2nd Annual Super High Roller Bowl Begins Sunday at the Aria Resort in Las Vegas
The Aria Resort & Casino will be the setting for this weekend’s 2nd Annual Super High Roller Bowl, a No-Limit Texas Hold’em tournament which brings the biggest name poker professionals in the world to compete. The entry fee is $300,000, while the prize pool is $15 million guaranteed.
The event begins on Sunday, May 29 and ends on Wednesday, June 1. The final table is going to feature 7 players, with the top seven finishers earning big money. Antonio Esfandiari, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, and Jason Mercier are set to compete in the Super High Roller Bowl. Last year’s champion, Brian Rast, will defend his title. Last year’s runner-up, Scott Seiver, is expected to return.
CBS and PokerCentral to Cover the Event
The final table is going to air on the CBS Sports Network and CBSSports.com. Other television coverage will be broadcast on the Twitch channel at PokerCentral. In the 1st Annual Super High Roller Bowl, the buy-in was $500,000 and the prize pool was $21 million. Brian Rast won $7.525 million for winning first place. If you compare Rast’s winnings to the 2015 World Series of Poker Main Event 1st Place winnings ($7.683 million), it is quite comparable, so the Super High Roller Bowl is one of the year’s most prestigious events.
Where the World Series of Poker takes its inspiration from Major League Baseball’s championship events, the World Series, the Super High Roller Bowl takes its inspiration from the National Football League’s championship event, the Super Bowl. The winner not only receives prize money, but a one-of-a-kind hand-crafted Super High Roller Bowl ring, much like NFL players receive a Super Bowl ring for winning a championship. These are a bit gaudy looking, but in the world of professional football, it is considered a showpiece which many players wear full-time.
Super High Roller Bowl – Complete Prize Pool
The full list of winnings for the Super High Roller Bowl is listed below. The payouts are based on a 49-player field. If less than 49 players enter the event, the payouts will be adjusted down to account for the smaller amount of entry fees. That adjustment will be based on the percentage listed in each column.
Standings – Winnings – Percentage of Prize Pool
1st Place – $5 million – 33%
2nd Place – $3.5 million – 23%
3rd Place – $2.4 million – 16%
4th Place – $1.6 million – 11%
5th Place – $1.1 million – 7%
6th Place – $800 thousand – 5%
7th Place – $600 thousand – 4%
To enter, players had to post a non-refundable $30,000 deposit. They had to pay the remaining $270,000 in entry fee by May 27. If they withdrew from the event, the $30,000 entry fee would have been added to the prize pool. The open seat would be available on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Entrants at the Super High Roller Bowl
Besides the players already mentioned, the current list of confirmed entrants includes: Dan Smith, Phil Galfond, Andrew Robl, Anthony Gregg, Ben Lamb, Ben Tollerene, Bill Perkins, Bobby Baldwin, Brandon Steven, Bryn Kenne, Byron Kaverman, Cary Katz, Christoph Vogelsang, Connor Drinan, Dan Colman, Dan Perper, Dan Shak, David Einhorn, David Peters, Dominik Nitsche, Doug Polk, Erik Seidel, Fedor Holz, Haralabos Voulgaris, Igor Kurganov, Isaac Haxton, Jake Schindler, Jason Les, Jason Mercier, John Morgan, Justin Bonomo, Kathy Lehne, Keith Gipson, Matthew Berkey, Nick Petrangelo, Phil Galfond, Phil Laak, Pratyush Buddiga, Rainer Kempe, Sam Soverel, Stephen Chidwick, Talal Shakerchi, Timofey Kuznetsov, Tom Marchese, and Vitaliy Rizhkov.
That represents a field of 49 players, so a full roster should appear at the event. Twenty-one contestants played in the inaugural 2015 event. The field represents a virtual who’s who of top gamblers at the moment. Anyone able to pay the $300,000 entry fee is either a high roller or a poker pro with major corporate sponsors, or both.
2016 World Series of Poker
While the Super High Rollers Bowl is not a part of the 6-week World Series of Poker, it signals that the world’s greatest poker players are beginning to gather in Las Vegas for the WSOP. The World Series of Poker begins on Tuesday, May 31.
The World Series of Poker this year entails 69 different events. The WSOP Main Event begins on July 9. Like the Super High Roller Bowl, the World Series of Poker Main Event is a No-Limit Texas Hold’em event. The entry fee for that event is $10,000, making it a great deal more affordable for amateurs to enter.
This year, the WSOP Main Event is not the 69th and final event, though. Instead, the $1000 + 111 Little One for One Drop Foundation event is the final tournament, beginning on Wednesday, July 13th. The One Drop Foundation is Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte’s charity foundation, which helps struggling communities worldwide gain access to the world’s dwindling water supply.
