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It wasn’t that long ago that ponytails were cool, denim wasn’t and winning a seven-figure score in a poker tournament was as rare as seeing a one-armed, albino sunbathing in the Las Vegas desert.

Today, seven-figure scores are handing out like kleenex in strange looking Soho cinemas thanks to the growth of high roller tournaments around the world of which the Triton Poker Series is the apex.

But one man was missing one when he woke up this morning.

Timothy Adams.

After two-days of scintillating stitch-breaking action, Adams topped a field of 48-entrants moving into the final day’s play of the HKD 2m (USD 250,000) Triton Poker Series Jeju Main Event after eliminating the powerhouse, Justin Bonomo, on the money bubble when the $44.6m man lost with JThh versus the Canadian’s queens.

And it was a big lead.

Final Table Chip Counts
1 – Timothy Adams, Canada, 5.33 million
2 – Bryn Kenney, USA, 3.21 million
3 – Isaac Haxton, USA, 1.235 million
4 – Peter Jetten, Canada, 820,000
5 – Dan Smith, USA, 810,000
6 – David Peters, USA, 595,000

What a final table.

Adams had begun the year well by winning an 18-entrant $50,000 buy-in event at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) for $372,508, Bryn Kenney had taken down the Aussie Millions Main Event and a US Poker Open side event, and David Peters sauntered into Jeju as the newest US Poker Open Champion.

Peter Jetten.

Isaac Haxton.

Dan Smith.

The lineup was as ridiculous as the first two hands.

In hand one, Bryn Kenney opened the action with pocket kings, Isaac Haxton moved all-in for 25 bigs holding A9o, and Kenney gobbled him up. The Aussie Millions Champion hadn’t finished rebuilding his stack when we lost player two. The action folded to David Peters in the small blind, and the US Poker Open Champion moved all-in with A3o only for Peter Jetten to call and win with KTss in the big blind after flopping a king.

That scalp didn’t stop Jetten from leaving next when he flopped top pair holding Kh9h on KsQh5s, only for Kenney to turn up with pocket kings again. They got it in on the turn, and there was zero empathy for Apathy. Smith followed soon after when K8o lost to the A2 of Kenney, and we reached heads-up with only three and a half hours on the clock.

Adams and Kenney, who have been playing against each other since they were teenagers, carved out a deal that saw Kenney collect HKD 24,039,500, Adams pick up HKD 23,760,500, leaving HKD 4,000,000 to play for ensuring that both players would leave Jeju with new personal best ITM finishes.

The final hand was brutal for Kenney.

A4o usually bests 85o, even more so when the flop rains down 4d4s3s. But occasionally, two more fives emerge from the deck, and that’s what happened to create ‘the nastiest run out’ Bryn Kenney had ever seen, and the trophy was heading to Canada and not the USA.

The win, Adams sixth of his career, was his best by a country mile; not only a coveted seven-figure score but a $3m+ score to boot.

Final Table Results
1. Timothy Adams – $3,540,000*
2. Bryn Kenney – $3,060,000*
3. Dan Smith – $1,700,000
4. Peter Jetten – $1,300,000
5. David Peters – $1,040,000
6. Isaac Haxton – $803,000
*Denotes a heads-up deal

When you interview enough high stakes poker players, you notice similar traits, one of which is competitiveness.

Take the heads-up stage of Event #7 HKD 1m (USD 127,000) Triton Refresh, a No-Limit Hold’em tournament, that pulled in 25-entrants, and saw Stephen Chidwick and Jason Koon agree upon a chip-chop before playing on for the trophy.

Under normal circumstances, this is the time to move all-in blind. I mean, who gives a monkey’s about a trophy?

Stephen Chidwick and Jason Koon did.

With nothing on the line, the pair, armed with a ‘you’re going home in the back of an ambulance’ attitude, fought, scratched and screamed until the milkman began doing his rounds, at which time the tournament organisers begged them to finish things off so everyone could go to bed.

At 4.30 am, Koon got it in with pocket fours against the queen-high of Chidwick, and found enough spunk to take a super-sexy winner’s photo despite likely feeling like he had just smoked 15 pounds of weed.

Only four players received a return of investment after Michael Soyza lost in unfortunate circumstances against Paul Phua with AJ outdrawing AQ.

Koon would begin four-handed play with the lowest stack in the competition, but this is a man who has made the final table of four of the six events and won two of them. The guy is mustard.

Paul Phua rivered a flush to send Michael Addamo packing in fourth place, and it looked like we would have the repeat heads-up duel from the night before when Koon beat Phua in the HKD 1m (USD 127,000) Short-Deck, but Chidwick ran into the middle of the pair and gave Phua an uppercut he never recovered from when AJ beat 77.

You know the rest.

“It’s ridiculous to sign up for six tournaments and turn up and final table four of them, and win two of them,” Koon told the press after his win. “It doesn’t happen very often. I’ve run extremely, extremely well, but that’s what has to happen. Some weeks you run good; this week I ran fire hot.”

Here are the final table results.

Final Table Results
1. Jason Koon – $973,000*
2. Stephen Chidwick – $1,130,000*
3. Paul Phua – $535,039
4. Michael Addamo – $356,693
*Indicates a heads-up deal.

If Jason Koon worked in a grocery store, he would stack more shelves than anyone. Give him a shoe shine business, and you would see your reflection each time you stared at the Devil’s playpen.

It’s his energy.

The man is always in the zone.

Last spring, Koon rocked up to play at the Triton Poker Series in Montenegro, and while most Western pros were avoiding Short-Deck like the plague, Koon was in like Flynn.

In his first appearance, the 33-year-old West Virginian finished fourth for $169,936 in an HKD 250,000 (USD 32,000) buy-in event. Not content with that baptism of fire, Koon jumped into the HKD 1m (USD 127,000) Short-Deck event and defeated 103-entrants to win the $3,579,836 first prize.

Those are substantial numbers.

Big digits.

And he’s only gone and done it again.

After finishing fourth in the HKD 500,000 Short-Deck, and sixth in the HKD 500,000 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Handed event, Koon has taken down the 81-entrant HKD 1m Short-Deck event to bank another $2,840,945.

The win means Koon is the undisputed Short-Deck tournament money earner, and in his first series as Triton Poker Ambassador no less. It’s also a win that sees him move into the #9 position in the All-Time Live Tournament Money Earned list on The Hendon Mob with close to $27m in winnings.

It was a long, long tournament, with four players returning for an unscheduled third day of action. Koon began 3/4 in chips, but that changed when his AsJc beat the AhKh of Furkat Rakhimov in a super sexy hand that saw them both flop a piece on KsJh7s. Rakhimov improved to trips on the Ks turn, and Koon finally won the hand with a spade flush after the 8s closed out the action.

Koon then took the chip lead after eliminating Ju Wang JJ>QTss, and he would take on Paul Phua, heads-up, after the best non-professional in the business finished Rakhimov off AJ>JT.

The final throes lasted several hours with Phua taking a big chip lead when AK beat QQ, but Koon fought back to win thanks to 96cc finding a full house to beat trips, and KQ beating A9.

And what does Koon think of Phua’s play?

“He is just so good,” said Koon.

Fine praise, indeed.

Final Table Results
1. Jason Koon – $2,840,945
2. Paul Phua – $2,025,607
3. Furkat Rakhimov – $1,330,021
4. Jun Wang – $1,006,434
5. Gabe Patgorski – $777,120
6. Richard Yong – $598,764
7. John Juanda – $471,368

Nearly killing yourself during a snowboarding trip to Japan, resulting in a broken arm pieced together with ten screws and a titanium plate, is a major pain in the arse, but it does leave a hand free for a poker trophy should one come along, and one did for Michael Soyza.
Maybe it was meant to be; Soyza has, after all, been playing bionic poker for the past 18-months, winning $2.6m in 2018 alone including a 449-entrant KRW 1,800,000 Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Main Event in Korea for $148,629, and $588,249 for taking down a 2,877-entrant $1,655 buy-in event at the Venetian in Las Vegas.
But this was the biggest of all.
Event #3: HKD 500,000 (USD 64,000) No-Limit Hold’em Six-Handed attracted 81-entrants (32-re-entries), dwarfing the 2018 field of 39-entrants when a severely jetlagged, David Peters, went on to win the $1,118,484 first prize.
More than 20-players returned for the second day of action, and the final table was a cracker. Triton Ambassador, Jason Koon, sat down at his second final table of the series, the Aussie Millions Main Event winner Bryn Kenney took a pew as did the Triton Titan, Ivan Leow.
Koon was the first to find the door marked ‘exit’ when he ran QTo into the pocket nines of Bryn Kenney. And the same hand was equally as useless for Kok Beh with Michael Soyza finding the bits and pieces necessary for A8o to come out on top.
The 29-year-old Malaysian took control from that point onwards eliminating every player left in the contest. Kenney lost A9 v AK, and after Sam Greenwood had cracked Ivan Leow’s pocket kings with ace-rag, Soyza took his remaining chips when the pretty looking KJdd beat A8o.
Greenwood would have been the slight favourite going into his heads-up encounter with Soyza for no other reason than Greenwood is Greenwood. But Soyza pulled off an incredible call on the river after the Canadian had moved all-in on a board of Td8d3c8hKc with Soyza holding pocket sevens to take charge and never looked over his shoulder.
The victory for Soyza is the 13th of his short career, and he has already moved over the $5m mark in live tournament earnings.
Final Table Results
1. Michael Soyza – $1,420,581
2. Sam Greenwood – $1,019,251
3. Ivan Leow – $662,513
4. Bryn Kenney – $499,560
5. Kok Beh – $387,315
6. Jason Koon – $300,679

When your job is to share mugs of hot chocolate with the best poker players on the planet, it’s nice to chalk up seven-figure scores, and Event #2 HKD 500,000 (USD 64,000) No-Limit Hold’em Short-Deck turned up another one of those beauties.
Devan Tang has been a regular on the Triton Poker Series ever since Richard Yong and Paul Phua decided to turn their idea into something more tangible.
Super scribe, Howards Swains, called Tang’s final table performance in Event #2: HKD 500,000 (USD 64,000) No-Limit Hold’em Short-Deck ‘dominating.’
Tang preferred to use the word, ‘lucky.’
“I was lucky the whole way,” said Tang.
69-entrants (24-re-entries) created a prize pool of HKD 32,430,000 (USD 4,132,105), and 14 players made it through to the final day. The final table took shape after Paul Phua left in eighth, and the hand of the series left us with six after Tang hit a one-outer on the river to find quads against Mikita Badziakouski. The Belarusian back-to-back Triton Poker Series Main Event winner then ran pocket eights into Jason Koon’s kings for his remaining few plastic bits.
It was at this time that the Poker Gods decided that Tang should only receive pocket aces. Chan Wai Leong exited in sixth place when his AK hit Tang’s two black bad boys, and then Isaac Haxton also fell to the same hand-person combo.
Four players remained, and Tang’s stack was so big you could barely see the man. Jetten tried to make a fist of things when his rivered a straight to end Koon’s tournament in fourth, but Tang picked up aces again to vanquish Romain Arnaud to take a 3:1 chip lead into the heads-up phase. Jetten clung on for an hour before Tang’s JTcc hit a straight to beat the AsJd of the Canadian.
The win was Tang’s fifth of his career and the first for three years. His personal best score remains the $1,405,500 he earned for finishing third in a $200,000 buy-in Triton Series Event held in Manila back in 2016. It was Jetten’s fourth Triton Poker Series Main Event, and the second highest score of his career after picking up a million for a third-place finish in the HKD 1m Main Event in Montenegro last season.
Final Table Results
1. Devan Tang – $1,239,758
2. Peter Jetten – $897,009
3. Arnaud Romain – $578,469
4. Jason Koon – $437,674
5. Isaac Haxton – $338,926
6. Leong Wai – $264,388
7. Mikita Badziakouski – $210,236

There’s nothing fake cheese and nacho about Justin Bonomo. In 2018, the 33-year-old won an unprecedented $25.4m playing live tournaments. I bet he’s still pinching, each night before his head hits satin.
The way we track time means nothing to poker. Years, months, days, hours, minutes, seconds – it’s all one big game, and so there is no gap in the rail. Bonomo’s train keeps chugging.
In January, Bonomo headed to the Bahamas for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA), and he took fourth in the $50,000 and won a 32-entrant $25,000 for $383,650.
The streak.
Continues.
So when he turned up in Jeju for the Triton Poker Series, had the theme park not been closed, I am confident that’s where everyone would have ended up.
The tour de force of high stakes poker events began with a two-day Event #1: HKD 250,000 (USD 32,000) No-Limit Hold’em Short-Deck. 65-entrants (including 28 re-entries) created an HKD 15,275,000 (USD 1,946,281) prize pool, and this is what the final table looked like.
Final Table Standings
Seat 1: Yeu Wei Hsiang – 6,970,000
Seat 2: Justin Bonomo – 4,230,000
Seat 3: Sergey Lebedev – 2,280,000
Seat 4: Tong Siow Choon – 1,875,000
Seat 5: Chua Ying Lin – 1,425,000
Seat 6: Ben Lamb – 1,405,000
Seat 7: David Benefield – 1,110,000
The Action
Yeu Wei Hsiang and Justin Bonomo sat on top of the chip counts, and the pair dominated the executions. First Ben Lamb fell to Hsiang when T9o failed to out pop AA. Then Hsiang flipped Chua Ying Lin over the rail when AK beat QQ.
Bonomo took over from this point when TT beat the A6o of Tong Siow Choon and the man with all the money hoovered up David Benefield’s chip dust after the Raptor suffered a cooler against Hsiang when bottom set lost to top pair after the perfect runner-runner combo. Sergey Lebedev would leave in third when Bonomo’s AJ outdrew TT, taking him into a 2:1 chip lead against Hsiang for all the peanuts.
The final fight didn’t last long.
Bonomo’s ATcc beat the AhQc of Hsiang, and the American had won his first Short-Deck and Triton Poker Series title.
There will be more, of that I am sure.
Final Table Results
1. Justin Bonomo – $586,114
2. Yue Wei Hsiang – $420,473
3. Sergey Lebedev – $272,671
4. David Benefield – $206,414
5. Tong Siow Choon – $159,270
6. Chua Ying Lin – $124,231
7. Ben Lamb – $99,385

The philosopher, Alain de Botton, once said, in his fabulous little pocket book Relationships, that ‘we may believe we are seeking happiness in love, but what we are really after is familiarity.’
All of which means, if you are one of the best poker players in the world, it’s not a bad strategy to fall in love with someone of the same ilk – advice put into practice by four high rollers stalking the halls of the L.A Poker Classic.
Sweethearts Rainer Kempe and Maria Ho have taken down both $25,000 buy-in High Roller events at the Commerce Casino. Kempe was the first couple crusher after conquering a field of 27-entrants to win the $270,905 first prize, including Josh Gordon in heads-up action.
Kempe, who is ranked #4 in the Global Poker Index (GPI) has had a ridiculous start to 2019, winning the $50,000 Super High Roller and $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Turbo events at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA), and the AUD 25,000 Challenge at the Aussie Millions.
The 2018 GPI Player of the Year for Germany has now won 16 live tournaments and amassed close to $20m in career-earnings.
The second $25,000 High Roller attracted 28-entrants, and the top two female players in the GPI, Kristen Bicknell and Maria Ho, battled it out for the title, railed by boyfriends Alex Foxen and that man Kempe.
At the end of a competitive tussle the title went to Ho, who captured the $276,000 first prize on her birthday; her second most significant score behind the half a million Ho banked for finishing runner-up to Allen Bari in a $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em event at the 2011 World Series of Poker (WSOP).
It’s not the first time the tag team of Kempe and Ho has waltzed out of an event with a bag full of silverware. In October, Ho conquered a field of 387-entrants to win the $69,166 first prize in the ZAR 13,500 WPTDeepStacks Main Event in Johannesburg, and Kempe won the two high roller competitions for a combined haul of $100,000.
ITM Results
1. Rainer Kempe – $270,905
2. Joshua Gordon – $180,600
3. Jeremy Ausmus – $127,320
4. Ali Imsirovic – $96,040
ITM Results
1. Maria Ho – $276,690
2. Kristen Bicknell – $180,070
3. Sean Winter – $117,190
4. Tamon Nakamura – $76,270
5. Manig Loeser – $49,640

Steffen Sontheimer would make an excellent swimmer. The length. The grace. Or perhaps, a tennis player. Yeah, I can see him sending 100 mph serves down the middle of Centre Court at Wimbledon. 

But he chose poker. 

An inspired choice. 

He’s bloody good at it.

In 2018, Sontheimer won the inaugural Poker Masters, and at the time, Daniel Negreanu told the world that Sontheimer was the best. The Americans gave him a purple jacket. It’s in his mother’s wardrobe next to her scarves, dresses and unloved bony looking hangers.

“I like trophies,” says Sontheimer, “I have a couple next to my working spot in Vienna. I like looking at them when I am working. It’s inspiring.”

The last trophy Sontheimer won was in November 2018 when he took down the $250,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em Super High Roller Championship at the partypoker Carribean Adventure in the Bahamas, but it wasn’t his first.

“When I was a kid I loved table tennis and running,” Sontheimer tells me. “I won a tournament in table tennis, and I remember that felt great. Athletics was different; we won medals and not trophies. But I did win an 8km race called The Midnight Run. It was my first running trophy, and I still have it around here somewhere.”

Here somewhere is in his mother’s house. Sontheimer lives in Vienna, Austria. If Kim Jong-un ever decided to use the gaff for a spot of nuclear war target practice, then the poker community would lose most of the best players. 

Apart from the fact that every woman is beautiful, and that Ultravox once sang a song about the place, what makes Vienna so unique?

“When living in Europe, the two things you need to consider are whether poker is legal, and the tax situation,” says Sontheimer. “So, for the German players at least, it’s either England or Austria. I lived in Brighton, England, but decided after two years that it wasn’t for me. Some so many guys play online and live who live in Vienna. We have a Skype group with more than a hundred people. I believe Vienna got into one of those Greatest Cities to Live in the World lists. It’s a great place.”

Back to that $250,000 trophy, and it’s worth noting that, cup aside, the records book show that Sontheimer won $3,685,000, a tad more than he would have picked up for winning that table tennis tournament. I imagine it ranks as a career-high alongside his Poker Masters triumph.

“It’s doesn’t rank that highly,” says Sontheimer. “It was just one of those small field tournaments that I won. Obviously, there is this big number, and it felt great because only my friends had action. It was a tough tournament, and tough to sell to big investors. I like to sell to one or two parties to make things easier. This was the one where everyone had 1%, and it feels good to go to people and say ‘hey take your $30k, and you take your $30k’. It feels so much different than sending a weird amount of whatever portion of millions to a party I have never seen.

“The two years I grinded Supernova Elite, that was an accomplishment. I had to put a lot of effort in at that time. I was happy about the first tournament I ever won in Velden. Honestly, throughout the years it’s whenever I play on the stream and feel satisfied with my performance. This is where your image comes from, and how people rank you. I have run hot in these events, but I have made some good consistent decisions. 

“Things are changing for me. During the Baha Mar event, when you look back at the action, you can see it. When I get it in AK v AQ versus Sean, I want it to hold, but there is no celebration moment – no sign of happiness. Scoring in soccer triggers a bigger feeling. It’s become a job. There are no more euphoric moments.”

I wonder if the world-renowned rational and logical German efficiency has blowtorched the shit out of the emotional side of the game. 

“Definitely, and it’s a minus for every poker player,” says Sontheimer. “I have always had a goal, when it comes to my non-poker playing friends, excluding my close family, and my girlfriend, that I don’t let them see how the game affects me. Most of my poker friends will tell you that I am a whiny guy. It’s my way of getting things out. I write to one or two groups complaining about how bad I run, and then it’s gone. When my team scores a goal in soccer, yeah I am happy, but it’s not like it was ten years ago. Something within me has changed over the years.”

Some poker players want to leave a legacy; others want to win all the money, and for others, it’s a job where the goal is to play each hand as optimally as possible. 

Sontheimer?

“There was a time when I loved the problem-solving aspect of poker,” says Sontheimer. “I don’t like studying the game as it is nowadays – looking at charts – that’s not my sport. I’m looking for other stuff that is interesting for me. I don’t think mid-term long-term about poker at all. I have no real goals.”

I wonder if financial security lessens the need to have clearly defined goals. 

There’s no rush. 

“It plays a role,” Sontheimer confirms. “Whatever I have earned so far – it’s buying me time. I don’t want to be the guy who is financially secure forever, who goes to the Maldives and enjoys life. I have bought myself time through the effort I have put into poker. I want to find stuff that I am as thrilled about as I was with poker in 2013.

“This is how I think about poker. Firstly, how should you play? You can use solvers. Secondly, what is the villain doing wrong? Thirdly, what’s the right exploit? ‘I know this guy has done that wrong and he doesn’t know about it, and I am exploiting that right now’. That still feels great. But poker got tougher and tougher, and now you have people sitting around trying to copy the same charts while waiting for someone who does it for fun to turn up. I don’t even feel like the people who play for fun are having fun. It’s a weird industry.

“When you think about the good old times it’s like having photos in your mind. Sure this was fun, and that was fun, but grinding a ten hour day, no one can say that is fun. The ARIA tournaments are different. They are very fast, often six-handed and you know most people. There is a crew of guys who live in Vegas who play them all of the time. If I was playing in all of these tournaments in Vienna, in the same place, with six of my friends, and we could all sit and have a laugh in German, then that would be great for me. But the overall grind…I don’t know.”

It sounds like ‘doing the work’ is a prerequisite of being a world-class poker player, but Sontheimer doesn’t find that part of the grind fulfilling, while at the same time realising that if he doesn’t ‘do the work’ he will fall down the pecking order quicker than a fireman down a greasy pole.

So is it time to find something else?

“I know how to do all the ‘solver stuff’, and I am good at it,” says Sontheimer. “The reason I started playing poker was that I loved sitting there with a pen and a paper thinking about problems. I was recently tidying my room, and I found some old papers where I was working on poker problems. I was good at that. Nowadays it’s way easier. Poker switched from studying maths to studying business. You have that book with a thousand pages and have to learn it by heart by next Monday for an exam. It’s more for hard workers now. I don’t want to sound arrogant, but for me, it’s way closer to work, and it’s ok to be working, but I prefer to do something that I love.

“I compare it to video games. I played Warcraft back in the day. I didn’t play well, but I loved it. I loved the strategy, and in poker, it wasn’t about money in the beginning. It was about making the next level. Moving up in levels – it was insane. I never touched the money, so it didn’t mean anything. It was a high score. Poker feels like a job – like I am trading time for money and time is so valuable. Finding out what it is that you want to do is freaking tough.”

Sticking with the gaming analogy, and it feels like Sontheimer has played the game for so long, and so well, that he’s reached the highest level.

There are no more levels.

The only way is down. 

So is the poker grind worth the sacrifice of lost time?

“I had an interesting talk with Fedor {Holz} about this,” says Sontheimer. “He’s the type of person who finds an interest in everything. He has kind of retired for poker, but it’s still a good way for him to make money. It comes back to the 80/20 rule. If you have put in 20% of the volume, you get 80% of the money. He chooses wisely. He’s not the best in the world anymore, but giving up 80% of the work doesn’t decrease his level too much. Those fields he still plays in, there are a bunch of incredibly good players and a few businessmen. Being a little underdog against some of the regs – that’s fine, and he sees it that way, and that fits within the job aspect of it. Optimise that trade between time and money pretty much.”

So poker began as a hobby, turned into a vocation, became a career, and is now a job. 

So what’s Sontheimer’s new vocation?

“I am looking.” Says Sontheimer. “I guess I am waiting for it to fall in my lap.”

Until his new vocation falls into his lap where does Sontheimer love to play poker? 

“You have to look at the two sides of poker,” says Sontheimer. “The business side: how many recreational players are in the game. And then you have the enjoyment factor. Number one is Triton; they are the most enjoyable events. From the moment you arrive at the airport to the moment you leave – everything is done for you. And then on the business side, they provide so many recreational players, and everyone is always having a great time. ARIA is number two in that sense. The tournaments are fast. They have the best TD in Paul Campbell and have introduced “no rake” for people who start on time, and that produces a different atmosphere. The one minus is they give you the feeling they don’t give a shit about the Europeans.”

And how does poker make Sontheimer feel?

“Overall, poker provides me with a rollercoaster of feelings. I am pissed when I run bad, and happy when I run well.”

Well, he does like his running, and he has the trophy to prove it. 

The first event of Poker Central’s 2019 High Roller Triple Crown is in the books, and David Peters came from nowhere to pinch the title from Sean Winter and Stephen Chidwick.

Only 12-players could win the US Poker Open Championship with the $100,000 No-Limit Hold’em event in abeyance. 

Here they were.

US Poker Open Overall Standings

1. Sean Winter – 540 pts

2. Stephen Chidwick – 540

3. Nick Schulman – 410

4. Brandon Adams – 365

5. Koray Aldemir – 340

6. Cary Katz – 340

7. Bryn Kenney – 240

8. Lauren Roberts – 240

9. Jordan Cristos – 240

10. Ali Imsirovic – 200

11. David Peters – 200

12. Ben Yu – 200

Lauren Roberts, Jordan Cristos, Ali Imsirovic and Ben Yu skipped the event meaning only eight players could win the title going into Day 1.

The Day 1 Action

The defending champion, Stephen Chidwick, was the first contender to fall by the wayside when he moved all-in on the river, showing a set of fours on a Ts4d3sKs9s board, only for his opponent, Nick Petrangelo to be sitting behind the full force of the nut flush. Chidwick would buy back in.

Koray Aldemir began the tournament in fifth place after a victory and a runner-up finish, but the German would invest $200,000 during his quest to become the 2019 US Poker Open Champion after Justin Bonomo busted the man with a set of aces versus a rivered two-pair hand. 

Sean Winter came into the event in pole position and had an up and down Level 8 after doubling through Jason Koon AA>AK, before handing those chips to Jake Schindler when ATcc cracked pocket kings. 

Cary Katz began in sixth place after three final table finishes, but he hit the rail in a hand against Nick Schulman and Chris Hunichen. Schulman opened the action with an 8,000 raise from the cutoff and Hunichen (small), and Katz (big) both called from the blinds. The flop rained down Jc7s5c, Hunichen checked, Katz moved all-in for his remaining 8,000, Schulman called, Hunichen raised to 30,000, and Schulman called. The 7d hit the turn; Hunichen bet 22,000, and Schulman called. The 6c finished the action on the river; Hunichen checked, Schulman moved all-in for a tad over 100,000, and Hunichen folded. Katz showed Js3d for top pair, but Schulman’s Q9cc beat him when the flush got there on the river.

Brandon Adams began the day in the fourth position after making money during three events, but he too would have to invest a second $100,000 bullet if he was to earn the grandest title of all. Chris Hunichen opened from the cutoff and called when Adams moved all-in for 51,000. Adams was ahead with KdQh v Js5s, but Hunichen flopped and rivered trip jacks to send Adams to the rail.

At the end of registration, we had 33-entrants.

Only five players would make money and pick up leaderboard points. 

Here were the players in with a shot.

Sean Winter

Stephen Chidwick

Koray Aldemir

Bryn Kenney

David Peters

Schindler doubled through Winter for a second time when T8hh beat A6dd after rivering a heart flush.

The 2019 US Poker Open title would not be going to Germany after Koray Aldemir fell in the 11th Level. The winner of $50,000 event opened to 14,000, and both Martin Zamani and Jason Koon made the call. The dealer planted KcQs9s onto the flop, and Aldemir continued with a 24,000 bet. Zamani bumped it up to 100,000, Koon folded, Aldemir moved all-in, and Zamani called. Aldemir showed KsQh for the top two pairs, but Zamani had flopped the nuts holding JdTd. The board didn’t pair, or provide Aldemir with successive spades, and he was out.

Bryn Kenney doubled through Petrangelo AQ>A9. Ryan Riess doubled through David Peters AK>KQ. And the favourite to land the US Poker Open title, Sean Winter, left Jake Schindler needing a life support machine when his KQ beat the crap out of KJ.

Bryn Kenney doubled through Peters 44>AJ, but Peters would exact revenge, sending the Aussie Millions Main Event winner to the rail when QQ beat KJ in a five card race. 

Then we lost the defending champion.

Chidwick opened to 22,000 from the hijack, Zamani three-bet to 88,000 from the small blind, Chidwick four-bet all-in for 43,000, and Zamani called. 

It was a massacre.

Chidwick turned over AJ, and Zamani showed aces. 

Five community cards later and the only players in with a shot of being crowned the US Poker Open Champion were Sean Winter, Nick Schulman.

Final Table Seat Draw

Seat 1: Jason Koon – 630,000

Seat 2: Keith Tilston – 1,300,000

Seat 3: Chris Hunichen – 1,790,000

Seat 4: Sean Winter – 375,000

Seat 5: Ryan Riess – 340,000

Seat 6: Martin Zamani – 805,000

Seat 7: Nick Schulman – 125,000

Seat 8: David Peters – 640,000

Seat 9: Justin Bonomo – 595,000

Day 2: The Trials and Tribulations of Sean Winter, Nick Schulman and David Peters

Nick Schulman put himself into contention to become the US Poker Open Champion after winning the $25,000 Mixed Game event, and finishing fifth in one of the earlier $25,000 events, but his challenge would fizzle out without a murmur on the final day of the series.

Chris Hunichen opened to 35,000 from the hijack seat, and Schulman defended the big blind. The flop was AhAc8c, Schulman checked, Hunichen bet 25,000, and Schulman check-raised all-in for 115,000. Hunichen made the call and was ahead with Js8d for two pairs versus the T6cc for the flush draw. The 5h and 6h finished the action, and Schulman was out leaving Sean Winter and David Peters as the last potential winners.

Winter knew that a fifth-place finish, or more, would have locked up the title, but he never made it that far after busting in eight place. Winter moved all-in for 255,000, and Keith Tilston made the call from the big blind. It was a race with Winter’s ATcc needing to catch something to beat the pocket fives of Tilston. The flop of 7d6c4s handed Tilston an open-ended straight draw. The 8c on the turn completed that straight but gave Winter flush outs. The 3h on the river was a brick for Winter, and he left the competition after a fantastic series.

The math was simple, if David Peters was to win the event, he would surpass Winter at the top of the leaderboard by 10-points, and would be declared the 2019 US Poker Open Champion.

After Jason Koon exited in seventh place, Justin Bonomo became the official Bubble Boy of the tournament after his QJ failed to improve against the dominating AQ. 

The five remaining players had secured $264,000 in prize money.

David Peters doubled through Hunichen 66>KJ, but Zamani took a chunk from Peters when AK beat AJ. Peters then returned the favour when he got maximum value from a straight versus the two pair hand of Zamani to take the chip lead.

Keith Tilston disposed of Ryan Riess to take the chip lead from Peters when JJ beat 99 all-in pre-flop, and Tilston continued to build the biggest stack in the room when JJ beat the AT of Zamani to send the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) $25k winner home in fourth place.

Winter had a reason to chew his nails when Peters got it in with Tilston KQ v 88. Peters flopped a second queen to take the chip lead at a critical time, and he never looked back.

Tilston was the first to feel the full force of a pent up Peters after losing KQ versus A6 with all the chips in the middle. That knockout left Peters facing Hunichen with a 4.855m v 1.745m chip lead for the US Poker Open Championship.

Heads-up didn’t last long.

Hunichen limped from the button, Peters raised to 320,000, Hunichen moved all-in for 2.65m, and Peters made the call. 

Peters: 9d9c

Hunichen: Ah8c

Peters had to dodge an ace or an unruly combination of cards to become the US Poker Open Champion, and that’s what happened when JhJcTs8d6d landed on the flop, turn and river, calling time on the 2019 US Poker Open. 

Peters became the champion after making the final table of three of the ten events, finishing runner-up in the $10,000 Short-Deck, fifth in the $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em, and winning the big one. 

The win is Peters’ 25th of his career and his eighth seven-figure score. The former Global Poker Index (GPI) Player of the Year has now earned $31,590,261 in live tournament earnings with only four more players winning more. 

Final Table Results

1. David Peters – $1,320,000

2. Chris Hunichen – $858,000

3. Keith Tilston – $528,000

4. Martin Zamani – $330,000

5. Ryan Riess – $264,000

US Poker Open Overall Standings

1. David Peters – 550 pts

2. Sean Winter – 540 

3. Stephen Chidwick – 540

4. Nick Schulman – 410

5. Brandon Adams – 365

6. Koray Aldemir – 340

7. Cary Katz – 340

8. Bryn Kenney – 240

9. Lauren Roberts – 240

10. Jordan Cristos – 240

11. Ali Imsirovic – 200

12. Ben Yu – 200