Adams Wins First Super High Roller Bowl Australia
Poker Central took its signature tournaments Down Under last month for the first time. The crew and players headed to The Star Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia.
First up was the inaugural Australian Poker Open, an offshoot of the US Poker Open and last year’s first-ever British Poker Open. The series at The Star was shorter than most others but still consisted of seven high-stakes poker tournaments. Buy-ins started at $10K for No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha tournaments and worked up to the $100K Main Event.
Quite a few poker pros from around the world showed up to compete. Australian Michael Addamo won the Main Event, and Brit Stephen Chidwick won the overall series’ leaderboard.
The super high rollers were then welcomed to stay at The Star Gold Coast for the inaugural Super High Roller Bowl Australia.
Live from @TheStar_GC – it's Super High Roller Bowl Australia! @JeffPlatt and @bhanks11 bring you Day 1 coverage featuring #APO🇦🇺 champ Stephen Chidwick: https://t.co/j4lvVmqlX2 📺 pic.twitter.com/lI5VTJ82Xy
— PokerGO (@PokerGO) February 2, 2020
SHRB Tournament Action
Players could buy in to the Super High Roller Bowl Australia for $250,000 and reenter once, with registration open through the end of Level 10.
When it began on February 1, there were 12 players ready to take their seats at two tables. MIkita Badziakouski was the first to bust but then reenter. Michael Addamo had a rough start and busted but also reentered. Mattias Eibinger was the next to go and return for another $250K. Aaron Van Blarcum did the same. Addamo and Eibinger both busted their second times and could not reenter.
When registration closed, the 12 original players and four reentries brought the total entries to 16 and prize pool to $4 million. That would be enough to pay the top three finishers.
Alex Foxen then busted, as did Stephen Chidwick. The remaining eight players combined to one table with Kahle Burns in the lead and Elio Fox not far behind. Open Kisacikoglu was eliminated, followed by Badziakouski, and Seth Davies.
That night ended with these chip counts:
–Elio Fox = 1,337,000 chips
–Kahle Burns = 951,000 chips
–Timothy Adams = 793,000 chips
–Aaron Van Blarcum = 568,000 chips
–Cary Katz = 356,000 chips
Final Table Action
The following day, the final five returned to play for the three payouts and one win.
As documented by Poker Central, Fox lost ground quickly, and Burns busted him in fifth place before eliminating Van Blarcum in fourth place, which was the money bubble. Burns had a dominating chip lead, though Adams was the one to bust Katz in third place.
Burns still had 2.9 million chips going into heads-up play versus the 1.1 million of Adams. But Adams played strong and put Burns to the test in several hands. Adams then doubled through Burns, leaving the latter with nine big blinds. Burns did double up twice, but he finally shoved with Q-J suited against the A-9 of Adams, who garnered two pair on the turn and win.
1st place: Timothy Adams (Canada) $2.16 million
2nd place: Kahle Burns (Australia) $1.2 million
3rd place: Cary Katz (USA) $640K
The comeback is complete! 🇨🇦's @Tim0theeAdams beats Kahle Burns to win Super High Roller Bowl Australia and $2,000,000! https://t.co/j4lvVmqlX2 🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/WgFgFyah4t
— PokerGO (@PokerGO) February 3, 2020
Second-Smallest SHRB
The Super High Roller Bowl began in 2015 with capped fields and even a lottery to find out who was able to enter. That was when it took place in Las Vegas and offered $500K and $300K buy-ins.
When Poker Central took it on the road in 2018 to China, it was successful there, too. The same happened last year when it traveled to the Bahamas.
The lowest turnout was earlier in 2019 with the Super High Roller Bowl London. That drew only 12 players but no reentries for a £3 million prize pool and two paid players. Australia did slightly better because of the four reentries.
It is unclear if the SHRB will go on the road again in 2020.
