It’s been quite a year for the high roller fraternity.
Justin Bonomo created history with victories in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Big One for One Drop, and Super High Roller Bowl China and Super High Roller Bowl IV, racking up an incredible $25.4m in earnings in 2018 alone.
Mikita Badziakouski ($14.5m), Jason Koon ($11.6m) and David Peters ($10.4m) all earned more money than the WSOP Main Event winner (John Cynn – $8.8m).
A few fell into a vomit-filled, padded room full of flies.
And we still have one month to go.
And what a month it is.
partypoker $20m GTD Online MILLIONS
Although the $20m GTD partypoker Online MILLIONS is only a $5,300 buy-in event, and therefore not generally newsworthy for high roller folk, how can I not mention a game that promises to be the biggest online multi-table tournament (MTT) ever held.
partypoker is guaranteeing $2.5m for the winner, and four people will earn seven-figure scores playing in various states of undress in corners of the world that allow such things to take place (Gordon Vayo take note).
Expect the high roller mob to move heaven and earth to find a piece of hardened tar so they can compete in this one.
The event begins Sunday, Nov 25 and ends Dec 5.
European Poker Tour Prague
With the Online MILLIONS out of the way, the high rollers have a tough decision after PokerStars, and the World Poker Tour (WPT) scheduled their heavyweight December contests at the same time.
Last year, there was some wiggle room allowing people to make the transatlantic flight to experience events in both festivals, but that won’t be possible this year.
High rollers will have to choose, and if they decide to freeze their tits off in Prague, this is what they can expect.
EPT Prague High Roller Schedule
10 – 12 Dec – €50,000 No-Limit Hold’em
13 Dec – €25,000 No-Limit Hold’em Single Day
15 Dec – €25,000 No-Limit Hold’em Single Day
PokerStars plans to have the same number of High Roller events as 2017 when we witnessed the final PokerStars Championship before the EPT rose like Lazarus.
Here is a rundown of last year’s winners.
€50,000 No-Limit Hold’em
34-entrants
- Timothy Adams – €555,000
- Mikita Badziakouski – €383,600
- Adrian Mateos – €244,900
- Orpen Kisacikoglu – €187,710
- Sam Greenwood – €147,000
- Koray Aldemir – €114,300
€25,000 No-Limit Hold’em
50-entrants
- Albert Daher – €324,727
- Ryan Riess – €278,475
- Mikalai Vaskaboinikau – €239,097
- Adrian Mateos – €134,800
- Oleksii Khoroshenin – €104,000
- Rocco Palumbo – €79,600
- Bartlomiej Machon – €64,300
€25,500 No-Limit Hold’em
52-entrants
- Igor Kurganov – €371,250
- JC Alvarado – €319,750
- Crhsi Kruk – €185,000
- Stephen Chidwick – €140,000
- Thomas Mühlöcker – €108,000
- Vladimir Troyanovskiy – €83,000
- Erik Seidel – €67,000
WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic
If Prague at Christmas time doesn’t float your boat, then how about the Las Vegas desert?
The WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic contains four high roller events carrying a price tag of $25k+, four less than 2017.
Here is the 2018 schedule:
WPT Five Diamond High Rollers
8 Dec – $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em
10 Dec – $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em
14 Dec – $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em
15 Dec – $100,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Here are last year’s winners.
$25,000 High Roller
34-entrants
- Jason Koon – $289,950
- Isaac Haxton – $271,050
- Cary Katz – $136,000
- Fedor Holz – $85,000
- Ben Tollerene – $68,000
$25,000 High Roller
27-entrants
- Justin Bonomo – $310,500
- Jake Schindler – $189,000
- Nick Petrangelo – $108,000
- Fedor Holz – $67,500
$25,000 High Roller
39-entrants
- Rainer Kempe – $351,000
- Ben Tollerene – $234,000
- Adrian Mateos – $156,000
- Justin Bonomo – $97,500
- Brian Green – $78,000
- Dan Smith – $58,500
$25,000 High Roller
- Keith Tilston – $424,000
- Jake Schindler – $278,250
- Adrian Mateos – $185,500
- Sam Soverel – $132,500
- Jonathan Kamhazi – $106,000
- Stefan Schillhabel – $79,500
- Jason Koon – $66,250
- Shang Dai – $53,000
$25,000 High Roller
58-entrants
- Stefan Schillhabel – $356,250
- Jan Schwippert – $368,750
- Chris Hunichen – $203,000
- Darren Elias – $145,000
- Dan Smith – $116,000
- Stefan Sontheimer – $87,000
- Bryn Kenney – $72,500
- Thomas Mühlöcker – $58,000
- Baitai Li – $43,500
$25,000 High Roller
8-entrants
- Justin Bonomo – $140,000
- Nick Schulman – $60,000
$100,000 High Roller
39-entrants
- Dan Smith – $1,404,000
- Daniel Negreanu – $936,000
- Stefan Schillhabel – $624,000
- Isaac Haxton – $390,000
- Sergio Adio – $312,000
- Bryn Kenney – $234,000
Poker Central High Roller of the Year / Super High Roller Bowl
This year the WPT Five Diamond event carries extra significance because once the $100k is in the books, Poker Central will crown their High Roller of the Year. With 700 leaderboard points up for grabs at The Bellagio, nine people are in with a mathematical shout of claiming the ego boost of the #1 spot.
Current Poker Central High Roller of the Year Standings
- Sam Soverel – 1,560
- David Peters – 1,325
- Cary Katz – 1,255
- Justin Bonomo – 1,025
- Dan Smith – 1,025
- Jake Schindler – 1,000
- Isaac Haxton – 925
- Nick Petrangelo – 875
- Ben Yu – 870
The players who finish in the top five positions avoid the Super High Roller Bowl V Lottery, and this year, the organisers have moved the event back from May to December 2018, giving us the odd fact of having three SHRB events in the same calendar year.
To remind you, Justin Bonomo won the other two events.
HKD 2,100,000 Super High Roller Bowl China
Entrants – 75
- Justin Bonomo – $4,823,077
- Patrik Antonius – $3,153,551
- Rainer Kempe – $2,040,533
- Dominik Nitsche – $1,669,527
- Bryn Kenney – $1,484,024
- Stephen Chidwick – $1,298,521
- David Peters – $1,113,018
- Isaac Haxton – $927,515
- Jason Koon – $742,012
- Dan Cates – $742,012
- Dan Smith – $556,509
Super High Roller Bowl IV
- Justin Bonomo – $5,000,000
- Daniel Negreanu – $3,000,000
- Jason Koon – $2,100,000
- Mikita Badziakouski – $1,600,000
- Christoph Vogelsang – $1,200,000
- Nick Petrangelo – $900,000
- Stephen Chidwick – $600,000
- Seth Davies – $90,000
The SHRB V takes place Dec 17-19. It will once again be a rake-free $300,000 buy-in event streamed live on PokerGO, with footage shown on the NBC Sports Network.
The event has a 48-entrant ceiling, with 25 players chosen via a live lottery filmed for PokerGO on Nov 27, 18 hand-picked by ARIA and Poker Central, and five securing a seat via the Poker Central High Roller Player of the Year Leaderboard.
Here are the former SHRB winners.
2015 – Brian Rast ($7.525m)
2016 – Rainer Kempe ($5m)
2017 – Christoph Vogelsang ($6m)
2018 – Justin Bonomo ($5m)
And that’s what the poker world has in store for our High Rollers this December.