Erik Seidel’s amazing run has continued after he took down yet another pro-heavy tournament that commanded an astronomical entry fee. This latest victory, in the $100,000 WPT Super High Roller Event, means he has won four major titles and made nine final tables already this year, results that have netted him his winnings of $5,590,166.
Twenty-nine players paid the huge entry fee, creating a prize pool of $2,802,000 that was shared out amongst the top five finishers. Some of the biggest names in online and live poker flexed their muscles and splashed their cash but ultimately fell short of the money. Of those who failed to make it even to the final table included Daniel “jungleman12” Cates, Tom Marchese, and Tony G.
Day 1 ended with 17 players and they returned to the Bellagio, Las Vegas, for the official second day where they expected to play down to a winner. Slowly but surely the field was whittled down until just the final 10 players remained, and what a star-studded final table it was. Justin Bonomo, Sam Trickett, Vikek Rajkumar and Daniel Negreanu were just a handful of the names announced by tournament director Jack McCelland.
Rick Salomon was the first player to head for the rail after just four hands and he was kept company by Ashton Griffin 17 hands later, Griffin now almost as famous for the prop bet where he ran 70 miles in a 24-hour period for $1,000,000 than he is for his poker exploits.
The eliminations slowed down and it was almost two hours before the table lost another player, this time Trickett was the man to go home empty handed and in cruel circumstances. With blinds at 10,000/20,000/3,000a, Negreanu raised from late position to 44,000 and Trickett three-bet shoved in the big blind for what turned out to be 430,000. Negreanu sat for almost a minute before announcing his intention to call, turning over KcJc in the process. Trickett’s KdQd looked on course for a timely double up but the boar ran out Ah-2c-2s-6c-Ac to make Negreanu a club flush and sent the talented Brit to the rail.
Another 30 hands took place before Randy Dorman managed to run his 8s8c into Seidel’s JsJc to bust out in seventh place and then Cary Katz burst the bubble a few hands later when his AsQs lost out to Rajkumar’s Ks2d when the latter spiked a deuce on the river. Katz’s elimination meant the five surviving players were all guaranteed no less than $224,160 for their efforts. The first player to pick up this amount was Bonomo, his squeeze play with Qs9s beaten by Erick “E-Dog” Lindgren’s KhQc and almost three hours later the active Rajkumar exited in fourth place when his pair of aces were cracked by the Jd9s of Lindgren when the board ran out 6d-3c-2d-9d-Js.
Negreanu, who only entered this tournament at the very last moment, was going strong but he ultimately fell short when he busted out in third place for $448,320. Again it was Lindgren who did the damage, calling Negreanu’s three-bet shove with Ah6h and flopping an ace to best the Canadian’s pocket fours, which sent the fixture to the heads up stage.
Going into head up Seidel and Lindgren were almost neck and neck and with each of them holding at least 68 big blinds it looked like it was going to be a very long night. The pair battled it out for an hour and when the level came to an end they both agreed to pause the tournament and return the following day to conclude the match. When play resumed the chip lead swung in favour of Lindgren but once Seidel regained it he never looked like letting go of it.
Then on the 326th hand of the final table Seidel sat with all 29,000,000 chips in front of him. Seidel limped and Lindgren checked, so both players saw a Ac-4c-2c- flop. Seidel lead out with a bet of 125,000 only to see Lindgren move all in for his last million and shortly afterwards Seidel called and revealed Ah5h for a pair of aces, whilst Lindgren showed Jc3h for a flush draw and inside-straight draw but neither of these materialised as the turn and river fell the 9s and 2s respectively to eliminate Lindgren in second place and give Seidel his fourth major title of the year so far.
Final table payouts
1st: Erik Seidel: $1,092,000
2nd Erick Lindgren: $700,500
3rd: Daniel Negreanu: $448,320
4th: Vivek Rajkumar: $336,240
5th: Justin Bonomo: $224,160
