2018 Super High Roller Bowl Confirms 30 Players
March 28, 2018 11:04 amThe 2018 Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB) is scheduled to get underway on May 27th, with just 48 seats available for the $300,000 buy-in tournament. As always, the event’s demand has exceeded its supply with 61 players having already put their names down for registration, and last week a lottery type draw was then held in which 30 players were guaranteed seats. Meanwhile, a further 16 seats are still to be allocated specifically by the Aria Resort & Casino, while the remaining 2 seats will subsequently go to the winners of a $10,000 satellite event that will take place on May 26th.
Lottery Draw Winners
The lottery draw was live streamed last week on PokerGO, and amongst the players to have their names picked for the very first time was Adrian Mateos, Andeas Eiler, Arne Ruge, John Andress, Kahle Burns, Keith Tilston, Markus Dürnegger, Nick Petrangelo, Nikita Bodyakovskiy, and Sergio Aido.
Meanwhile, the following players were chosen to participate in the Super High Roller Bowl for another year:
Andrew Robl, Daniel Negreanu, Igor Kurganov, Koray Aldemir, Stephen Chidwick, Ben Tollerene, Andrew Lichtenberger, Talal Shakerchi, David Peters, Brian Rast, Christoph Vogelsang, Christian Christner, Kathy Lehne, Erik Seidel, Cary Katz, Isaac Haxton, Byron Kaverman, Justin Bonomo, Phil Hellmuth, and Dan Shak.
Disappointed Losers
Each player had put a $30,000 deposit down in order to have their names entered for the SHRB draw, and amongst those not chosen and having their money returned was businessmen Bill Perkins and Antanas Guoga. Also not picked was the 2016 Super High Roller Bowl champion Rainer Kempe, the 2017 SHRB runners-up Jake Schindler, Germany’s number one pro Fedor Holz, the 2016 WSOP Main Event winner Joe McKeehen, as well as perennial winners Dominik Nitsche and Doug Polk.
Nevertheless, these players will still have another chance to enter the high stakes event if Aria decides to place them on its discretionary list, or alternatively if they enter the $10,000 satellite tournament to be held at Aria on May 26th, and finish in its top two places.
Televised Event
On its twitter page, PokerCentral describes itself as the “Ultimate Poker Lifestyle Destination”, and as part of its service the Super High Roller Bowl can be seen on its subscription-based video streaming app called PokerGO. For those looking to explore the poker-only streaming service, a 7-day free trial is available, after which the cost is $10 per month, or $99 per year. Bearing in mind that the 2018 World Series of Poker takes place soon after the SHRB, and PokerGO will also be covering the WSOP Main Event, then May would seem to offer a good time for poker fans to take advantage of a subscription.
The NBC Sports Network will also show episodes of the tournament on its website, in addition to its NBC Sports app. Last year, Poker Central and NBC Sports Group announced a media rights agreement allowing the Super High Roller Bowl to be shown on NBC Sports Network, and as JR McCabe, Chief Digital Office of Poker Central, commented during a press release at the time:
“With our large slate of premier tournaments combined with our experienced team of content creators, Poker Central is creating a comprehensive platform that truly stands out in a crowded content space. Partnering with the distinguished NBC Sports Group allows us to distribute our content to a platform agnostic audience.”
Past Winners
The Super High Roller Bowl was first held at the Aria Resort and Casino in Las Vegas back in July 2015, with Brian Rast winning the inaugural $500,000 buy-in tournament for $7,525,000. In 2016, the buy-in was then reduced to $300,000, with Rainer Kempe taking down the event for $5 million, while the following year another German, Rainer Kempe defeated Fedor Holz heads-up to claim victory for the same amount.