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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

Poker is about to mystify and mesmerise us for another month. January animated 2020 with splashes of brilliance from three continents and February maintains that trend.

After the Aussie Millions, the high roller fraternity took a flight to Queensland to compete in the Australian Poker Open (APO). That new series ends with the inaugural Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB) Australia.

Australia becomes the fifth country to host an SHRB when the players descend on the Star Gold Coast in Queensland, 2-4 Feb for the AUD 250,000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) extravaganza.

Here are the previous winners.

Las Vegas

2015: Brian Rast beats 43-entrants to win $7,525,000*
2016: Rainer Kempe beats 49-entrants to win $5,000,000
2017: Christoph Vogelsang beats 56-entrants to win $6,000,000
2018: Justin Bonomo beats 48-entrants to win $5,000,000
2018: Isaac Haxton beats 36-entrants to win $3,672,000**

  • The buy-in was $500k before dropping to $300k in ensuing years.
    ** Poker Central held dragged the 2019 event into Dec 2018, creating two SHRB games in a single calendar year to align with their new Player of the Year setup.

China

2018: Justin Bonomo beats 75-entrants to win $4,823,077

London

2019: Cary Katz beats 12-entrants to win $2,610,317

Bahamas

2019: Daniel Dvoress beats 37-entrants to win $4,080,000

Triton Poker Super High Roller Series, Jeju

After the SHRB, the high stakes glacier glides to the Korean island of Jeju for the first Triton Poker Super High Roller series of 2020.

It’s the third Triton Jeju event. The first comprised of five games. Mikita Badzuakouski starred by becoming the first player to win back-to-back No-Limit Hold’em Main Event titles, and Kenneth Kee won the Short-Deck Main Event. The series returned in 2019 with seven events. Jason Koon won two of them, including the Short-Deck Main Event, and Timothy Adams won the NLHE Main Event.

The action takes place between 9-22 Feb at the Landing Casino in Shinwa World, Jeju, South Korea with an 11-event series. There are two Main Events, both priced at HKD 1m (NLHE & Short-Deck), and it’s the first time at this price point for the NLHE Main Event having previously been HKD 2m.

Here is the lineup:

10-11 Feb: HKD 250k NLHE
11-12 Feb: HKD 500k NLHE 6-Max
12-13 Feb: HKD 750k NLHE
13-14 Feb: HKD 250k NLHE 6-Max Turbo
14-16 Feb: HKD 1m NLHE Main Event
16-17 Feb: HKD 300k NLHE/Short-Deck Mix Turbo
17-18 Feb: HKD 250k Short-Deck
18-19 Feb: HKD 500k Short-Deck
19-20 Feb: HKD 750k Short-Deck
20-22 Feb: HKD 1m Short-Deck Main Event
22 Feb: HKD 300k Short-Deck

partypoker MILLIONS South America

Running simultaneously with the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series is partypoker’s MILLIONS South America event.

The series runs from 6-16 Feb, from the Enjoy Conrad Resort & Casino, Punta del Este, Uruguay, and the main feature is a $10,300, $5m GTD NLHE Main Event.

As has become standard, there is a $25,500 NLHE MILLIONS Super High Roller, and that takes place 10-11 Feb and a $10,300 NLHE MILLIONS High Roller Finale.

It’s the second MILLIONS event of 2020. Dusk till Dawn (DTD) in Nottingham hosted MILLIONS UK in January, and the in-form Kahle Burns took down the $25k Super High Roller, Joao Vieira took down the $10k High Roller Finale, and Anton Suarez won the $10k Main Event.

In 2019, MILLIONS South America hailed from the Belmond Copacabana Palace Hotel in Brazil. Marty Mathis won the $10k Main Event, Guillaume Nolet won the $10k High Roller, and there were two $25k events with Jonathan Depa owning one. Pablo Joaquin Melogno Cabrera took down the other.

And that’s a wrap for the February high roller action.

Australian Poker Open

The molecular world of poker is one that often escapes the eye of Pulp’s ‘Common People,’ but if they did spot it, and could pierce the bubble, they would think it was a beautiful place.

It isn’t all unicorns and rainbows.

After becoming the 28th human being to earn more than $19m in live tournament earnings through winning Event #3: AUD 25,000 No-Limit Hold ’em (NLHE) at the Australian Poker Open (APO) in The Star Gold Coast in Queensland, the Canadian said:

“I’ve been playing for so long now, and I’m still very passionate about the game, but I can’t do this my whole life. This game takes a toll on you, the travel, the playing, the studying, it’s really a full-time job. I think I have a few good years left though, and maybe then I can relax a bit more.”

Adams’ win sees him move into third place in the overall leaderboard behind Andras Nemeth and the current leader, Mike Watson. Still, his chances of taking it down are hampered slightly by his decision to skip the Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) events.

One person who won’t skip the PLO events is the $25k PLO World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner, Stephen Chidwick. The former US Poker Open winner glides ominously into fourth place after losing to Adams, heads-up.

Also breaking into the Top 5 is Orpen Kisacikoglu. The Turkish, London-based, businessman, added a fifth-place finish to the fourth-place finish he enjoyed in Event #1: AUD 10,000 NLHE.

“To win a tournament a lot of things have to go your way and today that happened to me,” said Adams.

Let’s take a look then shall we?

The Nutshell Action

The final table began with Stephen Chidwick cutting down the field with some cunning and culling. The in-form Aaron Van Blarcum became the first player to feel the former Global Poker Index (GPI) World # 1’s wrath when his ace-three fell to pocket sevens.

Orpen Kisacikoglu’s face turned from delight to desperation when he got it in with ace-queen, only for Chidwick to cooler him with ace-king, and suddenly, the poker press began to wonder if the man from the UK and Event #3 honours had been betrothed.

A feature of a vagabonding Poker Central is the ability of players to feature who are unlikely to head to Las Vegas to fight. Andy Lee is a prime example. The Australian began the final table with the chip lead, and he joined Chidwick in the final table list of vanquishers when his ace-six came from behind to hit a flush, beating ace-queen of the dangerous Steve O’Dwyer.

Three-handed play became heads-up when Lee himself hit the rail. The former World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) AUD NLHE High Roller winner, got it in good, with top pair versus the flush draw of Adams, but the Triton Champion hit his flush on the river to set up a titanic tussle with Chidwick for the Event #3 title.

As adjectives go, ‘titanic’ was the wrong one to pull out of a Google search.

‘ Short’ is a more apt choice.

The heads-up action lasted only a few hands, and Adams won them all, including the last one of the tournament when his pocket sevens beat ace-five to confirm victory.

Australian poker players have suffered of late with the government deciding to ban online poker. The presence of events like the APO must give the activists hope that one day the government can be persuaded to see that poker is a game of skill. If they ever need an experienced man to take the stand, then the $19m man Adams is a grand choice.

ITM Results

  1. Timothy Adams – $416,500
  2. Stephen Chidwick – $269,500
  3. Andy Lee – $183,750
  4. Steve O’Dwyer – $122,500
  5. Orpen Kisacikoglu – $98,000
  6. Aaron Van Blarcum – $73,500
  7. Chino Rheem – $61,250

APO Leaderboard

  1. Mike Watson – 450 points
  2. Andras Nemeth – 360
  3. Timothy Adams – 300
  4. Stephen Chidwick – 210
  5. Orpen Kisackoglu – 210

Australian Poker Open Remaining Events

Event #4: $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha
Event #5: $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Event #6: $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Event #7: $100,000 No-Limit Hold’em

The World Poker Tour (WPT) Lucky Hearts Poker Open in the Seminole Hard Rock, Hollywood, Florida, has offered a respite for those abstaining from the long haul flight to Melbourne. 

Two events lit up the festival like a streetlight.

The first was the $25,500 No-Limit Hold’em. 41-entrants stepped out of the shadows to compete in the high roller genre.

It was a final table containing a balanced range of $25k+ experience. 

Byron Kaverman is the type of player that reminds you to lock your backdoor. He is a former Global Poker Index (GPI) Player of the Year and World #1. However, it’s been a quiet time of late with Kaverman winning a mere $356,219 in 2019 compared to the multi-millions earned in previous years while battling it out in the high roller scene, and he took the sixth place. 

For all of Kaverman’s achievements, he’s never won a $25k at a WPT festival whereas Maria Ho has. The oft-time broadcaster turned it on during the 2019 WPT Los Angeles Poker Classic (LAPC), beating Kristen Bicknell, heads-up, to claim the $25k high roller tiara. 

There was also two WPT Champions Club member at the final table. Jared Jaffee earned his honours after winning the 2014 WPT bestbet Fall Poker Scramble. It’s not Jaffee’s first $25k+ rodeo, having collecting four ITM finishes at the ARIA in 2018.

The other WPT Champions Club member was Jonathan Jaffe, and the Massachusetts man, took this one down, beating Arkaday Tsinis in heads-up action. Tsinis has a WSOP bracelet somewhere in his house but has never cashed in a $25k+ event before. Jaffe narrowly lost out to Chris Kruk in the $25,000 NLHE at the 2018 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA).

Jaffe’s win (his eighth title) moves the needle above the $4m mark in live tournament earnings. It’s his first win since taking down a small field $5k in 2018, and he only banked $393,662 in 2019 earnings, with most of that coming in his 6/606 finish in the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic Main Event.

Final Table Results

  1. Jonathan Jaffe – $340,285*
  2. Arkadiy Tsinis – $257,207*
  3. Jared Jaffee – $146,842
  4. Ping Liu – $101,270
  5. Maria Ho – $70,889
  6. Byron Kaverman – $55,699
  7. Kevin Rabinchow – $40,508

*Denotes a heads-up deal

Brian Altman Wins The Main Event; Makes History

Winning multiple WPT titles is becoming as common as stairs on a staircase with 24 people doing the do. Still, nobody had ever won the same WPT Main Event twice, until, today. 

Brian Altman conquered a field of 843-entrants to win the $3,500 buy-in Lucky Hearts Poker Open Main Event, and now tops the Season XVIII WPT Hublot Player of the Year race, after securing his third in the money finish of the season. 

Altman collected $482,636 for the win, after beating John Dollinger in heads-up action. Altman won the same event in 2015, beating 1,027-entrants to bank the $723,008 first prize. 

Here are the final table results. 

Final Table Results

  1. Brian Altman – $482,636
  2. John Dollinger – $311,751
  3. Chanracy Khun – $230,086
  4. Nadya Magnus – $171,642
  5. Nadeem Hirani – $129,438
  6. Peter Walsworth – $98,686
Australian Poker Open

The Star Gold Coast is ground zero, and we’ve just had another explosion of activity, with Andras Nemeth taking down the 43-entrant Event #2: AUD 10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) at the Australian Poker Open (APO).

Given the fact that mother nature has decided to burn the face off most of Australia these past few weeks, it’s not top of the ‘Places to Live’ list for many people.

The Hungarian star is not in that camp.

After securing the third live tournament win of his career, Nemeth waxed lyrical on the virtues of Australian life, suggesting if it weren’t so far away from Budapest, he would live there.

That distance is 9.6k miles, and Nemeth is glad he made the trip. It’s his second final table of the APO after finishing sixth in Event #1: AUD 10,000 No-Limit Hold ’em (NLHE), and you can be sure he will be pressing for full APO honours.

Nemeth defeated Najeem Ajez in heads-up action. Ajez had a decent Aussie Millons cashing three-times, and making two final tables, including 3/59 in the AUD 25,000 PLO for $136,840 – the most significant score of his career.

Let’s see how the pair came to lock horns in this one.

The Nutshell Action

Erik Seidel came into the APO on the back of a final table appearance at the Aussie Millions Main Event. Seidel had a great chance to win that event, and he’s given himself a shot of having a run at the APO, after eking onto the scoreboard with a sixth-place finish. The New Yorker went out after running jack-ten-seven-four rainbow into the pocket kings of Ajez.

Sean Winter had an outstanding 2019, and when there’s a Poker Central event, it seems Winter is in tow. The top man finished fifth in this one after running his pocket kings into the double-suited queens and nines of Mike Watson, with the Canadian finding a flush.

Joni Jouhkimainen is a dab hand at the four-card game and finished in fourth place after running ace-king-eight-six into the queen-ten-eight-four double-suited of Ayez. Two pair on the turn for Ajez, sending the Finn into a prism of pain.

After eliminating the partypoker pro, Ayez held a commanding lead three-handed against Nemeth and Watson with 2.6m chips v 655,000 and 985,000. Still, the Event #1 winner, took the chip lead, before Nemeth put together a run that his ancestors would have been proud of to snatch it from him. Nemeth then ousted Watson when his two-pair hand held against an open-ender.

Twice, Ayez came within a single card of winning Event #2, and twice the Poker Gods went to the Hungarians’ rescue. The final plotline arrived when kings beat a suited ace hand to hand Nemeth the victory.

ITM Results

  1. Andras Nemeth – $99,811
  2. Najeem Ajez – $63,901
  3. Michael Watson – $44,034
  4. Joni Jouhkimainen – $29,356
  5. Sean Winter – $23,485
  6. Erik Seidel – $17,614
  7. Chino Rheem – $14,678

APO Leaderboard

  1. Mike Watson – 450 points
  2. Andras Nemeth – 360
  3. Michael O’Grady – 210
  4. Najeem Ayez – 210
  5. Benjamin Shannon – 150

Australian Poker Open Remaining Events

Event #3: 25,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Event #4: $25,000 Pot-Limit Pmaha
Event #5: $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Event #6: $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Event #7: $100,000 No-Limit Hold’em