The Highs and Lows of the Super High Roller Bowl
Last January, ARIA, Poker Central and POKER PROductions announced that the Super High Roller Bowl would return to the ARIA Resort & Casino May 28-31. The initial plan for this year's event was to have a tournament with 50 players again, same as last year.
There were 35 seats available in a random drawing, along with 15 reserved seats to be divided by ARIA, including one for a celebrity player, as per an announcement. A total of 54 players deposited $30,000 to sign up for the raffle; 19 players were left with hanging shoulders.
This week, Poker Central announced they were upping the amount of players to 56 total, two more than the number of original deposits. That means ARIA has 21 seats still open.
In light of all the excitement, PokerNews decided to journey back through time and see who's cashed the most from this exciting Super High Roller Bowl.
Super High Roller Bowl Stats
Brian Rast leads the ranking of Super High Roller Bowl players. He won the event back in 2015 when the buy-in was $500,000. He played and did not cash in 2016, but still tops the chart with $6,725,000 in profit for the two tournaments.
The sole player to cash in both previous events is Erik Seidel. His min-cash in 2015 (seventh place, $860,000) and deep run last year (third place, $2,400,000) make for a profit of $2,460,000 for the eight-time bracelet winner.
There's a total of 13 players in the black for the two tournaments.
There's a total of 13 players in the black for the two tournaments. Not a single player who cashed in one of the Super High Roller Bowl events is down overall.
Seven players have signed up for the event this year without having played any of the previous two editions. Besides a group of German players who've become high roller regulars over the last year, John Juanda, Ankush Mandavia and Sean Winter are in the mix come May.
Nineteen players have played both previous editions and are already guaranteed a seat in this year's event. Nine of them have never cashed before; 10 are in the black.
The 71 players who have played one or more events, or are to partake this year, have combined live tournament earnings of $635,838,999. That excludes Dong Kim, whose live results are hard to track since his HendonMob profile features several cashes from other players named Dong Kim or a variation of that. The total divided by 70 players makes for an average of $9,083,414 in tournament earnings per player.
The 71 players have combined live tournament earnings of $635,838,999.
The top 11 of the All Time Money List have played the Super High Roller Bowl. The No. 12, Jonathan Duhamel with $17,636,422 in cashes, has never played this event and is the first player to have not done so.
The current top five players of the Global Poker Index have all played this event. The No. 5, Justin Bonomo, is the only player not in yet this year; the other four have already locked up their seat in the raffle last week.
The current No. 6, Adrian Mateos, has never played this event and deposited, but was one of the players not awarded a seat.
Of the 71 players who've entered this event over the years, just Bobby Baldwin and Haralabos Voulgaris have no GPI ranking. Their last cashes are from longer ago than the three year maximum the Global Poker Index uses. Kim doesn't have a ranking since, as mentioned before, his results are mixed with other players. The average GPI ranking for the players with a profile is 13,639th.
| Player | Result 2015 | Result 2016 | Overall Result | Ticket for 2017? | Total Live Earnings | All Time Money List |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brian Rast | $7,025,000 | -$300,000 | $6,725,000 | YES | $19,918,192 | 10 |
| Rainer Kempe | - | $4,700,000 | $4,700,000 | YES | $8,229,885 | 72 |
| Scott Seiver | $4,660,000 | -$300,000 | $4,360,000 | YES | $21,941,880 | 6 |
| Fedor Holz | -$500,000 | $3,200,000 | $2,700,000 | YES | $20,840,631 | 8 |
| Erik Seidel | $360,000 | $2,100,000 | $2,460,000 | YES | $31,098,014 | 2 |
| Connor Drinan | $2,725,000 | -$300,000 | $2,425,000 | YES | $10,512,142 | 43 |
| Timofey Kuznetsov | $1,650,000 | -$300,000 | $1,350,000 | - | $2,898,446 | 386 |
| Phil Hellmuth | - | $1,300,000 | $1,300,000 | - | $20,989,537 | 7 |
| Matt Berkey | - | $800,000 | $800,000 | YES | $2,909,764 | 383 |
| David Peters | $1,005,000 | -$300,000 | $705,000 | YES | $14,954,751 | 19 |
| Bryn Kenney | - | $500,000 | $500,000 | YES | $13,726,397 | 21 |
| Dan Shak | - | $300,000 | $300,000 | - | $8,742,149 | 61 |
| Tom Marchese | $575,000 | -$300,000 | $275,000 | YES | $15,906,983 | 15 |
| Ankush Mandavia | - | - | $0 | YES | $3,986,510 | 233 |
| Christian Christner | - | - | $0 | YES | $608,813 | 2,592 |
| John Juanda | - | - | $0 | YES | $19,032,499 | 11 |
| Koray Aldemir | - | - | $0 | YES | $3,045,204 | 353 |
| Sean Winter | - | - | $0 | YES | $4,795,573 | 178 |
| Stefan Schillhabel | - | - | $0 | YES | $2,261,854 | 553 |
| Steffen Sontheimer | - | - | $0 | YES | $516,206 | 3,109 |
| Ben Tollerene | - | -$300,000 | -$300,000 | YES | $2,134,780 | 602 |
| Bill Perkins | - | -$300,000 | -$300,000 | - | $2,603,491 | 455 |
| Dan Perper | - | -$300,000 | -$300,000 | - | $2,113,425 | 607 |
| David Einhorn | - | -$300,000 | -$300,000 | YES | $5,152,863 | 160 |
| Dominik Nitsche | - | -$300,000 | -$300,000 | YES | $6,590,437 | 103 |
| Haralabos Voulgaris | - | -$300,000 | -$300,000 | YES | $1,882,514 | 705 |
| Jake Schindler | - | -$300,000 | -$300,000 | YES | $8,287,452 | 69 |
| Justin Bonomo | - | -$300,000 | -$300,000 | - | $14,161,347 | 20 |
| Kathy Lehne | - | -$300,000 | -$300,000 | - | $968,505 | 1,447 |
| Keith Gipson | - | -$300,000 | -$300,000 | - | $587,286 | 2,703 |
| Nick Petrangelo | - | -$300,000 | -$300,000 | YES | $7,502,155 | 81 |
| Phil Laak | - | -$300,000 | -$300,000 | - | $3,540,477 | 281 |
| Sam Soverel | - | -$300,000 | -$300,000 | YES | $3,628,589 | 268 |
| Stephen Chidwick | - | -$300,000 | -$300,000 | - | $6,928,554 | 93 |
| Tony Gregg | - | -$300,000 | -$300,000 | - | $11,841,132 | 33 |
| Vitaliy Rizhkov | - | -$300,000 | -$300,000 | - | $878,400 | 1,747 |
| Andrew Lichtenberger | -$500,000 | - | -$500,000 | YES | $8,544,703 | 66 |
| Ben Sulsky | -$500,000 | - | -$500,000 | YES | $1,732,683 | 777 |
| Bill Klein | -$500,000 | - | -$500,000 | - | $3,913,147 | 240 |
| David Sands | -$500,000 | - | -$500,000 | - | $8,259,241 | 71 |
| Dong Kim | -$500,000 | - | -$500,000 | - | - | - |
| Fabian Quoss | -$500,000 | - | -$500,000 | - | $9,618,574 | 51 |
| Isaac Baron | -$500,000 | - | -$500,000 | - | $5,605,276 | 135 |
| Jason Koon | -$500,000 | - | -$500,000 | - | $8,264,040 | 70 |
| Jean-Robert Bellande | -$500,000 | - | -$500,000 | - | $2,163,138 | 594 |
| Max Altergott | -$500,000 | - | -$500,000 | - | $5,506,019 | 141 |
| Ole Schemion | -$500,000 | - | -$500,000 | - | $11,477,279 | 36 |
| Phil Ivey | -$500,000 | - | -$500,000 | - | $23,856,034 | 5 |
| Sam Trickett | -$500,000 | - | -$500,000 | - | $20,591,180 | 9 |
| Tobias Reinkemeier | -$500,000 | - | -$500,000 | - | $11,170,805 | 39 |
| Tom MacDonald | -$500,000 | - | -$500,000 | - | $1,010,338 | 1,478 |
| Andrew Robl | -$500,000 | -$300,000 | -$800,000 | YES | $4,704,231 | 190 |
| Antonio Esfandiari | -$500,000 | -$300,000 | -$800,000 | YES | $27,353,450 | 3 |
| Ben Lamb | -$500,000 | -$300,000 | -$800,000 | - | $6,895,243 | 94 |
| Bobby Baldwin | -$500,000 | -$300,000 | -$800,000 | - | $2,319,679 | 531 |
| Brandon Steven | -$500,000 | -$300,000 | -$800,000 | - | $3,142,445 | 339 |
| Byron Kaverman | -$500,000 | -$300,000 | -$800,000 | YES | $9,483,477 | 52 |
| Cary Katz | -$500,000 | -$300,000 | -$800,000 | - | $10,759,037 | 42 |
| Christoph Vogelsang | -$500,000 | -$300,000 | -$800,000 | YES | $7,356,217 | 82 |
| Dan Colman | -$500,000 | -$300,000 | -$800,000 | - | $27,152,017 | 4 |
| Dan Smith | -$500,000 | -$300,000 | -$800,000 | - | $15,759,913 | 16 |
| Daniel Negreanu | -$500,000 | -$300,000 | -$800,000 | - | $32,887,948 | 1 |
| Doug Polk | -$500,000 | -$300,000 | -$800,000 | YES | $5,154,768 | 159 |
| Igor Kurganov | -$500,000 | -$300,000 | -$800,000 | YES | $12,042,540 | 26 |
| Isaac Haxton | -$500,000 | -$300,000 | -$800,000 | YES | $12,991,583 | 23 |
| Jason Les | -$500,000 | -$300,000 | -$800,000 | YES | $1,500,963 | 940 |
| Jason Mercier | -$500,000 | -$300,000 | -$800,000 | - | $17,446,902 | 13 |
| John Morgan | -$500,000 | -$300,000 | -$800,000 | - | $563,700 | 3,303 |
| Phil Galfond | -$500,000 | -$300,000 | -$800,000 | - | $2,339,619 | 524 |
| Pratyush Buddiga | -$500,000 | -$300,000 | -$800,000 | YES | $5,282,166 | 150 |
| Talal Shakerchi | -$500,000 | -$300,000 | -$800,000 | - | $3,273,807 | 320 |
Who Didn't Make the Cut?
Here are the 19 players who placed a deposit but didn't hear Negreanu call their name in the raffle last week:
| Adrian Mateos | Darren Elias | Max Silver |
| Bill Klein | Jan-Eric Schwippert | Sergio Aido |
| Charlie Carrel | Jason Koon | Stephen Chidwick |
| Dan Colman | Jason Mercier | Talal Shakerchi |
| Dan Shak | Jonathan Jaffe | Zach Hyman |
| Dan Smith | Justin Bonomo | |
| Daniel Negreanu | Max Altergott |
Who's Missing?
It would be easy for the organization to just give the 19 players a seat, plus two more, but we imagine they already had some other players in mind. Here are some suggestions though:
- Let's be honest, there's no way Daniel Negreanu doesn't get in. He did the raffle for ARIA, has played both previous editions and is just about the most famous player alive. He signed up, but was one of the 19 players not to get lucky. He's the current all-time money leader, tops the popularity ranking at HendonMob and is one of the biggest ambassadors of the game.
Phil Ivey signed up in 2015, but was noticeably absent last year. In fact, he's been absent from poker altogether for quite some time. His last cash is from January last year.
Ivey was widely regarded as the best player both online and live, and in all games, for quite some time. While that's no longer the case by any means, Ivey is still one of the most famous poker players, still has an aura that no one can match and can still play with the best.
- Like Ivey, Bill Perkins wasn't on the list of 54 players that placed their deposit. But again, like Ivey, we do hope Perkins wants to play and gets a seat. Any high roller is more enjoyable to watch if Perkins is around because of his antics at the table and away from it. Perkins brings a positive vibe to any tournament, one that influences the other players in a nothing but positive sense as well.
- Justin Bonomo sits in fifth place of the Global Poker Index for 2017, having made some deep runs in events at the PokerStars Championship Bahamas and in ARIA High Roller events. Bonomo is widely regarded as one of the best, has been around for a long time and played last year but failed to make it into the money.
- Bobby Baldwin partook in both previous editions of this event but his last cash is from 2012. Besides Haralobos Voulgaris (and Dong Kim in a way), he's the only player without a GPI ranking. As owner of four WSOP bracelets, among them the Main Event win of 1978, the casino executive deserves a spot in one of the premier poker events.
- Timofey Kuznetsov, Phil Hellmuth and Dan Shak are all in the black for this event, but don't have an entry into this year's event just yet. We would like to see these three players get into the mix again, just to see if they can build their profit for this event. Dan Shak is the only player of these three who could go down to $0 if he would play this year and fail to cash. Both Hellmuth and Kuznetsov would still be up for this event if they played and busted before the money.
- There's a number of reasons one can think of why Dan Smith should be invited. He's one of the top players in the world, has been doing extremely well in the ARIA high roller events, and ran an incredible charity drive at the start of the year that donated $1.7 million to a slate of charities. On top of that, Smith is an amicable character at the tables and a perfect fit for the Super High Roller Bowl.
- Besides some of the players already mentioned above, Ben Lamb, Brandon Steven, Cary Katz, Dan Colman, Jason Mercier, John Morgan, Phil Galfond and Talal Shakerchi all played both previous events without cashing. It's only fair to give them another shot to get in the black for this event.
- Jan-Eric Schwippert (winner of the WPT Five Diamonds $100,000 Super High Roller for $1,439,274), Jason Koon (winner of the PCB $100,000 for $1,650,300), Charlie Carrel (second in that same PCB Super High Roller for $1,191,900) have had great results recently. While any professional player able to buy in for this event is probably doing something right at the moment, these are some of the players we would enjoy following in a high caliber event like this, just to see if there's an end to their run good.
There are a ton of players who deserve a mention here. On top of that, the organization of the Super High Roller Bowl probably has some recreational players on their list, some celebrities (maybe) and personal favorites. We'll know soon enough!
