Category: My news, views and fun facts

pollak
Benjamin Pollak has taken down the €50,000 Single-Day High Roller at the PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona, beating his compatriot Jean-Noel Thorel in heads-up action.
Pollak has been in outstanding form since coming third in the 2017 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event for $3,500,000, cashing 16-times, winning two titles, and taking $4,567,377 away from the tables.
The €50k attracted 54 entrants, 15 re-entries, and created a prize pool of €3,347,190.
The whole thing lasted a mere 20-levels.
Let’s see how Pollak tied this one up.

Level 1: 500/1000/1000
Jean-Noel Thorel’s first bullet didn’t last long. The French amateur sunk to 20,000 before moving them across the line with pocket treys and Seth Davies sucked them up like a Dyson, holding KQdd. The American flopped the flush, and Broadway straight draws and hit them both when the Td hit the turn.

Level 3: 1000/1500/1500
Scott Margereson, Almedin Imsirovic and the Global Poker Index #1, Stephen Chidwick, all busted while all around them people were still entering.

Level 5: 1000/2500/2500
Daniel Dvoress hit the sack early.
Chi Zhang sent Jean Ferreira to the rail when his pocket sixes cracked pocket eights when a third six hit the flop are after the pair got it in pre-flop.

Level 6: 1500/3000/3000
Chidwick and Margereson lost their second bullet. Mark Teltscher, Helio Neves, Frederik Jensen, David Peters, Bryn Kenney and Adrian Mateos also busted.

Level 7: 2000/4000/4000
Jack Salter tripled up after taking care of Thomas Muehloecker and Orpen Kisacikoglu. The Austrian opened the action with a raise to 85,000, Kisacikoglu three-bet all-in for 22,000, Salter four-bet to 34,000, Muehloecker moved all-in, and Salter called.
Salter: KhKd
Muehloecker: AdQc
Kisacikoglu: 2s2d
Board: 9c9s7dJdQh
The Cowboys held, and Salter moved up to 395,000. Muehloecker bought back in immediately for 25 big blinds.

Level 8: 2500/5000/5000
Adrian Mateos sent the hottest player in Barcelona to the rail when he got it in A8hh>K5dd. An ace on the flop strengthened Mateos’ lead, a king gave Badziakouski some help on the turn, but a third ace on the river sealed things, and the €100k Super High Roller champion walked over to the cash desk to buy back in.
Jean-Noel Thorel sent Lim Chin Wei packing. The pair got it in on QcTc4d with Thorel holding KTss for the middle pin, and Wei holding K9cc for the draws that never arrived.

Level 9: 3000/6000/6000 
Chi Zhang, David Peters, Aaron Been and Ben Heath ended up thinking about a day without poker in this level.
Jan-Eric Schwippert sent Tsugunari Toma to the pool when his pocket tens beat QTo, all-in, pre-flop. Stefan Schillhabel and Henrik Hecklen also exited stage left.
Byron Kaverman’s pocket fives cracked Linus Leoliger’s pocket jacks to give the American a much-needed double-up. And he did it again when J8ss, found a Jack to double through Sam Greenwood’s pocket fours. The €100,000 Super High Roller runner-up, Ahadpur Khangah was not so lucky, hitting the rail hard in this level.

Level 10: 4000/8000/8000
Bill Perkins moved all-in holding AsTh, and Dietrich Fast called with pocket jacks. The jacks held, and Perkins was out. Nick Petrangelo also busted in this level.
Then we lost Kisacikoglu for the second time.
Matthew Eibinger opened to 17,000, Dean Nolan called on the button, and Kisacikoglu did likewise from the big blind. The flop was JdTd2c, and everyone checked to the 4d turn. Kisacikoglu opened with a 30,000 bet, and both players called. The river was the Ah, and this time Kisacikoglu checked. Eibinger bet 73,000, Nolan folded, and Kisacikoglu moved all-in. Eibinger sighed but called, and it was good. The Austrian showed AJo for the top two pairs, and Kisacikoglu showed A5o for the one pair.
Alex Foxen eliminated Steffen Sontheimer A8>QT, and Sean Winter also left the tournament in this level.

Level 11: 5000/10000/10000
Not long after eliminating Perkins, Fast also found the exit sign. The Russian born star got his chips in against Bryn Kenney holding A8<A9, and he never saw them again.
Seth Davies eliminated Badziakouski for the second time when AK beat A7, and Alex Foxen continued to be a significant player in this one when his pocket queens took care of the KTo of Ramin Hajiyev.
Michael Soyza is in splendid form, but couldn’t carry it into the higher buy-in event losing his last life in a three-way all-in against Mikalai Vaskaboinikau and Jan-Eric Schwippert. Soyza held QJss, and his two opponents both held AK. The superior hands held, and the pair chopped Soyza’s stack like a piece of steak.
And then Foxen took the chip lead with 21 players remaining, eliminating Sam Greenwood AK>AQ, all-in, pre-flop, before busting Kenney QQ>TT. Ryan Riess doubled through Sergio Aido AQ>99, and then Pollak made his mark on the event, tripling up in a monster hand versus Cary Katz and Adrian Mateos.
The Spaniard opened to 20,000 from early position, Katz made the call in the next pew before Pollak moved all-in for 128,000 in the big blind. Mateos moved all-in, and Katz called.
Pollak: AdAh
Katz: AcKd
Mateos: KsTs
The board steered clear of any mishaps, and the Frenchman tripled up. Katz and Mateos left the hand with 248,000 and 105,000 respectively.

Level 12: 6000/12000/12000
Seth Davies sent Timothy Adams to the souvenir shop when his K5cc beat A4o all-in, pre-flop. Vaskaboinikau, who qualified for the event via a €5k satellite, eliminated Nolan in a flush-over-flush hand. And Chin Wei Lim’s tournament ended after running jacks into Stanley Choi’s kings, and then K3o v KTo of Eibinger.
And then Jean-Noel Thorel, the man first to lose a bullet, became a man to be feared, eliminating Mateos and Kaverman when his AQ beat KQ and A7 all-in, pre-flop.
The top ten chip counts with two tables remaining looked like this:

  1. Alex Foxen – 1,300,000
  2. Jean-Noel Thorel – 830,000
  3. Matthias Eibinger – 800,000
  4. Ivan Leow – 630,000
  5. Mikalai Vaskaboinikau – 480,000
  6. Jack Salter – 420,000
  7. Jan-Eric Schwippert – 420,000
  8. Cary Katz – 380,000
  9. Luc Greenwood – 380,000
  10. Benjamin Pollak – 350,000

Pollak began his ascent, eliminating Aido KK>A6o, and Luc Greenwood 88>44, and by the time we reached the break at the end of Level 12, the Frenchman was second in chips to Alex Foxen.

Level 13: 8000/16000/16000
Another level.
More Pollak power.
This time Katz felt the pain when he got it in holding pocket tens against Pollak’s AKo, and an ace on the river and a king on the turn gave Pollak two pairs. Katz was out; Pollak was the new chip leader.
Riess doubled through Salter JJ>AK. Salter did hit his ace on the flop, but the former World Champion hit a two outer on the turn to survive. Vaskaboinikau doubled through Leow AK>88 after flopping a king, and Salter got some back when he doubled through Eibinger 87cc>KTss after flopping a seven.

Level 14: 10000/20000/20000
Riess doubled again, this time KK>JJ of Eibinger, Pollak eliminated the short-stacked Leow when his A3cc beat pocket queens after flopping two pairs. And Pollak continued his onslaught eliminating Loeliger and Choi on the bubble, finding pocket aces to bust KQss, and AKo.
Moving into the final table, Pollak had a commanding lead.

Final Table Chip Counts

  1. Benjamin Pollak – 2,275,000
  2. Jean-Noel Thorel – 1,095,000
  3. Ryan Riess – 810,000
  4. Alex Foxen – 735,000
  5. Mikalai Vaskaboinikau – 540,000
  6. Seth Davies – 380,000
  7. Jack Salter – 355,000
  8. Jan-Eric Schwippert – 345,000
  9. Matthias Eibinger – 230,000

Eibinger added €97,090 to the €97,500 he won in the €25k REG Charity event, and €759,680 for coming third in the €100,000 event after leaving the party in ninth. The Austrian got it in with deuces and found callers in two spots. Pollak held pocket sevens, but Seth Davies woke up with aces to triple up.

Level 15: 10000/25000/25000
Salter doubled through Foxen 66>AK.
Then we lost Schwippert.
Riess made it 60,000 to play on the button, and the German called in the big blind. The dealer placed 8c6h5c on the flop, Schwippert checked, Riess bet 60,000, Schwippert check-raised all-in, and Riess called.
Schwippert held T4cc for the flush and straight draws. Riess held pocket queens. The ladies got through another two streets with their crowns intact, and Schwippert was out, earning €127,200.

Level 16: 15000/30000/30000
Jack Salter’s run ended in seventh for €164,000 when he got it in holding AKdd versus the pocket aces of Foxen.

Level 17: 20000/40000/40000
Foxen continued his hatchet job, taking care of Davies. Once again, Foxen found the rockets. Davies’ K7o paling in comparison and €207,500 would have to do for the American.
Vaskaboinikau turned €5k into €267,800 after busting in fifth place. Firstly, the Belarusian doubled through Foxen when his pocket fours managed to avoid any mishaps against A8o, but his AK couldn’t cause one when it came up against the pocket queens of Pollak.

Level 18: 250000/50000/50000
The former World Champ left the competition in fourth for €344,700. Riess looked lively when he got it in with pocket sevens against the pocket threes of Thorel, but a third trey appeared on the turn to send Riess back to his hotel room.

Level 19: 30000/60000/30000
Alex Foxen left the two Frenchman to fight for the title when he exited in third for €456,900. Pollak’s AQ beating his KQo, all-in, pre-flop, to make Pollak the favourite going into the end zone.

Heads-Up Chip Counts
Thorel – 3,800,00
Pollak – 3,100,00

Level 20: 40000/80000/80000
Pollak pulls into the lead after a series of pots went his way.
Down to only seven big blinds, Thorel made a stand with A3o, and Pollak peeled back his cards to see A9o.
Call.
Five community cards later, and Pollak was our winner.

Final Table Results 

  1. Ben Pollak – €979,000
  2. Jean-Noel Thorel – €703,000
  3. Alex Foxen – €456,900
  4. Ryan Riess – €344,700
  5. Mikalai Vaskaboinikau – €267,800
  6. Seth Davies – €207,500
  7. Jack Salter – €164,000
  8. Jan-Eric Schwippert – €127,200
  9. Matthias Eibinger – €97,090

The PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona slapped a €100,000 buy-in Super High Roller on the card for the first time, and when it came down to form, there was one man everyone had to beat.
Justin Bonomo is the hottest player in the world right now. But when Bonomo doesn’t turn up for work, that mantle becomes the responsibility of Mikita Badziakouski.
The Belarusian star came into this event after winning back-to-back Triton Poker Series Main Events in Montenegro and Jeju. Add a fourth-place finish in the Super High Roller Bowl to that collection, as well as a series of other sterling results, and you’re looking at an annual haul of $12,411,966 – only Bonomo has won more ($24,945,435). Badziakouski’s form would have seen him top the live yearly tournament earnings charts in three of the past four years.
Could anyone stop him?
The headline is a bit of a giveaway.
Let’s see how he took it down.
 
Day 1
44 entrants participated in eight levels of 60-minutes, at the end of the day 28 remained with Badziakouski bagging up 402,000 chips, good enough for 80 big blinds.

Top Ten Chip Counts

  1. Ahadpur Khangah – 1,155,000
  2. Pascal LeFrancois – 647,000
  3. David Peters – 638,000
  4. Seth Davies – 622,000
  5. Timothy Adams – 587,000
  6. Jan-Eric Schwippert – 545,000
  7. Patrik Antonius – 517,000
  8. Jean-Hoel Thorel – 496,000
  9. Bryn Kenney – 494,000
  10. Benjamin Pollak – 469,000

Day 2
Ten people took advantage of the late registration, making the final field size, 54. The prize pool was €5,239,080.
Here were the payouts:

Payouts

  1. €1,650,300
  2. €1,191,900
  3. €759,680
  4. €576,300
  5. €445,300
  6. €340,550
  7. €274,050

Level 10, with blinds at 4,000/8,000/8,000, and a critical hand for Badziakouski.
Badziakouski opened to 21,000, Adams three-bet to 69,000 and Badziakouski called. The flop was Ts6h2c; Adams bet 38,000, Badziaouski raised to 100,000, Adams moved all-in, and Badziakouski called for his tournament life. The Belarusian showed ATcc for top pair, and backdoor flush draw, but Adam was ahead with pocket queens. The As landed on the turn to give Badziakouski two pairs, and after a blank river he doubled up to 780,000.
By the time we reached the final three tables, Badziakouski was third in chips.

Top Five Chip Counts

  1. Ahadpur Khangah – 1,819,000
  2. Matthias Eibinger – 1,200,000
  3. Mikita Badziakouski – 960,000
  4. David Peters – 940,000
  5. Daniel Negreanu – 685,000

With blinds at 8,000/16,000/16,000, Badziakouski took care of Pascal LeFrancois. Le Francois opened to 36,000 on the button, Badziakouski three-bet to 140,000 from the small blind, and LeFrancois called. The flop was 8d5h2d, Badziakouski made an 80,000 c-bet, LeFrancois moved all-in, and Badziakouski called.
Badziakouski: KhKd
LeFrancois: Kc5c
Badziakouski was light years ahead, and another king on the turn sealed the deal. Badziakouski moved up to 1,550,000 to solidify his #3 spot behind Matthias Eibinger (the new runaway chip leader), and Khangah.
The next player to feel the power of Badziakouski’s hands was Christoph Vogelsang. The former Super High Roller Bowl winner opened to 44,000 (with blinds at 10k/20k/20k), Badziakouski three-bet to 135,000, and Vogelsang made the call.
Flop: 5h3s2s
Both players checked.
Turn: 7s
Vogelsang bet 120,000; Badziakouski called.
River: 9s
With four spades on the board, Vogelsang checked his option, and Badziakouski put him all-in. The German star made the call and left the building after Badziakouski’s pocket aces (with the ace of spades) beat the pocket tens (ten of spades) of Vogelsang.
At the dinner break, Badziakouski had moved into the second spot.

Top Five Counts

  1. Matthias Eibinger – 2,580,000
  2. Mikita Badziakouski – 2,300,000
  3. Bryn Kenney – 1,200,000
  4. Daniel Negreanu – 1,040,000
  5. Cary Katz – 910,000

Timothy Adams eliminated Daniel Negreanu, Ahadpur Khanga took care of Adrian Mateos and Bryn Kenney, and we had a final table.
Nine players remained.
Only seven would win any money.

Final Table Chip Counts
 

  1. Matthias Eibinger – 3,040,000
  2. Mikita Badziakouski – 2,570,000
  3. Ahadpur Khangah – 2,105,000
  4. Cary Katz – 1,425,000
  5. Timothy Adams – 1,245,000
  6. Rui Neves Ferreira – 1,020,000
  7. Benjamin Pollak- 765,000
  8. Jean Ferreira – 720,000
  9. Byron Kaverman – 610,000

Day 3
The first player to exit was Cary Katz, and it was a brutal way to go. The Poker Central founder got it in with pocket queens against the KTcc of Matthias Eibinger. The ultra dry flop of Qs6c2h gave Katz an incredible opportunity to double up, only for the Austrian to hit runner-runner clubs to eliminate Katz with a flush.
The elimination of Katz led to the bubble, and the last player to leave with nothing was Byron Kaverman. Once again Eibinger played the role of Albert Pierrepoint, tightening the noose around the American’s neck with 87o>A8dd, and letting the trap door go when a seven hit the turn to give Eibinger the win.
Jean Ferreira earned €275,050 for a seventh-place finish after running AJo into the pocket kings of Khangah all-in, pre-flop. Badziakouski doubled up through the chip leader, Eibinger, when his pocket tens won a flip against the AQ of the Austrian. And Rui Neves Ferreira became the second Ferreira to leave the final table when his pocket queens lost out to the KQ of Khangah after the Iranian flopped the second cowboy.
The former November Niner, Benjamin Pollak, took €445,300 for a fifth-place finish when Eibinger sent him packing 86cc>AJo after flopping an eight and rivering a six in an all-in, pre-flop encounter. Timothy Adams banked €576,300 after losing a flip 88<KQ to Eibinger. And we reached heads-up play after Badziakouski’s AQ found an ace on the flop to eliminate Eibinger who was holding pocket tens.

Heads-Up Chip Counts
Badziakouski – 7,700,000
Khangah – 5,800,000

Khangah finished sixth in the 2016 €50,000 Super High Roller in this very building, and also finished seventh in the €111,111 One Drop High Roller at the 2017 World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE), but he is no match for the silky skills of the Belarusian.
Khangah would need the luck to be on his side, and it stayed in the deck.
Badziakouski won a succession of pots to take a commanding chip lead before busting his opponent after both players flopped top pair. The money went in on the turn after Badziakouski turned his weaker top pair hand into two pairs.

It was an excellent run for the Iranian, but he was up against one of the hottest poker players in the world.
Here are the final table results.

Final Table Results

  1. Mikita Badziakouski – €1,650,300
  2. Ahadpur Khangah – €1,191,900
  3. Matthias Eibinger – €759,680
  4. Timothy Adams – €576,300
  5. Benjamin Pollak – €445,300
  6. Rui Ferreira – €340,550
  7. Jean-Christophe Ferreira – €275,050

“Are you going to be in Manila for Triton in December?” I asked Badziakouski after his win.
“I guess I have to be now,” said a calm as you like Badziakouski.
That’s not good news for anyone else heading that way.

Cary Katz
 
Cary Katz hadn’t played Short-Deck before arriving in the Landing Casino, Jeju, South Korea, resplendent in his trademark black jacket and peaked cap.
Not that it matters.
People like Katz don’t fear games of poker, even one without the deuces, treys, fours and fives. Successful men like Katz adapt, evolve and more often than not come out on top.
After testing the water in the HKD 100,000 (USD 13,000) and HKD 500,000 (USD 64,000) buy-in Short-Deck events without coming up with as much as a conch shell, the Poker Central founder, finished second in the HKD 1,000,000 (USD 127,000) buy-in event for HKD 13,920,000 (USD 1,773,722).
The game had flung out a lure, and you could see it, flashing brightly, from his stiff upper lip.
The man who created the ARIA High Rollers, and has cashed in more of them than anyone alive or pushing up tulips, went home to the US, and I get the feeling there was only one thing on his mind.
 
The Poker Masters is Back
The second edition of the Poker Masters is back, and the ARIA and Poker Central have released the menu.
It looks tasty.
 
Sep 7 – Event #1: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Sep 8 – Event #2: $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Sep 9 – Event #3: $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha
Sep 10 – Event #4: $10,000 Triton Hold’em (Short-Deck)
Sep 11 – Event #5: $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Sep 12 – Event #6: $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Sep 13 – Event #7: $100,000 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event
 
Events #1 – #5 are double re-entry
Events #6 – #7 are single re-entry
 
As you can see, Katz has introduced a Triton Hold’em event (Short-Deck) into the schedule, and I think that’s a good thing for the high roller stratum.
The Triton Poker Series is the father of the Short-Deck Ante-Only variant. The brand has become THE tour for the games biggest winners, but only a select few top-tier pros have given this format a shot because the buy-ins are so huge.
In offering a $10,000 price point (which isn’t Triton’s niche), it allows a broader tranche of players to have a taste of the newest meat in town. If they like the marble; they are likelier to compete in what is fast becoming the most significant high stakes tournament variant in the world.
Last year, Steffen Sontheimer won the Waraire Boswell designed Purple Jacket when he made four of the five final tables, winning two of them, including the $100,000 Main Event for $1.5m, leaving Las Vegas with $2,733,000 in winnings.
“Including Short-Deck is fine since it’s just the ’10k'”, Sontheimer told me in a brief interview.” It’s a little tryout for everybody and won’t influence the overall results. I’d prefer to make The Poker Masters pure NLH since we have the USPO for mixed games, but it’s fine either way.”

A lot of players coming into the Poker Masters spending more time in the zone than out of it. Justin Bonomo has to be the favourite after winning both Super High Roller Bowls and the Big One For One Drop, Jason Koon is another man picking up seven-figure scores at the rate a hammerhead shark picks up jokes about his face from other sharks, and Mikita Badziakouski has just won back-to-back Triton Poker Series Main Events.
Form.
Heat.
Luck.
Call it what you want, it’s essential coming into an event like this.
“I felt good going into the event last year,” said Sontheimer. “I had a great summer doing alright in Vegas; cashing big in Montenegro and Velden, and cashing in Rozvadov. Life was great. For me, it was the first time experiencing Vegas with nice weather. My friends and I got there two days early, and we hung out and had a good time. I felt like my game was great, confidence was at an all-time high at that point.”

The Poker Masters is still in its infancy. Given its annual calling, it will take time to settle into a rhythm, and become one of the genuinely great poker events. The schedule and lineup will ebb and flow depending on the times, and feedback from those involved.
“I loved the idea and the concept of having a week-long grind of those tourneys,” said Sontheimer. “I figured out early that the overall ranking was kinda messed up; pretty much guaranteeing the winner of the Main Event the title. But since you only win the jacket with no money on top, it’s not a big deal. There wouldn’t be any point where I play differently to win the title. My job was to go max $-EV. Everything that comes along with that is a cherry on top. They changed the ranking system for this year which makes sense. They should’ve asked players earlier to start like that right away.”

After Sontheimer won the Purple Jacket, Daniel Negreanu called him the best No-Limit Hold’em live tournament player on the planet. High praise from the undisputed Player of the Decade.
“I felt great getting so many warm words from a legend and poker icon like Daniel,” said Sontheimer. “I always enjoy playing and competing with him. It feels great to be seen as one of the top guys by people that play the same stuff. Whether it is being picked early in a draft, getting asked for swaps by the best players or getting those kinds of articles written about you.”

And media folks looking forward to writing more Poker Masters articles about Sontheimer are going to be sorely disappointed. PokerGO relies on the story arc of poker, and there is no better narrative than a man returning to defend his title.
Not this year.
“I won’t play this year,” Sontheimer confirmed. “I don’t think it’s the best value of the year and I have private things during that week that I value a lot. So I decided to skip and watch some of the streams. I’m a bit sad for sure, but I’m happy with my decision.” 
I imagine there are twenty plus other people who are also happy with his decision.

The Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open (SHRPO) in Hollywood, Florida, is fast becoming one of the most sought after events in the poker calendar. Close your eyes, and think back to your grannies baked apple pie and you get the gist.
A few weeks back, I brought you Elio Fox’s victory in the $50,000 Super High Roller. The man who won his first bracelet in the summer topped a field of 25 entrants, including Dan Shak, heads-up, to take the title.
The series has since past into the annals of time, and here are a few more tales involving our high stakes brethren.

Jake Schindler wins the $25,500 No-Limit High Roller.

Jake Schindler
Jake Schindler

There are few players in a better state of mind than Jake Schindler and Shaun Deeb these days, and the pair rose to the top of a 123-entrant $25,500 High Roller.
Those 123 souls donated $3,136,500 in prize money, and Schindler beat the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Player of the Year (POY) leader to bank the $800,758 first prize.
The win is Schindler’s 19th of his career, and his fifth most significant sum of money, during a career that has seen him take $20,881,255 from the live tournament tables, primarily in the States. Schindler’s best score was $3.6m as runner-up to Christoph Vogelsang in the 2017 Super High Roller Bowl.
Last year, Schindler finished second to Nick Schulman in the $50k SHRPO event.

ITM Results

1. Jake Schindler – $800,758
2. Shaun Deeb – $534,989
3. Tom Marchese – $371,183
4. Omar Zazay – $265,311
5. Mark Fisher – $195,570
6. Barry Hutter – $148,769
7. Ory Hen – $116,942
8. Paul Höfer – $95,110
9. David Peters – $80,073
10. Chris Hunichen – $80,073
11. Toby Lewis – $69,926
12. Nipun Java – $69,926
13. Alan Schein – $63,407
14. Ian O’Hara – $63,407
15. Darren Elias – $59,778
16. Ryan Riess – $59,778

Other SHRPO News

Brandon Eisen won the $5,250 No-Limit Hold’em SHRPO Championship. It was another bumper field with 914 entrants, and Eisen earned $771,444 after beating Jeremy Ausmus heads-up for the title.
The event smashed the $3m Guarantee with $4.4m entering the coffers. High rollers that placed well included Joseph Cheong, who continued his decent run of form finishing eighth for $102,843, Noah Schwartz finishing 11th for $62,415 and Jason Mercier took a baby timeout long enough to finish 37th for $17,333.
And Ryan Riess took down the $10k No-Limit Hold’em High Roller. The former WSOP Main Event winner defeated 91 entrants in the $500k GTD event. Riess secured a $236,838 payday after beating Ray Qartomy heads-up. Ben Yu continued his tremendous form in NLHE tournaments finishing fourth for $67,704, the Global Poker Index (GPI) #1, Stephen Chidwick, finished 9th for $34,944 and the former $25k WSOP Pot-Limit High Roller winner, James Calderaro, finished 12th for $21,857.

I always hated September as a kid.
The return to school.
Seriously, the eight-week summer holiday was better than Christmas, Dungeons and Dragons, and Bros rolled into one.
If only online poker existed back then.
I would have loved September.
PokerStars’ World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) owns September, and as you would expect, this year, the plan is to make it better than your mother’s macaroni cheese.
Up to 15 tournaments, daily.
Six Platinum Passes await.
Three tiered buy-ins, alas SCOOP, for the first time (Main Event exempt with a $55 buy-in $1m GTD and $5,200 buy-in $10m GTD only).
It’s an online poker player’s wet dream, and for the duration, you can bet your favourite seashells that our high rolling darlings will be locking themselves in a bedroom crammed with Renton comedown goodies.

WCOOP: An Online Series for the High Rollers

The glory of winning a WCOOP event, not to mention a sum of money that will make you miss your specimen bottle, means players of notable ilk invest an incredible amount of time in this tournament series.
wcoop2018
When WCOOP began, 17-years ago, there were nine events and $730,000 in guaranteed prize money. September’s meat grinder contains 61 events, 182 tournaments, and over $116m in guarantees.
Two of those 182 tournaments will curry favour with the high rollers:
Sep 5, 13:00 (ET) – $1m GTD $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 6-Max
Sep 12, 13:00 (ET) – $2m GTD $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em

The History of WCOOP High Rollers

There have been seven events in WCOOP’s history that have carried a buy-in of $25,000 or more.
The first, a $25,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold’em event, happened a decade ago and ran for three successive years. Steven “stevesbets” Jacobs defeated 64 entrants, including Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier in the final to take the $560,000 first prize in the first. Jonathan “Iftarii” Jaffe beat 36 entrants, including Allan “Sifosis” Baekke to take the $315,000 first prize in the second one. And Phil “RaiseOnce” Ivey beat 31 entrants, including Rachid Ben “SkaiWalkurrr” Cherif, heads-up, to take the $348,750 first prize in the third and final year.
Stars removed $25k+ buy-in events for the next four years until they broke the world record for an online buy-in, hosting a $51,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em 8-Max Super High Roller in 2015. 46-entrants created a $2.3m prize pool and Ben “Ben86” Tollerene defeated Jose “Cejakas14” Angel Latorre, heads-up, to claim the $616,518 first prize after cutting a three-way deal that included the back-to-back Triton Poker Series Main Event star Mikita “fish2013” Badziakouski.
The following year that $51,000 buy-in looked positively peanuts as Stars pulled out all the stops to host a $102,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em 8-Max Super High Roller. The event attracted 28 entrants, and bencb789 beat Fedor “CrownUpGuy” Holz in heads-up action to take the $1,172,361 first prize after the pair cut a deal that saw Holz also bank a million bucks.
And then, last year, for the first time, PokerStars held a $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em and Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller. Pedro ‘Zagalo87’ Zagalo from Spain topped a field of 71 entrants (52 entries, 17 re-entries) to win the PLO 6-Max version for $419,038.62 after cutting a three-way deal with Venividi1993 ($325,649.51) and Ravenswood13 ($339,240.95). And Nick “caecilius’ Petrangelo won the 149 entrants (120 entries, 29 re-entries) NLHE version banking $624,676.53 after a three-way deal with Bryn “BrynKenney” Kenney ($559,694,73), and bartek901 ($636,113.64).
PokerStars’ World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) takes place 2nd – 17th September.

PokerStars Partner With Hugo Boss

From a PokerStars product for the High Rollers to a clothing line for the High Rollers.
PokerStars will roll out a pop-up Stars merchandise store during the European Poker Tour’s return to Barcelona this week, and to overcome the average Joe’s aversion to wearing all manner of clothes emblazoned with the Red Spade, the online poker room has partnered with the German clothing line Hugo Boss to produce a range of co-branded products.
hugo boss
The store is open from August 21 – September 2, and players can purchase products using cash or card. The products will also be available through the online Stars Store, which will also launch during EPT Barcelona.

The earth is blue. In 2060, it turns red. I saw it, today, at the top of the Tokyo Tower, next to the biggest starfish I have ever seen in my life.
Imagine being a starfish.
Boring.
Imagine being a Fox.
Much more interesting.
I’ve just checked 2011 for fascinating events, and the first to poke me in the eye was the earthquakes and tsunamis that kicked Japan in the balls. Not something you want to remember when sitting in the place.
10,000 miles away, in the same year, Elio Fox was climbing to eighth in the 2011 live tournament money earned list after winning a Venetian DeepStack for $87,192, the Bellagio Cup for $669,692, and the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) Main Event in Cannes for $1,870,208.
And then, nothing.
Seven years passed.
Hibernation ended.
The Fox crept out of his burrow.
Hungry; wanting shark for tea.
Fox has taken down the $50,000 Super High Roller at the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open (SHRPO) in Hollywood, Florida, after beating Dan Shak, heads-up.
The $1m GTD event attracted 25 entrants, locking up the guarantee, and donating $500,000 into the coffers of the sly one. Fox has now earned more than $3.8m in 2018, after winning nothing but a few bags of nuts since 2011.
He had a fantastic time at the World Series of Poker (WSOP), winning the $10,000 Super Turbo Bounty No-Limit Hold’em for $393,693, finishing second to Nick Petrangelo in the $100,000 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller for more than $1.7m, and ninth in the $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller for $139,699. In between those spectacular results, Fox also cashed in four ARIA High Rollers, including two wins.
After the WSOP shut up shop, Fox entered the $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller Six-Handed at the World Poker Tour (WPT) Gardens Poker Festival in Los Angeles and took it down for $225,000.
“It was a tough tournament,” Fox told Maria Ho after winning the $50k. “I got lucky a bunch of times. It was a lot of fun.”
Don’t ever write a book, Elio.
elio-fox
Here were the final table chip counts.

Final Table Chip Counts

1. Elio Fox – 706,000
2. Chris Hunichen – 363,000
3. Bryn Kenney – 280,000
4. Dan Shak – 269,000
5. Sam Soverel – 246,000
6. Giuseppe Iadisernia – 217,000
7. Ali Imsirovic – 193,000
8. Taylor Black – 163,000
9. Ian O’Hara – 63,000
Six people would get paid, meaning three would leave with nothing but dried sweat on their hands.
The first to leave was Ian O’Hara who moved all-in holding A7s, and Sam Soverel made the call with AQo. An ace and a queen on the clubless flop ended O’Hara’s hopes of turning the short stack into the only stack.
Then we lost Taylor Black after the partypoker MILLIONS North America Champion fired three barrels into the chip leader with nothing but an airball, and Fox was able to soak up all three, flopping a pair and rivering trips.
Soverel was next to leave the building after moving all-in with A9o, only for Giuseppe Iadisernia to call and batter him with AKo. And then we lost Bryn Kenney on the bubble when he moved all-in from the button holding pocket nines, and Iadisernia called with the ladies.
Chris Hunichen was the first player to leave in profit.
Big Huni moved all-in with pocket fives, and Dan Shak’s pocket jacks swallowed him whole. Ali Imsirovic exited in fourth when he flopped two pairs with AJo on AQQ, only for Dan Shak to hit trip queens with Q8s in the small blind.
That exit handed Shak the chip lead with three players remaining.
1. Dan Shak – 975,000
2. Elio Fox – 965,000
3. Giuseppe Iadisernia – 560,000
And Shak extended that lead by eliminating Iadisernia all-in pre-flop A7o>KTo.

Heads-Up

1. Dan Shak – 1,350,000
2. Elio Fox – 1,150,000
The final fight lasted less than 15-minutes when the pair got it in on KKJT with Shak holding J3o for two pairs, and Fox holding AQs for Broadway.
The 5s bricked on the river.
Fox was the champion.
Again.
The next time we see him the planet will be redder than Mars.

ITM Finishes

1. Elio Fox – $500,000
2. Dan Shak – $305,000
3. Giuseppe Iadisernia – $190,000
4. Ali Imsirovic – $130,000
5. Chris Hunichen – $100,000

In the summer, the World Series of Poker (WSOP) held the $1m buy-in Big One for One Drop. Locksmiths, coffin makers and freight drivers talked about the ridiculousness of the situation over a heart-attack inducing fry up.
“A million bucks!” Exclaimed the Locksmith.
“Can you believe it!” Said the Coffin Maker.
“Who are these people?” Asked the freight driver.
Who would have thought the world of high stakes poker would have grown to such an absurd height. As people floated on inflatable turtles, holding strawberry daiquiris, shades protecting eyeballs from the glint of the Parker probe, people played poker for a million bucks.
Well, guess what?
It’s not as isolated an occurrence as the locksmiths, coffin makers and freight drivers may think.
Take Ivan Leow, as a shining example.

Ivan Leow

A few weeks ago, Leow competed in every event the Triton Poker Series, Jeju threw at him, making three final tables, and winning the HKD 500,000 (USD 64,000) Short-Deck, Ante-Only event for a clean one million bucks.
Wow!
What an outstanding achievement.
Until you learn that Leow bubbled the HKD 2,000,000 (USD 255,000) buy-in, No-Limit Hold’em Main Event after firing four bullets. And, if you do the math, you rapidly learn that Leow paid a million bucks to play in that event.
Nah.
In the high stakes universe, people like Leow pass one million buck pots around as frequently as a handshake and a hug at the death of a fashionable friend. The bug bites. You have to keep on playing.
“Where is the next game?”
The answer is Russia.

Triton Poker Joins Forces With partypoker

For the second time this year, Triton Poker joined forces with partypoker LIVE, to put on a stunning display of high stakes elbow bending. The first dalliance produced nothing more than heavy petting when partypoker sponsored the Russian live stream during the Triton Poker Series in Montenegro.
This time there were bras, knickers and underpants hanging off purple velvet lampshades.
partypoker LIVE moved into the Sochi Casino & Resort in Russia to launch another mission on their megalomaniacal MILLIONS marathon, and Triton Poker’s head was lying on their belly.
There would be two Triton branded events.
The first, an R 3,000,000 (USD 44,000) buy-in Triton High Roller 47 entrants, primarily colonised by German, Russian and Asian players, saw Aymon Hata win his first career title after beating the Russian star Vladimir Troyanovskiy, heads-up, to bank the R 48,000,000 (USD 755,384) first prize.
Aymon Hata

ITM Results

1. Aymon Hata – R 48,000,000 (USD 756,000)
2. Vladimir Troyanovskiy – R 31,860,000 (USD 501,795)
3. Konstantin Uspenskii – R 22,500,000 (USD 354,375)
4. Patrik Antonius – R 15,000,000 (USD 236,250)
5. Paul Phua – R 10,500,000 (USD 165,375)
6. Philipp Gruissem – R 17,500,000 (USD 118,125)
Imagine competing in a USD 44,000 tournament with unlimited re-entries and finishing seventh. Well, that’s what happened to Ivan Leow, a week shy of also bubbling that HKD 2m buy-in event in Jeju.
Lesser men would have ripped the Pirelli calendar off the office wall, and ran to the hills.
Not this man.

Ivan Leow Wins The Triton Poker Super High Roller in Russia

Day 1 of the R 6,000,000 (USD 87,000) buy-in event attracted 14 entrants. The former Triton Poker Series Montenegro Main Event winner, Manig Loeser, led the way.
Late registration and the unlimited re-entry stipulation saw the attendance swell to 29 entrants (20 unique, and 9 re-entries), and one man who took full advantage of both of these elements was Leow.
The Malaysian re-entered on Day 2 after failing to place a chip into a plastic bag at the end of the first day of action. Leow blazed through his early work, doubling through Phil Ivey 77>AQo, and sending Philipp Gruissem to the cash desk A9o>A7s.
However, by the time we reached the final two tables, Leow was sitting 9/16 with plenty of work to do.
As the money bubble approached, Leow must have been wondering if he was going to be blowing them for the third time in a matter of weeks, especially when Niall Farrell’s pocket treys cracked the Malaysian’s pocket nines, and Ivey gained revenge doubling through Leow A8s>AQs after finding more diamonds than a South African miner.
But here’s the thing with Leow.
He plays a lot of hands.
A lot of hands.
And, now and then, he turns up with the rockets.
Ivey picked up A6o.
Timothy Adams found AQo.
The money went in three-way, Leow’s AA held, Ivey and Adams were out, and he moved into the final table with the chip lead.

Final Table Chip Counts

1. Ivan Leow – 1,934,000
2. Dietrich Fast – 1,516,000
3. Manig Loeser – 1,474,000
4. Niall Farrell – 643,000
5. Abraham Passet – 639,000
6. Wai Leong Chan – 584,000
7. Paul Phua – 285,000
8. Wai Kin Yong – 173,000
Leow expanded his lead, sending the Triton founder, Richard Yong, back to his suite when A4o beat Q9o. Then Leow eliminated his chief rival, Deitrich Fast on the bubble after the money went in on the turn with Leow holding KQcc, and Fast holding 9c9s on 8c3c2hQd.
The German extermination continued as Leow sent the Day 1 chip leader Manig Loeser packing in fourth when he went for it holding the middle pin and the flush draw only for Leow to be holding top pair and the nut flush draw.
Leow wasn’t done firing his weapons of mass destruction.
Wai Leong Chan was the next player to feel his wrath, this time under fortuitous circumstances when the pair got it in on the turn with Chan holding two pairs for the superior hand, only for Leow to river a stronger two pairs.
Chan’s elimination set up a heads-up encounter with Abraham Passet, but by this time Leow had built a significant stack on the dead bodies of Passet’s countrymen.
Leow had the higher ground.
Passet didn’t stand a chance.
The final hand saw the pair limp into a pot with Leow holding J5o, and Passet holding 62hh. The dealer burned and turned Jh4h4d; the couple got it in, and the two pair hand of Leow granted him the third win and second seven-figure score of his career – all five arriving in an outstanding 2018.
“Another million bucks, can you believe it!” said the Locksmith.
“I heard he bashed the Germans around like a kid playing with his toy soldiers!” Said the Coffin Maker.
“Who are these people?” Asked the freight driver.

ITM Results

1. Ivan Leow – R 72,000,000 (USD 1,134,000)
2. Abraham Passet – R 47,040,000 (USD 740,880)
3. Wai Leong Chan – R 30,000,000 (USD 472,500)
4. Manig Loeser – R 8,000,000 (USD 283,500)

Andy climbs the steps ahead of me wearing skin-tight jeans, brown New Balance sneakers, and a white hoodie covering a sweaty bald pate. It’s 31 degrees.
“What’s that noise?”
“Cicadas.”
“Why can’t I see them?”
Andy stops dead in his tracks, turns on a sixpence, and descends to my depth, hiding from the sun beneath the canopy.
“There.”
And then I see them.
Great big things.
And then it pisses in my face.
Great.
“Have you interviewed Daniel Negreanu?”
“Yes,” I say, wiping Cicada urine from the corners of my mouth. “Once or twice.”
Andy is a Jeju tour guide. In five years time, he is going to leave this lovely island and travel the world.
“Where will you go?” I ask him.
“Everywhere.”
Even here, beneath the giant gold Buddha, the waves eating cliffs in the distance, mosquitoes eating my shins in the here and now, there is poker.
“I love watching the World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker on TV,” says Andy. “Phil Hellmuth, is the best in the world, right?”
“Not quite, Andy.”
“Who, then?”

The Greatest Poker Players The World Have Never Heard Of

The greatest poker players the world have never heard of are currently in one of two places. 64% of Americans have never left their dry bit of dirt, and those of them who play poker at the highest stakes are hanging out at the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open (SHRPO) in Hollywood, Florida. The rest are in Europe, Sochi more likely, with a trip to Barcelona scheduled in Kayak.
Let’s begin at the SHRPO.
Hollywood hosts two high stakes offerings. The first is a $1m GTD $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em Super High Roller. It begins Wednesday 8 August and ends the following day. The second is a $25,500 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller Mon 13 – Tue 14 August.
Last year, the $50,000 missed it’s $1m Guarantee by a solitary buy-in. Nick Schulman (the winner of the opening event at The Triton Poker Series Jeju) beat 19 entrants to bank the $440,000 first prize after beating Jake Schindler, heads-up.
The $25,500 buy-in event was more lucrative than the $50,000. John Andress defeated a field of 117 entrants, including Mike Leah, heads-up to win the $801,450 first prize.
Rainer Kempe was the outstanding High Roller finishing fourth in the $50,000 and thirteenth in the $25,500.

partypoker MILLIONS Russia

6,301 miles away as a Russian Ural flies the second half of the High Roller cast will stumble into the partypoker MILLIONS Russia. With the place still stinking of the World Cup, the Sochi Casino and Resort plays host to the second live poker partnership between partypoker and the Triton Poker Series.
The pair first bonded during the Triton Poker Series in Montenegro when partypoker sponsored the Russian live stream (there is a significant Russian presence in the region), and this time partypoker is playing host, as the Triton brand accompanies two high stakes jinks.
The first event is an R 3,000,000 (USD 47,000) buy-in Triton Poker High Roller taking place Tue 7 – Wed 8 August, followed by the beefier looking R 6,000,000 (USD 94,000) buy-in Triton Poker Super High Roller, Wed 8 – Thu 9 August.
You can expect to see Triton founder Richard Yong, Paul Phua, Ivan Leow, and a whole host of German and Russian stars competing in Sochi over the next few days.

European Poker Tour (EPT) Barcelona

Once the Sochi soiree seeps into the sea, expect to see the SHRPO and Sochi mob to flock to the Casino Barcelona in the heart of Catalan country for the reemergence of the European Poker Tour (EPT) Barcelona.
Before PokerStars rebranded to the PokerStars Championship in 2017, EPT Barcelona was the one event that nobody in the poker calendar missed, least of all the High Rollers.
And.
Now.
It’s.
Back.
Only things have changed.
There is only one event on the schedule for the men and women who like to splash around in the most luxurious of waters. The €100,000 No-Limit Super High Roller takes place Sat 25 – Mon 27 August, meaning the €50,000 and €25,500 buy-in events are off the menu.
Last year, when the event masqueraded as the PokerStars Championship, there were four High Roller. Igor Kurganov beat 86 entrants to win the €1,084,100 first prize in the €50,000 Super High Roller. Stephen Chidwick defeated 112 entrants to win the €690,400 first prize in the €25,500 No-Limit Hold’em 8-Handed event. And Pavel Plesuv topped a field of 66 entrants in the Single Day €25,500 No-Limit Hold’em event for €406,300. Chidwick capped off an outstanding Barcelona trip by coming third in that one, and the Barcelona and Spain footballer, Gerard Pique finished fifth.
I reached out to PokerStars asking why they buried those three events in a Catalan coffin. At the time of writing, I hadn’t received a response, and I wanted to bang this out as quickly as possible, so I could be eaten alive by insects while climbing Sanbangsan Mountain, and explaining to Andy why Phil Hellmuth isn’t one of the best in the business.

Blood runs warm like mulled wine.
Claret coloured sand.
On one side of the Coliseum stand the high stakes heroes. The best in the business.
Facing them are the titans of entrepreneurship, philanthropy and celebrity. The best in their business.
It’s time to do battle.
36-hour sessions are the norm.
And they dare call them whales!
You can spot a high stakes hero of the future a mile away.
But what about the people who keep the game running?

Poker to Get a Hayemaker

David Haye is hitting the dirty green baize. The former Cruiserweight and Heavyweight World Boxing Champion announced his move into poker during a press conference held at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry during the Grosvenor United Kingdom Poker Tour (GUKPT), GOLIATH.
“I don’t know the rules,” said Haye.
Help comes in the shape of Joe ‘The Elegance’ Beevers, Jeff Kimber and Katie Swift. The Grosvenor Poker Ambassadors have the exciting task of transforming Haye from ring monster to rail monster.
“I’m a complete novice, so it’s a huge ask, but I am looking forward to the challenge and getting my teeth into something new,” Said Haye.
Haye has 12-months to learn the ropes before making his debut in the 2019 edition of THE GOLIATH; the GUKPT hit that holds the record for the largest attended poker tour outside of Vegas.


“I don’t want to embarrass myself in a year’s time,” said Haye. “That’s not why I’m here. I want to sit down with confidence and will enter the tournament to win.”
He’s picking a difficult tournament to win.
A few days ago, Florian Duta defeated a record 7,584 entrants, banking the £101,400 first prize in the £125 buy-in event.
£125?
It’s not exactly high stakes poker, so why am I even writing about it?
Haye is worth an estimated $20 million, and at his pomp commanded a £10 million purse for his WBA, IBF, WBO unification bout against the mighty Wladimir Klitschko (Haye lost on points, and blamed a broken toe for his loss).
If the Grosvenor Poker trio does a bang-up job, one doubts the man who believed he would be a heavyweight champion of the world from the age of three is going to be interested in playing £125 buy-in tournaments.
With a bankroll that deep, why wouldn’t he venture into deeper waters looking for a challenge?
And Haye is a winner.
The only other boxer in history to win Cruiserweight and Heavyweight World Championships is Evander Holyfield, and it’s not only the titles that the pair have in common. Word on the street has it that Holyfield spent most of his £150 million fortune, gambling.
Can Beevers, Kimber and Swift turn a champion of one field into someone capable of sparring with the best in the business?
Erik Seidel did.
The New York Times Bestselling author, Maria Konnikova, approached Seidel to teach her how to play the game for a book project, and the Poker Hall of Famer agreed. Konnikova went on to win the $1,550 buy-in National at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) for $84,600 and later joined PokerStars as a member of Team Pro.
Haye retired on June 2017, after losing back-to-back fights against the Liverpudlian, Tony Bellew. His pro record reads 28-4 (26 by KO). He had been boxing since the age of 10.
Haye isn’t the first boxer to find poker. Manny Pacquaio can be seen playing high stakes cash games in the Los Angeles card rooms. Floyd Mayweather is the frontman for the play money poker app Wild Poker, and the multiple world champion, Carl Froch, is an ambassador over at partypoker.

Here’s the deal.
This morning, naked, I walked out on my veranda to hang my clean knickers out to dry, when I realised I had not been outside the casino in six days.
Cue, full on life-assessment mode.
The first question that sprung to mind is what am I doing? Bill Perkins has gotten me re-reading Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin, and the transference of money earned into life-energy expended has been on my mind ever since.
Writing about poker is pretty cool; interviewing the best players in the world is even better, but am I working towards an epitaph that says, “Here lies the man who once interviewed Phil Ivey?”
I hope not.
I’m talking about meaning and purpose. To be immersed in a thing that transports you to another plane. Joy. Happiness. Fulfilment.
What is it?
I’m still searching.
It’s for this reason I always ask High Stakes Poker players – what’s the point?
Take my current vantage point.
The cultural clash of East meets West sit down for another marathon poker session. Cigarette and cigar smoke poisons the air. Butts sit on seats, only moving to take a piss. Food is a distraction.
What’s the point?
Are we winning all of the money so we can save the world, buy a more luxurious mansion, or because we love more than anything in the world?
It’s a question that stumps many high stakes players.
At least I know, it’s a question that’s on the mind of Stefan Schillhabel.
I was excited when I learned the German High Stakes crew had created a new venture called No Limit Gaming (NLG).
The brand first flashed in front of my eyes after the announcement that the Triple Crown winner, Niall Farrell, would join the team. I did some digging and learned that Schillhabel was the mastermind. I knew that poker was involved, but the early splash page and social media posts promised a broader focus on esports.
Intrigued, I copped hold of Schillhabel to ask him a few questions, and it was nice to find out that I’m not alone.
Meaning.
Purpose.
Joy.
Fulfilment.
A hark back to childhood.
Figure it out for yourself.

Where did the idea from No Limit Gaming come from?

The Idea of founding an esports team stuck in my mind for a long time. Since my youth, I was interested in esports, until poker and the necessary travelling that comes with it took away all my time and energy. After moving to Vienna, I got tired of travelling that much and started playing less and instead focused more on “life”. Back in Vegas at the start of the summer this year I realised that I needed to do something else besides playing poker.

No Limit Gaming logo

That’s where the idea of building an esports team came back to my mind, and I started doing a lot of research in the following weeks. On my flight back to Vienna I already started reading studies about esports, and I used my whole four-week break from the WSOP to work on the concept. During that time I had a lot of discussions with Fedor {Holz} and other poker-playing friends, and I decided to start with a poker team, to get the project started. Back in Vegas at the beginning of July I spoke with possible candidates and finalised the concept for the poker team.

Who are the principal founders?

All team members are founders of the company. Everybody will contribute their time and energy to make it work. If I have to name the principal founders, it would be Steffen {Sontheimer}, Fedor and me. I started to speak about the esports team idea with friends like Christian Christner a lot and also had a longer talk with Fedor on our flight home.

Stefan Schillhabel
Stefan Schillhabel

Afterwards, I decided to start with a poker team that includes streaming on Twitch. For that matter, I spoke with Steffen first. We’re good friends, and he was interested in the idea from the beginning. Having Steffen on board made it way easier to speak with other potential team members. He helped a lot to concretise the idea.
1-2 weeks later I came back to Fedor, and after describing my plans, he was excited to be part of the project. He helped a lot with all his experience and connections and gave really good inputs. So I am taking care of the daily business, Steffen will help me from time to time and Fedor will bring in his experience. Working with these guys is easy. We know each other pretty well, know each other’s strengths, and we’re also used to work together for years now. There’s also a complete trust between us, after travelling and playing poker together for such a long time.
I also have to thank all the other team members we have. Everybody was excited to be part of the team from the beginning. This isn’t about making a lot of money, and all of us promised to invest some time to make this project successful. Everyone I asked to join the team ended up being a part of it. That increases my motivation, even more, to make it as good as possible and invest as much time and energy as I can.

What influenced you?

I used to play semi-professional when I was younger. I played a lot of Counter-Strike, and though I never got really good, I loved and still love the game. It’s interesting on so many levels. It taught me a lot for my poker career, and without taking it too high, I’d say I also learned some things for my life. Especially the strategic aspect of the game gave me a lot of input for my thinking processes and solution finding in high-pressure situations.
I also played Pro Evolution Soccer and was a top 10 player in Germany when I was 18-21 years old. That gave me a first insight into the industry. I played for teams which got some money to travel to national tournaments and some free hardware. The scene wasn’t big, nothing compared to what professional esports looks like nowadays, but it was a start. I was always interested in the organisational part and tried to do more than just playing.
When I played in a CS team, I always worked on tactics and tried to find ways to improve the whole team. For PES I motivated my teammates a lot and became the team captain of the German national team at some point. I also used to play a lot of real soccer in a team my whole life. I just like team sports and all the interactive, tactical and social aspects that come with it.
I think these characteristics are fitting for a lot of German poker players. Maybe this is one of the reasons why some of the German high rollers became such a close group and helped each other to develop their strategies together.

What value did you think you could bring to the industry? How does poker and esports work under the same banner? And what are your greatest strengths?

Almost all of our team members have a similar story. Of course, we all are coming from different backgrounds, but all of us tried to make a living by doing what we love. Most of us decided to find a way to not get into that “normal 9 to 5”-life. And we all did it. We experienced a lot on our way. We’ve been in the poker world for a very long time and saw many other players fail. So we gained a lot of experience and knowledge of how to be successful. Many of us are a bit tired of just playing like we did for many years. Some of us don’t play for the money anymore. So we’re looking for something else.
To start streaming online poker at a high level is one thing we will do. Using our experiences to help others succeeding in something they love is the other thing we want to do. Esports is very similar to poker. Many poker players used to play video games on a competitive level themselves. In both sections, you have similar obstacles you need to surpass to succeed. Esports players have the same dream we had when we started our poker careers: Support oneself with their passion and improve every day to become one of the best in the world.

Who is your audience?

In the beginning, the biggest part of our audience will be within the poker community of course. But as you can see on Twitch, there are also many non-poker players that like to watch poker. Most people like to watch when there are huge prizes to win. With the high limits all of us are playing, I’m pretty sure we’ll get a lot of viewers from outside the poker scene, too.
We’ll also like to show the esports and gaming community on Twitch how exciting the game of poker is, how much fun it can be and how important the strategic and logical aspects are to be successful. As I said before, there are many similarities between poker and competitive gaming, and I hope we can help to bring more interest to our game.
Furthermore, after we start the esports section of our project, we will show the poker scene how exciting esports can be, and we will try to combine both communities and provide content for both parts. Our main focus will be on the esports scene at some point, but with our background, we’ll always provide a lot of poker content with No Limit Gaming for sure.

If you could achieve one thing in 2019 what would it be?

We hope to make a significant impact on the Twitch poker scene in the next months. After we get that started, we want to focus on the esports section. So for 2019, it would be awesome to make NLG a name in the esports community and build an infrastructure that helps esports teams and players to improve. We’re still working on the concept, but it’s not the plan to just put a lot of money in and buy the best players. As I said we want to use our experience and knowledge, so the focus will be on building a lasting environment where we can use our strengths to train and develop our players in different games.

What happens in the future because of No Limit Gaming?

I hope we can show that our idea (that we’re working on atm) of how we make players better and prepare them for the things that come up will be successful and helps to professionalise the esports scene. All the studies I read and people/insiders I spoke to said that this is the main problem in esports and that there are only a few teams that handle esports like real sports what it definitely can be. There’s a lot of space for improvement.
nlg poker roster

How will your customers find you?

We’ll be active on Twitter, Instagram and Twitch of course. We’re also working on our website and might start a YouTube channel at some point. We’ll also play a lot of live tournaments like we always did and I’m pretty sure there are a lot of streamed final tables to come.

Why should they choose you?

There is really nice Twitch poker stuff out there, but most of the streams are more about entertainment than good and qualified content. We will try to cover both: Play the highest limits there are, speak about our thought processes and also try to be entertaining. It won’t be easy in the beginning. Hardly any of us have streamed before, but the community seems to be really nice, and I’m sure they’ll give us some time to get used to it. Our Idea has a lot of potential, and we already got a lot of positive feedback, so I’m sure the community will grant us the time we need.

What’s your timeline?

The idea of the whole project is very young. As I said, I started thinking of it two months ago. The planning for the poker team began six weeks ago. We already played the $1m One Drop wearing team hoodies and have our social media live. So I’m really happy how it all goes. The next weeks will be about finally founding the company in Austria. Because that’s all new to the most of us and especially me, it’s always possible that there might be some delays, so I don’t want to promise anything. But we plan to show up at EPT Barcelona with a big team and start streaming from the beginning of WCOOP in September.