Frank Sinatra once warbled: “this town is a lonely town. This town is a make-you town, or a break-you-town and bring-you-down town.”
It sounds a lot like Vegas to me.
Many arrive hoping for Disneyland, only to leave with empty pockets and vertigo, a startling start at 5 am, riffling chips sounding like Mortar bombs, an ear canal ready to implode. Feverish scratching like a beat-up stray missing a flea collar.
“It’s a shove-you-down and push-you ‘round town. This town, it’s a use-you town. An abuse-you town until-you’re-down town.”
Not for Sam Soverel and David Peters.
Not this week.
The card room at the ARIA Resort & Casino has been banging this past week. Poker players of the highest calibre have been merging into stacks like geckos, imaginary spears, loaded and cocked; ready to bring down the world’s biggest whales.
Fall Madness.
The menu contained seven events, four of which wouldn’t typically feature in these pages, but for the sake of providing you with a more rounded piece to scoff during your morning Frappuccino, we include them.
Here were the events:
Event #1: $10,500 Pot-Limit Omaha
Event #2: $10,500 No-Limit Hold’em
Event #3: $10,500 No-Limit Hold’em Short-Deck
Event #4: $26,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Event #5: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Short-Deck
Event #6: $52,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Event #7: $103,000 No-Limit Hold’em
There were many first-rate performances.
Stephen Chidwick finished runner-up to Jared Jaffee in the $10,500 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE), before winning the $26,000 event. Alex Foxen recently dethroned Chidwick from the top seat of the Global Poker Index (GPI), and what a way to respond. The $26k victory was Chidwick’s 14th career win and his sixth at The ARIA.
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) & World Poker Tour (WPT) Champion, Jared Jaffee, also had a tip-top Fall Madness, winning the $10,500 for $132,000, and picking up a third in the $26k, and Jonathan Depa, gained two runner-up finishes in both the $10,500 Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) and the $10,500 NLHE Short-Deck.
But the stars of the show were Soverel and Peters.
Soverel was the most consistent performer, winning both $10,500 NLHE Short-Deck events, and taking second in the $52,000 NLHE for a total score of $533,600 – extending his lead at the top of the Poker Central’s Oscars: The High Roller of the Year leaderboard.
Peters…well, Peters is a monster.
The man from Ohio took third in the $52,000 before vanquishing 24-entrants in the $103,000 event for $1,104,000, after beating Rick Salomon, heads-up. Peters has now won six titles this year, half of which have been seven-figure scores, and this was Peters’ seventh seven-figure score in the past three years.
All told, Peters has earned $9m this year (gross) playing live tournaments, and only Jason Koon ($11.5m), Mikita Badziakouski ($13.8m), and Justin Bonomo ($25.2m) have collected more.
The win sees Peters, depose Antonio Esfandiari in the sixth spot of the All-Time Money Earned charts with $27,815,923, and it won’t be too long before he surpasses Dan Colman, who has his handbrake firmly applied in $28,925,059th gear.
Only a fortnight ago, Peters finished runner-up to Martin Kabrhel in the €100,000 Super High Roller at the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) for $1.8m.
“This town is an all-right town.”
Here are the results in full:
Event #1: $10,500 Pot-Limit Omaha
28-entrants
ITM Results
1. Anthony Alberto – $128,800
2. Jonathan Depa – $78,400
3. Craig Varnell – $44,800
4. Sean Winter – $28,000
Event #2: $10,500 No-Limit Hold’em
33-entrants
ITM Results
1. Jared Jaffee – $132,000
2. Stephen Chidwick – $85,800
3. Ali Imsirovic – $52,800
4. Brian Rast – $33,000
5. Bryon Kaverman – $26,400
Event #3: $10,500 No-Limit Hold’em Short-Deck
15-entrants
ITM Results
1. Sam Soverel – $81,000
2. Jonathan Depa – $45,000
3. Cary Katz – $24,000
Event #4: $26,000 No-Limit Hold’em
21-entrants
ITM Results
1. Stephen Chidwick – $283,500
2. Bill Klein – $157,500
3. Jared Jaffee – $84,000
Event #5: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Short-Deck
19-entrants
ITM Results
1. Sam Soverel – $102,600
2. Koray Aldemir – $57,000
3. Sampson Simmons – $30,400
Event #6: $52,000 No-Limit Hold’em
25-entrants
ITM Results
1. Matthias Eibinger – $575,000
2. Sam Soverel – $350,000
3, David Peters – $200,000
4. Justin Bonomo – $125,000
Event #7: $103,000 No-Limit Hold’em
24-entrants
ITM Results
1. David Peters – $1,104,000
2. Rick Salomon – $672,999
3. Jake Schindler – $384,000
4. Ben Tollerene – $240,000
Both Schindler and Rast cashed in the Fall Madness event, extending their lead over Justin Bonomo in the Most Money Earned at the ARIA charts.
1. Brian Rast – $12,196,295
2. Jake Schindler – $12,060,839
3. Justin Bonomo – $10,681,322
Cary Katz cashed once, as did Schindler, so stalemate at the top of the ARIA ITM finishes list.
1. Cary Katz – 53
2. Jake Schindler – 49
In the Poker Central High Roller of the Year Standings, the only member of the Top 5 not to register a point during Fall Madness was Dan Smith.
Poker Central High Roller of the Year Standings
1. Sam Soverel – 1,560
2. David Peters – 1,325
3. Cary Katz – 1,255
4. Justin Bonomo – 1,025
5. Dan Smith – 1,025
The people finishing in the top five positions will bypass the Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB) lottery system scheduled for Tuesday, November 27, streamed live on PokerGO.
That’s it for me.
Ol’ blue eyes will see you out of the door.
“And I am leavin’ this town. You better believe that I’m leavin’ this town.”