Tag: Chris Hunichen

The bracelet for the $25,000 No Limit Hold ’em Poker Player’s Championship is currently sealed in a DHL bag heading to the home of Christian Rudolph. The German star overcame a 407-entrant field to win the $1.8m first prize.

Coming into the event, Jason Koon had all of the skills, experience and chip lead. Still, it would be a final table to forget for the Triton Ambassador, who doubled up Chris Hunichen, on his way to a disappointing seventh-place finish.

Hunichen would make fair use of those chips, finishing in second place for $1.3m. It’s the second time that Hunichen has earned a million bucks after pocketing $1m for coming third in the 2019 partypoker MILLIONS World Bahamas. It’s also his second bridesmaid finish in a World Series of Poker (WSOP) event, finishing second to Nadar Kakhmazov in a 2017 $5,000 No Limit Hold ’em 6-Handed event.

Rudolph also knows what it feels like to come a mosquito’s thong width from a bracelet win. The German star lost out to Michael Addamo in the live version of this event during the 2018 World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE). He made two more final tables before this one. In 2017, he finished fifth in a $1,500 and sixth in a $5,000 No Limit Hold ’em event.

Here is the nutshell action.

The Nutshell Action

Alaiksei Boika became the first player to hit the rail after jamming over a Shankar Pillai open with Ad5d. Pillai showed AhJh and flopped a much-needed second jack after Boika also hit a pair on the turn. Two fives didn’t cut the mustard and Boika left in ninth.

Then a big moment when Chris Hunichen doubled through Jason Koon for the chip lead. Big Huni opened for 500,000 from the hijack and then called after Koon had moved all-in with AdJs from the button. Hunichen called and held with pocket queens.

Paulius Plausinaitis exited in the eight place after shoving from the small blind, holding Kc9c, and finding a caller in the shape of Aram Zobian in the big blind. Zobian showed Td8c and flopped a second ten to move into third in chips.

The overnight chip leader, and favourite, fell in seventh.

Rudolph opened in midfield with AhQs, and then called and won when Koon shoved holding pocket tens.

Brunno Botteon fell in the sixth place when his pocket queens failed to get past the Ac8c of Rudolph when all-in during a blind turf war. Rudolph turned a straight to end Botteon’s involvement in the tournament.

Rudolph kept hacking away, and this time it was the head of Zobian that flew over the rail after winning a flip with pocket nines versus ace-queen. Aleksejs Pnakov left in fourth place when his KsQs couldn’t beat the Qc8c of Rudolph, and we reached heads-up when Hunichen eliminated Pillai AK>A9.

Heads-up began even in chips, but it was all Rudolph, who ended things in a 20-minute sweep. The final hand saw QT beating KQ when all-in pre-flop after Rudolph flopped a second ten.

Here are the final table results.

Results

  1. Christian Rudolph – $1,800,290
  2. Chris Hunichen – $1,332,097
  3. Shankar Pillai – $979,138
  4. Aleksejs Ponakovs – $719,700
  5. Aram Zobian – $529,005
  6. Brunno Botteon – $388,837
  7. Jason Koon – $285,808
  8. Paulis Plausinaitis – $210,079
  9. Aliaksei Boika – $154,416

Poker peasants make way for poker players with princely purses as Poker Central partners with partypoker for the 2020 Super High Roller Bowl Online.

The series lands on your laptops an olive pip away from the Poker Masters Online (a 30-event series that raised more than $35m in prize money and resulted in a snazzy purple jacket winging it’s way to the ramparts of Alexandros Kolonias).

The 28-event series runs from May 23 – June 1, and there is at least $20m GTD in prize money up for grabs. The plan is to create a leaderboard for the preliminary events with the winner earning a seat into the $100,000 buy-in Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB) Online, and the chance for one of the most vivid poker vacations of ones’ life.

PokerGO will stream ten of the final tables, including the SHRB Finale, on their OTT subscription service.

Chris Hunichen has started the series like a bull in a china shop smashing apart the 54-entrant field in Event #2: $25,500 Super High Roller. With more than $13m in online multi-table tournament (MTT) winnings, ‘Big Huni’ is one of the most successful online poker players in history, and in 2015 he reached the summit of the PocketFives World Rankings.

The $479,250 purse is Hunichen’s second most substantial of his career after finishing third in the 2018 Spring Championships of Online Poker (SCOOP) $10,300 Main Event on PokerStars for $618,943.63.

Hunichen defeated Viktor Blom, heads-up, for the title. My spell checker wishes to change ‘Blom’ for ‘Boom’, and the Swede recently ‘boomed’ his way into a third-place finish in the World Poker Tour (WPT) Online Championships $10,300 Pot Limit Omaha, also on partypoker.

Three people recorded multiple in the money (ITM) finishes throughout the first three events, and all of them have Spanish blood running through their veins.

Sergi Reixach took down Event #3: $10,300 High Roller beating 59-entrants to claim the $191,750 first prize, and also finished fifth in Event #1: $10,300 High Roller (Jans Arends topped the 76-entrant field).

Vicent Bosca Ramon finished fourth in Event #2: $25,500 Super High Roller for $131,625, and finished in the same position in Event #3: $10,300 High Roller for $54,575.

Juan Pardo Dominguez finished seventh in Event #1: $10,300 High Roller for $34,200, and fifth in Event #3: $10,300 High Roller for $42,775.

Here are the results in full.

Jans Arends Wins Event #: $10,300 High Roller

76 entrants

Results

  1. Jans Arends – $216,600
  2. Benjamin Heath – $148,200
  3. Alex Foxen – $102,600
  4. Jake Schindler – $68,400
  5. Sergi Reixach – $53,200
  6. Niklas Astedt – $41,800
  7. Juan Pardo Dominguez – $34,200
  8. Christopher Fraser – $26,600

Chris Hunichen Wins Event #2: $25,500 Super High Roller

54-entrants

Results

  1. Christopher Hunichen – $479.250
  2. Viktor Blom – $320,625
  3. Mark Davis – $205,875
  4. Vicent Bosca Ramon – $131,625
  5. Rob Lipkin – $87,750
  6. Daniel Dvoress – $67,500
  7. Timothy Adams – $57,375

Sergi Reixach Wins Event #3: $10,300 High Roller

59-entrants

Results

  1. Sergi Reixach – $191,750
  2. Michael Watson – $129,800
  3. Andras Nemeth – $87,025
  4. Vicent Bosca Ramon – $54,575
  5. Juan Pardo Dominguez – $42,775
  6. John O’ Shea – $33,925
  7. Michael Addamo – $28,025
  8. Jonathan VanFleet – $22,125

As of July 2018, there were 6,339 comets playing tag in our solar system. Today, that number has increased and will continue rising as there is a trillion scooting around our outer solar system. 

Despite this whopping great number of icy trailblazers, only one, a year is visible to the naked eye. 

This year, Stephen Chidwick is that comet.

Poker players have been saying for years that Chidwick is a little bit special. These days, he’s proving it, racking up titles for fun, and as I type this, he sits on top of the Global Poker Index (GPI) World Rankings. 

Chidwick has been the king for four-weeks after deposing Alex Foxen, and the pair have exchanged the title of ‘World’s Best Live Tournament Player’ for the better part of 17-months. 

Rainer Kempe and Bryn Kenney are doing their best to close the gap, but you suspect Foxen and Chidwick will go toe-to-toe for some while yet. And Chidwick manages this while changing nappies, cleaning up puke, and pushing a stroller around the neighbourhood at ungodly hours. 

Foxen hasn’t picked up any points since securing 320.18 for finishing 40th in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event. He did cash three times at the European Poker Tour (EPT) in Barcelona, including a fourth in a €25,000 event, but none of the scores qualified. 

Chidwick was able to eke ahead after earning 430 points during the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series in London for making the final table of both £100,000 Main Events (No-Limit Hold’em & Short Deck). Chidwick also finished fourth in the Triton Million £1m buy-in event, but the score didn’t qualify. The man from Deal put in another solid performance during the British Poker Open (BPO), cashing in four events, winning one, but he picked up zero GPI points because field sizes were too small.

High Rollers Rule

Sifting through the GPI Top 20, only three people don’t compete in the high stakes live tournament scene regularly: Jeremy Ausmus (#10), Joseph Cheong (#12), and Shaun Deeb (#18). 

Steve O’Dwyer re-enters the Top 10 after cashing three times at EPT Barcelona, including the final table of the €50,000 and €100,000 High Rollers, both of which earned him GPI points. O’Dwyer maintained that form in the British Poker Open (BPO) finishing runner-up in a £10,000 and a £25,000 event but didn’t pick up any points for his efforts. 

Current World Rankings

1. Stephen Chidwick 

2. Alex Foxen

3. Rainer Kempe

4. Bryn Kenney

5. Sean Winter

6. Sam Greenwood

7. Manig Loeser

8. Steve O’Dwyer

9. Ali Imsirovic

10. Jeremy Ausmus

2019 GPI Player of the Year

Sean Winter

Sean Winter overtook Rainer Kempe at the head of the 2019 GPI Player of the Year rankings. Winter’s shove ends an eight-week run with Kempe at the top. In a recent interview with yours truly over at CalvinAyre.com, Kempe confirmed that winning the GPI POY would be an honour, but only believes his equity of winning the title is at 10-15%.

“It doesn’t make much sense to chase it,” Kempe told me. “There are 20 people in competition for it. Being in the first place right now doesn’t necessarily mean you have the best chance to win it because of the scoring system. If I had to guess my equity of winning this year, it would be 10-15% or less, and that’s not the kind of equity that’s going to push me to chase it. 

“If the situation changes at the end of the year, and it’s only me, Manig Loeser and Bryn Kenney who can win it, and I am one big score away from taking it down – I will do whatever it takes to win it because winning it would be a great achievement.”

Winter won the $5,250 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open (SHRPO) Championship in August, beating 809-entrants to rack up a $698,175 score. Winter may have the lead, but he has to be another outside bet. Winter’s partner is expecting a baby, and that means Winter is more likely to be found in Mothercare than a poker room. 

Current Player of the Year Rankings

1. Sean Winter 

2. Rainer Kempe

3. Stephen Chidwick

4. Sam Greenwood

5. Bryn Kenney

6. Shannon Shorr

7. Manig Loeser

8. Ali Imsirovic

9. Danny Tang

10. James Romero

Top Female Performers

World Rankings

1. Kristen Bicknell

2. Maria Ho

3. Loni Harwood

4. Jessica Dawley

5. Li Yan

6. Marua Lampropulos

7. Lauren Roberts

8. Natalie Teh

9. Wendy Freedman

10 Ana Marquez

Movers and Shakers

Chris Hunichen

Chris Hunichen is the biggest mover in the high stakes scene, shifting 162 places to #61, after picking up close to 700 points for finishing 9/94 in a $1,100 No-Limit Hold’em Turbo at the SHRPO, and winning the 540-entrant €10,300 High Roller at the European Poker Tour (EPT) in Barcelona for €841,345.

Chin Wei Lim climbed 110 places to reach #184 in the rankings. Lim currently sits second behind Michael Soyza in highly competitive Malaysian rankings. Ivan Leow (#230), and Paul Phua (#284) are the two other Malaysian players occupying oxygen in the GPI 300. Lim has made four final tables in 2019, including two high rolling finishes at Triton London, and two at EPT Barcelona. Lim also played in and cashed in the £1m buy-in Triton Million, finishing tenth for £1.1m.

Another big mover is Juan Pardo. The Spaniard rose 101 places to rest in the #192 position after an incredibly consistent display in EPT Barcelona. Pardo won the €25,000 and €50,000 Single-Day High Rollers, back-to-back, and came fourth in a second €25,000 High Roller, accumulating €1.8m in gross prize money. Pardo currently sits #5 in the Spanish GPI rankings behind high rollers Sergio Aido (1), Sergi Reixach (2), and Adrian Mateos (3). 

Finnish high stakes stalwart, Juha Helppi, broke back into the GPI 300 sitting in #236 place. Helppi cashed in two high rollers at EPT Barcelona, finishing runner-up to Timothy Adams in a €10,200 Six-Handed event. 

James Chen had a stunning WSOP, making the final tables of the $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha, and the $100,000 No-Limit Hold’em for a combined haul of more than $1m in gross winnings. The man from Taiwan followed that up with two ITM finishes at EPT Barcelona, making the final table of €25,000 event. Chen breaks into the GPI 300, nestling in #269.

Finally, Triton regular, Peter Jetten, also made it into the GPI 300. The Canadian star currently sits in #272 place after making seven final tables in 2019 with his seventh-place finish in a £25,000 Short Deck event in London his most recent.