero’s Journey podcast.

Check it out.

Life Outside of Poker

Former high stakes star, Brian Hastings, had a baby. Well, I guess his wife did most of the work. Audrey Hart Hastings is now part of the poker world.

Sorel Mizzi nearly had a baby when he had to change his Top 10 Movie Rankings for the first time in five-years. The Korean epic ‘Parasite,’ of which Scott Seiver has also been singing its virtues, comes in at #7.

The death of Kobe Bryant was one of the major talking points on social media this week, and Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald had some interesting thoughts on celebrity deaths, which led to him sharing his reflections on the end of Anthony Bourdain.

Check them out.

The Poll of the Week

High stakes cash game player and partypoker consultant, Rob Yong, asked the community how they would feel if he implemented facial recognition software on the online site. The proposed move is to prevent cheaters/bots/multi-accounting/ghosting, and the results were overwhelmingly in favour of the idea. However, the results from those commenting were mixed. It’s an interesting thread and worth checking it.

Tweet of the Week

During a recent interview with Phil Hellmuth Jr., he told me that the high stakes tournament pros are a school of imitating fish, while he does his own thing on the side.

This is what his ‘own thing’ looks like, followed by some sound advice from the WPT Champions Club member, Dietrich Fast.

In 2011, the American government created a cleft in the world of online poker the size of the Grand Canyon and the consequences reverberated around the world. 

One of those hit by the loss of revenue generated by that healthy vein was the televised poker industry. One by one TV shows that used to have us trembling with excitement fell off the face of the earth.

‘High Stakes Poker’ was one of the shows that died in that Annus horribilis, but fans of the live cash game machine will be delighted to know that it’s about to experience a resurrection.

Poker Central, the Netflix of poker, has acquired the brand and assets of the show in a new deal that will see old episodes rerun on PokerGO, with plans to stick the paddles on the chest of this bad boy sometime in the future.

You spell hay day ‘heyday’, and it has nothing to do with hay. During ‘High Stakes Poker’s’ heyday, it operated at peak velocity with seven seasons rammed into the years 2006 & 2011. 

The show attracted a variety of top pros and amateurs with Doyle Brunson, Barry Greenstein, Daniel Negreanu and Antonio Esfandiari ticking all of the North American poker glamour boxes, appearing in every single episode.

The format was No-Limit Hold ’em (NLHE), and in its first season, the minimum buy-in was $100,000, rising as high as $500,000 by the time the show had reached its fourth season.

Sam Simmons, president of Poker Central, said the show conveyed the ‘drama of cash game poker, beautifully,’ and said he was excited to ‘recapture the nostalgia and magic’ of the show on PokerGO.

The revitalised program is in good hands. Poker Hall of Famer, Mori Eskandani, produced all sevens seasons of the show for the Game Show Network, and he now serves as an executive producer for Poker Central. 

“High Stakes Poker was raw and natural, we just let the players play, and that’s what made it so special,” Said Eskandani before continuing, It’s a dream come true to bring the series to a new generation of poker fans and players. We expect even more action when the show returns with faces, both new and old.”

You can grab yourself a PokerGO subscription for as little at $8.50 per month if you pay annually, or $10 per month otherwise.

The abstraction fell from Rob Yong’s mind, landed in a tin of paint, his partypoker team dib-dabbed a paintbrush or two, and now they’re ready to show the world what they’ve created.

The partypoker LIVE MILLIONS 2020/21 schedule is out, and it’s unrecognisable from previous years.

There are three new events to mention, and we begin with the first stop of 2020: MILLIONS Cyprus.

The event takes place 3-11 May, at the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel & Casino with a $5,300 buy-in, $5m GTD No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) Main Event the focus of predatory attention.

There are four side-events, with all of them geared towards high rollers with a $15,500 NLHE event, a $25,000 NLHE event, a $25,000 Short-Deck (SD) event, and a $50,000 NLHE event.

The crew don’t have time to watch paint dry as they hop on board the party plane to McCarron Airport for MILLIONS Vegas. It is taking place 1 – 30 June, right smack, bang in the middle of the World Series of Poker (WSOP). The ARIA and partypoker provide a little something for everyone, topped off with a $5,300 buy-in, $5m GTD NLHE Main Event. It’s the second time a Las Vegas event has been on the MILLIONS schedule after Tom Marchese topped a 536-entrant field to win the $1m first prize, last year (when the game was a $10,300 buy-in).

partypoker then takes the month off before their innovative new stop in London. The $5,300 buy-in NLHE Main Event takes place at the Park Lane Hilton and is open to VIP guests, and MILLIONS Passport holders, only. No direct buy-in is allowed, and Simon Trumper will ensure that a VIP guest is sitting at every table from the moment of the starting whistle. More on MILLIONS Passport, below.

The MILLIONS Online event takes place in September before the team head to the Bahamas for MILLIONS Caribbean Poker Party (CPP). The title ‘World’ is gone, but the location hasn’t as the Baha Mar once again plays host to the $5,300 buy-in, $5m GTD Main Event.

Leon Tsoukernik caused quite a stir when he purchased the casino in the Hilton Prague “to give him something to do while the kids were in school.” The news lit up the poker world like a pyromaniac in a panic because the Hilton Prague was the home of the European Poker Tour (EPT) Prague. Notice the use of the past tense. That’s because Prague is no longer on the EPT schedule, and now we know why. In early 2021, MILLIONS Prague steps over the decomposed body of the EPT to set up camp.

There is no room for a MILLIONS South America. The Playground Club in Montreal is out of the picture, as is the King’s Resort in Rozvadov, and Rob Yong’s gaff: Dusk till Dwan (DTD).

MILLIONS Passport

As previously explained, the MILLIONS London event is available to VIP guests and MILLIONS Passport holders only. The Passport concept is new, groovy, and aimed at amateur and recreational players.

Players can earn a MILLIONS Passport by competing in $109 buy-in Phased satellites that hold their finals on Sunday. You cannot buy directly into a MILLIONS Passport finale, meaning all qualifiers will have come through the $109 route or direct satellite qualifiers for each event.

partypoker will allow winners to use their Passport to enter any MILLIONS event, including Online, within 12-months of winning it. Winners receive packages worth $11,000, and that goes for both live and online games. The VIP treatment is also part of the box.

partypoker LIVE President, John Duthie, said the changes came about after a thorough review of player feedback, and a direct focus on improving the MILLIONS experience for fans of the amateur game.

Here is the schedule in full.

May 2020 – MILLIONS Cyprus, Merit Casino
June 2020 – MILLIONS Vegas, Aria Resort & Casino
August 2020 – MILLIONS London, Park Lane Hilton
September 2020 – MILLIONS Online
November 2020 – MILLIONS Caribbean Poker Party, Baha Mar, The Bahamas
2021 – MILLIONS Prague, Hilton Prague

The word ‘POSTPONED’ lies in the middle of two thick black lines, every inch the intruder, like a three-year-old in the middle of two parents wishing to create a zero-year-old.

High stakes poker players throughout the world are banging their fists on walls, screaming to the other side, “What will I do, now?” The 2020 Triton Poker Super High Roller Series has just lost some of its varnish.

With the Aussie Millions and Australian Poker Open gone the way of dried paint, all eyes were about to set on the Korean island of Jeju. But then the coronavirus became fed up with animal hosts, and decided to jump ship. 

The first test subjects came from Wuhan in China’s Hubei province, and in the space of a few weeks, 17,000 confirmed cases had hit a spreadsheet belonging to someone wearing a white lab coat, including close to 3,000 new cases in the 24-hours before I sat and wrote this article.

More than 360 people have died.

It’s not a virus that revels in solitude. Nine countries have already reported double-digit cases, including the United States, where American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines all suspended routes between the US and China due to the soon to be declared pandemic. 

With this in mind, the Triton Poker Super High Roller organisers had no choice but to postpone their Jeju event pending further news on the spread of the virus. 

The decision is unfortunate. 

The Triton Poker Super High Roller Series in Jeju was going to blow our minds, including the advent of the richest Player of the Year (PoY) in history with HKD 2 million reserved for the winner.

Still, the decision was bang on, as the safety of Triton players is paramount.

Keep your eyes and ears peeled as Triton officials plan to make a further announcement on February 10.

SHRB Australia

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

  1. Timothy Adams – AUD 2,160,000 (USD 1,443,718)
  2. Kahle Burns – AUD 1,200,000 (USD 801,744)
  3. Cary Katz – AUD 640,000 (USD 427,597)
  4. Aaron Van Blarcum – No cash
  5. Elio Fox – No cash
Stephen Chidwick

If he carries on like this, Stephen Chidwick will be getting cat-calls each time he walks into a poker room. I often wonder whether the people realise amid greatness that they are creating a legacy? I wonder what goes through Chidwick’s mind?

The man from Deal in the UK has won the inaugural Australian Poker Open (APO) just as he also won the first US Poker Open (USO). Only the defiance and resistance of Sam Soverel prevented him from a clean sweep, finishing second to the American in the British Poker Open (BPO).

When it comes to Poker Central’s Open action, everyone is on the periphery of this man’s talents, cashing in half of the 35 Open events played at this point, winning six of them.

It’s no wonder that his peers shortlisted Chidwick for the ‘Toughest Opponent’ award at the forthcoming Global Poker Awards (GPA).

Joining Chidwick on that shortlist are two players who also made the final table of Event #7: AUD 100,000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) Challenge in Michael Addamo and Kahle Burns.

Burns has been a revelation of late, but his luck ran out at the most convenient time for Chidwick. Nursing the short-stack, and odds-on to hit the rail first, handing the APO Championship to Andras Nemeth, Chidwick dug his fingernails in, Burns picked up pocket kings, went for it, and felt crushed when Addamo called with Qs8s and flopped trips, sending Burns home on the bubble. After locking up the title, Chidwick then fell in the fourth-place, losing with AKo versus the QcJc of the in-form Aaron Van Blarcum.

The Global Poker Index (GPI) World #1 fell next when Alex Foxen got it in with KcQc, but lost to the As4s of Van Blarcum.

Van Blarcum had been on a tear of late, finishing third at the AUD 100,000 NLHE Challenge at the Aussie Millions, following a brilliant showing in December’s World Poker Tour (WPT) Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio winning a $25k and finishing runner-up in a $50k.

Van Blarcum’s ride in this one stopped in second place with his middle pair unable to stop the tide created by Addamo’s flush draw.

“It was a pretty smooth ride, I was pretty fortunate,” Addamo told Poker Central after his win.

The event attracted 28-entrants.

Addamo has now won more than $1.7m since the turn of the year.

AUD 100k Main Event ITM Finishes

  1. Michael Addamo – $861,952
  2. Aaron Van Blarcum – $527,667
  3. Alex Foxen – $299,810
  4. Stephen Chidwick – $187,381

On winning the APO, Chidwick said, “Hopefully these style of events continue because I think it’s a bit more of an achievable accolade to win a multiple of or, over time, determine who the best player is rather than looking at a single tournament. Obviously there’s a lot of luck involved in this too, but over the course of seven, eight, or ten events you’re going to see the better players win more often and it would be fun to see who can collect the most titles like this.”

APO Championship Standings

  1. Stephen Chidwick – 650 points (AUD 949,000)
  2. Andras Nemeth – 630 (AUD 534,100)
  3. Michael Addamo – 560 (AUD 1,685,500)
  4. Mike Watson – 450 (AUD 241,500)
  5. Luc Greenwood – 360 (AUD 717,700)
Australian Poker Open

The Australian Poker Open (APO) reached the business end of proceedings after Luc Greenwood took down the penultimate event: the 35-entrant Event #6: AUD 50,000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE), for $427,928.

With only the AUD 100,000 NLHE Main Event remaining, five players are in with a shot of winning the Championship and AUD 50,000 first prize. Leading the way is Andras Nemeth, who picked up a third-place finish in the AUD 50,000, his fourth in the money (ITM) finish throughout six events.

Joining Nemeth in the hunt for the APO Championship is the former US Poker Open winner, Stephen Chidwick, Event #1: AUD 10,000 NLHE winner, Mike Watson, Event #4: AUD 25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) winner, Farid Jattin, and Greenwood.

The win is only Greenwood’s third on the live tournament circuit, and his second in Open events after winning a £10,500 NLHE event at the British Poker Open (BPO) in London in September. Greenwood has now earned $4.4m in live tournament earnings. He made the APO leaderboard courtesy of his big cash in this event and finishing ninth in Event #1: AUD 10,000 NLHE.

Let’s take a look at Greenwood’s revolutionary march to the top.

Nutshell Action

Life is imbalanced for Michael Addamo, right now. But in a good way. The Australian Poker Hall of Fame recently honoured him at the Aussie Millions with the Young Achiever Award. Addamo then went on to win the AUD 50,000 NLHE Challenge, but he wasn’t able to win this one. Addamo got it in chasing the nut flush draw, and Greenwood’s top pair stuck like glue.

The day began with Chino Rheem at the helm, but it’s been a series of close-runs, minus cigars, for the controversial star. Rheem moved all-in over a Greenwood open, holding A2o, and Greenwood called and killed Rheem’s hopes of a win with AJo.

Greenwood entered the three-handed phase with a big chip lead, and it grew even more oppressive when he eliminated the APO Championship leader, Andras Nemeth in third place. Nemeth started ahead with KdJd up against Greenwood’s 8d5d. Still, Greenwood came from behind to river a straight, taking out his third successive opponent. Nemeth had the consolation of stretching his lead at the top of the Championship leaderboard courtesy of his ITM finish.

Greenwood went into his heads-up battle with Mikita Badziakouski with an enormous chip advantage, and he needed it. The Belarusian, who had earned $26.1m playing live tournaments, had refused to be beaten in 12-heads-up matches stretching back into 2017 when he lost against Timothy Adams in the €50,000 NLHE at the PokerStars Championship Prague. Badziakouski’s title challenge ended when he ran J3o into the KdQd of Greenwood.

“I really love the game, and I just try to play my best every single day, even if it’s just for small stakes online,” Greenwood told Poker Central reporters after his win. “I always try to focus on how well I played versus how much money I won or lost. If you’re playing poker professionally, it’s more important that you really enjoy the game no matter what stakes you’re playing for rather than getting just excited about the money.”

ITM Results

  1. Luc Greenwood – $427,928
  2. Mikita Badziakouski – $307,403
  3. Andras Nemeth – $189,171
  4. Chino Rheem – $118,232
  5. Michael Addamo – $94,586

Australian Poker Open Standings

  1. Andras Nemeth – 630 points
  2. Stephen Chidwick – 510
  3. Mike Watson – 450
  4. Luc Greenwood – 360
  5. Farid Jattin – 360

Only this quintet of players can win the APO Championship with the only event left on the roster, the AUD 100,000 NLHE Challenge.

During his most recent win at the Australian Poker Open (APO), Stephen Chidwick had this to say about the World Series of Poker (WSOP).

“The World Series of Poker is too long of a grind. It’s easy to get burned out unless you take real breaks. This kind of series {APO} is perfect. I play really hard for ten days and then have more extended stretches before my next event.

Jack Effel and co., are making it easier for you, Stevie.

For the first time in WSOP history, the 51st annual series will have a unique High Roller Series running in parallel. Prophetic poker playing tweeters called it in the wake of the 2019 WSOP Player of the Year (PoY) fiasco, and the finer details are becoming blotted in e-ink.

The latest WSOP press release to fall underneath my hairy nostrils shows nine high roller events with buy-ins pitched between $25,000 and $250,000 – almost double the 2019 quotient.

The 51st annual WSOP runs May 26 through July 15, and the high rollers need to arrive right at the front-end of this thing with a $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) and a $25,000 NLHE Heads-Up scheduled for May 29 & 30. There is one more $25,000 event planned throughout the series. The $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) event takes place on Jun 17th.

Four events are carrying a $50,000 buy-in, two of them are NLHE, the third is the Poker Player’s Championship (PPC), and these are joined for the first time by a $50,000 PLO event on July 7.

Without companions are the $100,000 NLHE on Jul 11, and the most significant buy-in of the series, the $250,000 NLHE Super High Roller pencilled in for Jun 27.

All events are eight-handed, except the PPC and the Heads-Up. The latter also carries a 64-player cap.

Last Year

There was nothing precarious about last years high roller numbers at the WSOP.

Ben Heath kicked things off by conquering a 110-entrant field in a $50,000 NLHE event. The UK-pro earned $1,484,085 after beating Andrew Lichtenberger, heads-up, for the title.

The British Bulldog spirit also shone to the fore in the $25,000 PLO. Stephen Chidwick collected his first bracelet after beating 278-entrants, including James Chen, heads-up, to claim the $1,618,417 first prize.

Onto the $50,000 buy-in events, and Philip Hui defeated Josh Arieh, heads-up, to claim the $1,099,311 first prize in the PPC. Danny Tang vanquished 123-entrants, including Sam Soverel, heads-up, to win the $1,608,406 first prize in the NLHE format.

Finally, Keith Tilston topped a 99-entrant field, including Daniel Negreanu, heads-up, to win the $2,792,406 first prize in the $100,000 NLHE event.

Here is the high roller schedule in full.

The WSOP is keeping their powder dry on the leaderboard details, for now.

High Roller Series Schedule

May 29 – $25,000 NLHE
May 31 – $25,000 NLHE Heads-Up
Jun 5 – $50,000 NLHE
Jun 17 – $25,000 PLO
Jun 22 – $50,000 Poker Players’ Championship
Jun 27 – $250,000 NLHE
Jul 7 – $50,000 PLO
Jul 9 – $50,000 NLHE
Jul 11 – $100,000 NLHE

The remaining bits and pieces of the 51st annual WSOP schedule will be handed to the press in February, with the bulk of the events coming in the online format.

At the Australian Poker Open (APO), two events remain untouched, like fresh bread resting in the oven, and Stephen Chidwick knows he needs to finish in the money in at least one of them if he is to turn his championship lead into a title. 

The former U.S. Poker Open winner, is on course to become the first player to win two Opens in different countries, after pummelling and persecuting people in the 47-entrant Event #5: AUD 25,000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE).

Chidwick is a powerhouse in these types of events. All told he had made the final table of just under half of the 33 Open events to date, including winning six of them, and his win also catapulted him above David Peters into the sixth position in the all-time live tournament money leaderboard with $33,888,888. 

Let’s see how Chidwick ended up smelling like a bed of roses.

The Nutshell Action

The first player at the final table to exit stage left was the man who won the previous event. Farid Jattin got it in with ace-ten versus the pocket sixes of Michael Addamo, and the better won. 

Jorryt van Hoof arrived in Queensland on the back of an AUD 25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha victory at the Aussie Millions, and once again underlined his capability of cross-pollinating the final tables of the two most popular forms of poker, finishing fifth in this one. The Dutchman suffered a cooler, running pocket jacks into the pocket queens of Seth Davies. 

Davies then took a significant chip advantage into four-handed play when he ousted the recently crowned AUD 50,000 NLHE winner at the Aussie Millions, Michael Addamo. The Australian held king-eight, but Davies had the superior ace-king.

That left Davies, Chidwick and Erik Seidel to battle for the trophy, and it was Chidwick who took the fight to Davies, doubling once before eliminating him after king-nine beat ace-five. Davies flopped an ace, but Chidwick rivered a flush.

No need for vilification during the heads-up bout with Seidel facing an 8:1 chip deficit – a miracle was not in the offing. After a few short and sweet hands, Seidel found pocket queens and was unlucky when Chidwick flopped a second king, holding king-six, with all the money in the middle.

ITM Results

  1. Stephen Chidwick – $269,852
  2. Erik Seidel – $174,610
  3. Seth Davies – $119,052
  4. Michael Addamo – $79,368
  5. Jorryt van Hoof – $63,495
  6. Farid Jattin – $47,621
  7. Matthias Eibinger – $39,684

APO Leaderboard

  1. Stephen Chidwick – 510 points
  2. Andras Nemeth – 480
  3. Mike Watson – 450
  4. Farid Jattin – 360
  5. Joni Jouhkimainen – 330

Australian Poker Open Remaining Events

Event #6: $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Event #7: $100,000 No-Limit Hold’em

In the early 1980s, when Pablo Escobar ruled Colombia, he bought a range of exotic animals to create a zoo. During the collapse of Escobar’s drug empire in the late 80s early 90s, most of the animals ended up in the red right hand of the local zoos.

All except four hippos.

Today, those four hippos have grown to a crash of 80, and zoologists are calling them an ‘invasive species’, as their poo is turning the lakes and rivers into an ecological disaster.

Another product of Colombia who is fast becoming an ‘ecological disaster’, and an ‘invasive species’, is Farid Jattin. The Global Poker Index (GPI) Latin American Player of the Year (PoY) and Colombian patriot, has just taken down Event #4: AUD 25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) at the Australian Poker Open (APO) in The Star Gold Coast in Queensland.

Jattin’s ninth win of his career comes hot on the Nikes of winning the 169-entrant AUD 25,000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) Challenge, and finishing 7/59 in the AUD 25,000 PLO, both at the Aussie Millions.

Poker Central scribe, Remko Rinkema called Jattin’s final table display a ‘clinic.’ Jattin eliminated all four players in the time it would have taken Carlos Valderama to win a football game. Jattin didn’t hide from Rinkema’s praise calling his performance ‘flawless.’

Let’s take a look at the flawless clinic.

The Nutshell Action

The event attracted 29-entrants, and Alex Foxen became the first person to make a profit when he exited in fifth place. The current GPI World #1 and the reigning PoY was on the foul end of a three-way all-in that saw George Wolff triple-up with aces. Jattin’s stack took a hit, holding kings, and Foxen, who finished runner-up to Kahle Burns in the AUD 100,000 NLHE Challenge at the Aussie Millions, couldn’t muster anything more than a raggedy ace-suited hand.

Foxen’s elimination guaranteed that Andras Nemeth would spend the night at the head of the APO leaderboard, but his AA66 failed to beat Jattin’s ace-jack-eight-six double suited, and the Hungarian had to settle for fourth place.

Third place went to Wolff when ten-ten-eight-six lost to Jattin’s king-nine-six-deuce, after flopping a pair of kings, leaving Joni Jouhkimainen to face Jattin, heads-up, with a 350k to 4m chip deficit. The final hand saw king-jack-six-three beat jack-seven-six-five when Jattin hit two pair on the river. Despite losing heads-up, Jouhkimainen’s finish puts himself in with a shot of the APO title. The Finn is in fine form finishing 4/59 in the AUD 25,000 PLO at the Aussie Millions, and finishing 43/820 in the Main Event. Jouhkimainen also finished 4/95 in the $10,300 NLHE High Roller in the partypoker MILLIONS UK a few weeks back.

Jattin won the event, but it’s Nemeth who leads the APO charge. The Hungarian has now cashed in three of the first four events, finishing sixth in the AUD 10,000 NLHE, and winning the AUD 10,000 PLO.

ITM Results

  1. Farid Jattin – AUD 290,000
  2. Joni Jouhkimainen – AUD 188,500
  3. George Wolff – AUD 116,000
  4. Andras Nemeth – AUD 72,500
  5. Alex Foxen – AUD $58,000

APO Leaderboard

  1. Andras Nemeth – 480 points
  2. Mike Watson – 450
  3. Joni Jouhkimainen – 330
  4. Timothy Adams – 300
  5. Farid Jattin – 300

Australian Poker Open Remaining Events

Event #5: $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Event #6: $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Event #7: $100,000 No-Limit Hold’em