High Roller Archives - Paul Phua Poker

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that “doing well is the result of doing good. That’s what capitalism is all about.” I don’t know if Joao Vieira is a man who focuses on doing good, but thanks to capitalism, he has found something that he does well.

In the past 12-months, the Portuguese star has plagued the poker populace with outstanding displays, both online and live, and he rounded off the partypoker MILLIONS UK with another tick in the win column after sending 94-victims to the infirmary in the $10,300 buy-in, $1m GTD No-Limit Hold ’em (NLHE) High Roller.

The event landed partypoker with a $30,000 overlay. Still, Rob Yong’s democratic approach to running a poker company means the series ends with smiles on everyone’s faces, after another brilliantly organised event. He builds them, and people come.

Vieira’s win comes on the back of his best year in live tournament poker, earning $1.36m, 12-months after his previous best annual haul of $876,766. The Winamax pro’s crowning achievement in 2019 was winning his first World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet: taking down the ultra-competitive 815-entrant $5,000 NLHE 6-Handed for $758,011 (his personal best score).

The multi-faceted Vieira also grabbed most of the oxygen in the major online festivals during 2019, winning two titles at the PokerStars Spring Championships of Online Poker (SCOOP) and three at the World Championships of Online Poker (WCOOP).

Dusk till Dawn (DTD) has been a decent venue for Vieira in the past 12-months. The last time he was in town he finished 7/105 in the same event and made money in the Main Event a feat he replicated this time around finishing a respectable 64th place.

Vieira currently tops the Portuguese All-Time Money List with $3.8m.

Vieira defeated the in-form Kahle Burns in heads-up action. The recently crowned 2019 Global Poker Index (GPI) Australian Player of the Year (PoY) banked the $165,000 consolation prize three days after winning the $25,500 NLHE Super High Roller for $350,000.

Burns overcame a heads-up deficit versus Igor Kurganov to win that $25,500 event, and the Raising for Effective Giving (REG) co-founder, also made money in this one, finishing in sixth place.

There was also a place on the podium for Alex Foxen. The GPI World #1, and 2019 GPI PoY winner, finished third, his seventh major final table in the past four weeks.

partypoker was also well represented at the final table with two members of Team partypoker puffing up pillows in Joni Jouhkimainen (4th) and Joao Simao (5th).

Here are the final table results.

$10k Final Table Results

Joao Vieira – $250,000
Kahle Burns – $165,000
Alex Foxen – $115,000
Joni Jouhkimainen – $90,000
Joao Simao – $70,000
Igor Kurganov – $55,000
Michael Sklenička – $45,000
Fahad Althani – $35,000

Anton Suarez Wins The $10,300 MILLIONS UK Main Event.

The $5m GTD Main Event attracted 530-entrants, clearing the guarantee by $141,000. Anton Suarez banked the $1m first prize after overcoming a final table housing the World Poker Tour (WPT) Champions Club member, James Romero (3rd), and the former MILLIONS Main Event winner, Maria Lampropulos (8th).

Suarez rarely contemplates live tournament poker, but he did win a €2,150 NLHE Hyper-Turbo Knockout event during the European Poker Tour (EPT) in Prague a few weeks ago. He finished 5/130 in a €10,300 Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) event during EPT Barcelona in the summer.

High rollers who went deep in this one include Patrick Leonard (17th), Sam Grafton (31st) Niall Farrell (38th), and Adrian Mateos (40th).

MILLIONS Main Event Final Table Results

Anton Suarez – $1,000,000
Christian Rudolph – $620,000
James Romero – $420,000
James Clarke – $311,000
Fredrick Andersson – $230,000
Weijie Zheng – $170,000
Jack Hardcastle – $130,000
Maria Lampropulos – $100,000

Jonathan Karamalikis , the man with the confidence to call himself ‘xMONSTERxDONGx’ is a bulldozer of late, pushing bodies to the wrong side of the rail with the efficiency of the world’s busiest graveyard.

In October, Karamalikis started dropping guillotines in the Victorian Poker Championships in Melbourne, finishing 6/112 in an AUD 1,100 No-Limit Hold ’em event, before winning the 422-entrant AUD 2,300 Main Event for $136,604.

From the Crown Casino’s parking lot to the Star Sydney, and Karamalikis has done it again, finishing 20/203 in the AUD 5,000 Challenge at the World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) Sydney, before taking down the 53-entrant AUD 20,000, AUD 1m GTD No-Limit Hold ’em High Roller for $258,350.

It’s Karamalikis’s most significant score since finishing runner-up to Patrick Leonard in the 2017 $10,400 Bellagio Cup – an event where the Australian pocketed most of the money after a deal ($523,343), and he didn’t have it easy.

The final table included some of the brightest bulbs lighting up the street lamps in the land of Australian poker. Michael Egan followed up his win in a $2,750 No-Limit Hold ’em event at the recently held World Poker Tour (WPT) Cambodia with a sixth-place finish. Qiang Fu followed up his third-place finish in 2018 with a fourth in this, and Roger Teska finished third. Teska won the 2018 MILLIONS World $25k for $2m, and recently won a WPT title, winning the WPT Gardens Festival in July for close to $400k.

The heads-up play fell between Karamalikis and Ryan Otto.

Otto has only two Hendon Mob scores on his resume. The first came in November 2019, when he won an NZD 3,500 No-Limit Hold ’em event at the Skycity Festival of Poker in Auckland, and now this. In contrast, Karamalikis was featuring in his 24th heads-up encounter, winning a smidgen over half.

Here are the ITM Results.

ITM Results

Jonathan Karamalikis – $258,350
Ryan Otto – $159,833
Roger Teska – $104,718
Qiang Fu – $72,338
Mladen Vukovic – $53,048
Michael Egan – $40,647

After posting his Sydney win, Karamalikis flew to Melbourne and made a deep run in Event #1: AUD 1,300 No-Limit Hold ’em Opening Event at the Aussie Millions, finishing 3/1665 in the AUD 1m GTD event, earning a further $87,282. Michael Egan followed him and finished fourth for $63,055.

It will be interesting to see if Karamalikis will return to Sydney to compete in the Australian Poker Open (APO). The Star Casino rolls out the red carpet for Poker Central for the first time, and once the APO is over, the AUD 250,000 Super High Roller Bowl Australia provides a fitting climax to a hectic month of poker in the land down under.

**Sam Trickett is among the top pros sitting pretty after Day One of the Triton SHR Series Main Event. Others have had to rebuy. The Paul Phua Poker team reports**

Day One of the Triton Super High Roller Series Montenegro Main Event has just gone, and what a day it was! Some of the biggest names in poker were among the 47 (including re-entries) so far who have stumped up the HK$1m (US$128k) entry fee, making for some exciting poker tournament action and some very difficult tables.

At one point Paul Phua found himself seated in the most unfortunate position of all: with the young internet legend Timofey “Trueteller” Kuznetsov to his left, and veteran five-time WSOP bracelet winner John Juanda to the left of that! Perhaps it’s not surprising that Paul Phua was knocked out twice during the day. Undaunted, he has bought in a third and final time for Day Two!

Top pros who suffered an early knock-out, and then bought in again, include Steve O’Dwyer, Wai Kin Yong and David Peters. Even the recent Triton SHR Series 6-Max Montenegro champion, Fedor Holz, busted out and rebought. And despite the tournament experience born of two bracelets and more than 33 cashes at the WSOP, Dominik Nitsche was forced to buy in three times just as Paul Phua was.

Qiang Wang, the million-chip man

There is just one million-chip man going into Day Two: Qiang Wang. Top pros with significantly bigger stacks than the 250k they began with include Mikita Badziakouski (825k), Sam Trickett (715k) and Steffen Sontheimer (600k). Montenegrin local hero Predrag Lekovic, who came third in the Triton SHR Series 6-Max warm-up event, is sitting in tenth place with 357k. Lekovic busted Timofey “Trueteller” Kuznetsoz out of the tournament on the very last hand of the day!

Registration remains open until the beginning of Day Two. The big question is, will Tom Dwan make a last-minute appearance? Or is he too caught up in the exciting side action of high-stakes cash games at the Maestral Resort and Casino?

Interviews for the Paul Phua Poker School

Once the tournament broke up for the night, the Paul Phua Poker team filmed even more video interviews with the top pros. We’re really excited by the great strategy advice they have given us, as well as their insights into the life of a professional high-stakes poker player. We can’t wait to get all the footage edited so we can share it with you in the Paul Phua Poker School.

In the meantime, follow @PaulPhuaPoker on Twitter for updates on the Triton SHR Series Main Event.
No one can tell the future, least of all in poker. But there is one thing we can say for sure: with some of the world’s top poker pros competing, it’s going to be a thriller.