These days seems like you just finish one poker tournament in time to get ready for the next one. Around the globe, the biggest tournament, of course, is the World Series of Poker; in second place comes the Aussie Millions – Australia, followed by the Latin America Poker Tour – Brazil, then the World Series of Poker Circuit event in New Orleans. There are way too many for us to give you a complete list, but we will do our very best to keep you informed with plenty of time for you to gather your $$$, your senses, and of course, giving you enough time to sit at any poker table and hone your skills.
For now, here’s one for you to keep your eye on; perhaps you can shoot for it next year as it has already sold out for this year. In fact, hard as it is to believe, it sold out on the very first day with a buy-in of $300,000! There are a total of 50 players which created a prize pool of $15 million with $5 million going to the winner.
The 2017 Super High Roller Bowl sold out so fast that it has been confirmed as the World Championship of High Stakes Poker. 35 seats were sold out the first day and the remaining 15 seats were held back and will be chosen by the Aria Resort and Casino.
Every player wants to play in The Super High Roller Bowl. Not everyone can get in. The following are the confirmed players for the tournament:
Christian Christner
Antonio Esfandiari
Igor Kurganov
Matt Berkey
Connor Drinan
Steffen Sontheimer
Jake Schindler
Pratyush Buddiga
Rainer Kempe
Sean Winter
John Juanda
Dominik Nitsche
Christoph Vogelsang
Stefan Schillhabel
Andrew Robl
Brian Rast
Bryn Kenney
Fedor Holz
David Peters
Jason Les
Ben Tollerene
Tom Marchese
Erik Seidel
Sam Soverel
Scott Seiver
Ankush Mandavia
David Einhorn
Nick Petrangelo
Haralabos Voulgaris
Isaac Haxton
Andrew Lichtenberger
Doug Polk
Ben Sulsky
Byron Kaverman
Koray Aldemir
The remaining 15 players will be announced by the Aria Resort and Casino. If your name is not on the list above, maybe you’ll be lucky enough to get in next year. Good luck to y’all.
At some point, movie lovers who also play poker have dreamt of going back in time with a sports almanac and sports-betting their way to becoming billionaires, like Biff Tannen does in the movie “Back To The Future.”
To some of us, it seems like that would be the only way to mint that kind of dough. To others, like Mike McDonald and Erik Boneta, time travel seems unnecessary to roll in the benjies. Their poker aliases also suggest that time is, and has always been, on their side. Mike Mcdonald amassed over half-a-million dollars grinding online with the nickname ‘Timex”, while Erik “Rolex” Boneta clicked heels with legendary players on GSN’s High Stakes Poker.
With his online bankroll, Timex has done everything right. In 2008, at the age of eighteen, he won $1.3 Million in an EPT event, and hasn’t looked back since, making $10 million playing live, with several big tournament cashes and wins.
While Rolex, on the other hand, has an infamous reference to his alias, as he was charged by the police for smuggling over 200 gray-market Rolex watches. You wouldn’t say Rolex’s poker game is worthy of praise, after watching him go nuts against Johnny Chan’s Aces here, but he sure must have done something right to be able to play those stakes. When it comes to watches, not a single soul would prefer a Timex to a Rolex.
However, if you had to bet all your poker chips, or as my friend Kenny would say, if you had to ‘bet all your cows and buffaloes‘ on one of these players, it would have to be Timex!
When I speak of the Million-Dollar Swing Club I am referring to the group that regularly faces million-dollar swings playing online poker. On how many occasions have you drooled at the half-a-million-dollar stacks on the Game Show Network’s High Stakes poker videos? Although we grind our way to the big stake cash games, we constantly dream about winning big paydays at the poker table. There can’t be any better feeling than a million-dollar win playing poker. Well, there are guys out there who are actually doing it!
According to highstakesdb.com, the following is a list of the top three million-dollar winners in the month of March 2013:
Blom
22 year old Swedish sensation Viktor Blom aka “Isildur1” pocketed a massive $2.3 million in March for the gold medal. At 19, this poker beast was spotted online, matching wits with poker players such as Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan and Phil Ivey – a feat that can only be achieved by someone “missing a chromosome,” said Finnish poker pro Ilari ‘Ziigmund’ Sahamies. Personally, I would give up a chromosome for a million-dollar pay day.
Antonius
Patrick Antonius from Finland claims the second place with a $1.8 million profit, after 54 cash game sessions and a total of 5,000 hands! Patrick Antonius, who is also a skilled tennis player and a fashion model, has been making waves in the poker circuit with his aggressive style of poker. He is known to constantly put a lot of pressure on high stakes opponents from all across the globe. He has the ability to make huge bluffs without moving a muscle. Now, that’s a poker face!
Kostritsyn
Alexander Kostritsyn from Russia takes the bronze medal. Kostritsyn, who started playing online poker in 2005 with his family’s savings of $150 — given to him by his mother who always believed in him — won over $1. 2 million last month. Kostritsyn, who is a successful chess and StarCraft player, never practiced bankroll management because he believed he had a 95% (19 to 1) edge over players who he knew he could beat – talk about self-confidence!
Are you one of those poker players missing a chromosome? If not, would you give one up for a million-dollar pay day?
Pretty much every major player on “High Stakes Poker”, or for that matter on almost every major poker tournament in the big world of poker knows who Tom “Durrrr” Dwan is and has probably been Durrrred by him at one time or another.
In the video below Tom strikes again and this time, even though everyone at the table is claiming that they have been “Durrrred,” it is Howard Lederer, holding ace-king of diamonds, who ends up falling for it. He stays in the hand only to end up with Tom pairing up on the turn with 8s giving him the winning hand. They both check the turn and the river and all you need to do to understand what being “Durrrred” means is to take a look at Lederer’s expression when Tom reveals his hole cards: the 8 of diamonds and 6 of hearts.
Have you ever been “Durrrred” at any of your games? Write and tell us about it and we’ll post your stories here. I know I’ve been Durred many times and lost a whole lot lot of poker chips that way.
Jim “Pocket Bullets” Paris
For now, here’s one for you to keep your eye on; perhaps you can shoot for it next year as it has already sold out for this year. In fact, hard as it is to believe, it sold out on the very first day with a buy-in of $300,000! There are a total of 50 players which created a prize pool of $15 million with $5 million going to the winner.
By: The Grinder
