22-Year-Old Fedor Holz Wins Triton Super High Roller $200,000 Cali Cup for $3,072,748
After winning the World Poker Tour $100,000 Alpha8 Las Vegas for $1.589 million in December to close out 2015, Fedor Holz continued his momentum into 2016 with a huge win in the Triton Super High Roller Series $200,000 Cali Cup at WPT Philippines from Solaire Resort and Casino in Manila. Holz's win at Bellagio in Las Vegas saw him top a field of 45 entries, and this time around he defeated a field of 52. Holz scored $3.072 million for this victory.
Triton Super High Roller Series $200,000 Cali Cup Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fedor Holz | $3,072,748* |
| 2 | David Peters | $2,699,752* |
| 3 | Devan Tang | $1,405,500 |
| 4 | Steve O'Dwyer | $953,700 |
| 5 | Phil Ivey | $656,500 |
| 6 | Daniel Colman | $502,000 |
| 7 | Paul Phua | $401,600 |
| 8 | Mike McDonald | $351,320 |
*Denotes heads-up deal
Coming into this event, Holz had built up a total of over $3.8 million in live tournament earnings. This win nearly doubles his total to over $7 million. The young German superstar is certainly making a name for himself in poker, as he pushed past a very tough field at the final table.
With 40 unique players and 12 reentries, the event generated a prize pool of over $10 million. Thirty-three players returned for Day 2 action, and it was Stanley Choi who was eliminated on the bubble in ninth place. Following his exit, Mike McDonald hit the rail in eighth, and then Steve O'Dwyer took out Paul Phua in seventh.
It was at this point that O'Dwyer had the lead and it looked as though another big buy-in title was going to come his way, but he then bluffed off some chips before Devan Tang assumed the lead.
Tang then busted Daniel Colman in sixth place to land Colman a payout of $502,000. That score was Colman's 11th six-figure cash in under a two-year period, and his eighth in an event with a buy-in of $50,000 or higher over the same time period.
A handful of hands after Colman's bust, Holz got a big break when he spiked a lucky double against Phil Ivey. It was reported that Holz had opened with a raise from under the gun to 90,000 with the blinds at 20,000/40,000/5,000, and Ivey reraised from the small blind to 270,000. Holz opted to move all in for 1.15 million, and Ivey instantly called with the Q♦Q♣. He had Holz's K♣Q♥ in a world of hurt, but the K♥10♦5♥ flop changed all of that. Holz had vaulted into the lead and held after the 6♦ turn and J♥ river.
Shortly after Holz doubled through him, Ivey was eliminated in fifth place when his Q♠J♣ fell to the A♥Q♦ of Holz.
During four-handed play, Holz doubled up David Peters, but fought his way back up the leaderboard and back into the lead. He then took out O'Dwyer in fourth place to get even more chips, and O'Dwyer earned $953,700 for the result. For O'Dwyer, he was also coming off a highly impressive month of December to close out 2015. He had three cashes that month for $874,440, which included a big win in the European Poker Tour Prague €50,000 Super High Roller for €746,543 ($809,752).
On Twitter, O'Dwyer said that he has plans to go from the Philippines to the Bahamas for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and play all of those big buy-in events before he jets off to Australia for the Aussie Millions, so we will likely be hearing much more from him in the first month of the new year. O'Dwyer will be looking to defend his title after he topped a record field in the 2015 PCA $100,000 Super High Roller to win $1.873 million.
Holz extended his lead over Tang and Peters in three-handed play, but Peters was able to double through him once and then knock out Tang in third place so that he wasn't totally crushed going into heads-up play. Despite that, though, Holz did have a 2-1 lead when the duel began — 6.88 million to 3.525 million.
After a short break, the two players opted to shorten the blind levels to 20 minutes and jump from 40,000/80,000/10,000 to 75,000/150,000/25,000. That sped things up, and the match only took four hands from there.
On the final hand, Peters opened to 350,000 from the button, Holz made it 1 million to go, and then Peters jammed. Holz called with the 7♦7♠, and Peters was flipped for his tournament life with the A♣Q♣.
The J♥5♦5♣K♦K♥ board kept the sevens in the lead for Holz and sealed the deal.
For Peters, who finished off 2015 with a $426,240 win on Dec. 20 in the last ARIA $25,000 High Roller of the year, banked $2.7 million and pushed his total live tournament earnings to nearly $10 million. This result also proved to be the largest of his career.
With $3.072 million in his bank account and another prestigious poker title in his trophy case, Holz is the early frontrunner for player of the year and top money earner for 2016. We can certainly expect to see many more results from him this year, and those should all start with the PCA and Aussie Millions up next.
*Photo courtesy of the WPT.
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