Steffen Sontheimer Leads the Final Six After Day 2 of $250,000 Super High Roller Championships
The final six players have been reached in the $250,000 Super High Roller Championships and play has concluded a little earlier than expected. While there was originally eight levels scheduled for today, the tournament staff and players agreed to stop play after just seven levels and resume the final table tomorrow.
Steffen 'Goose' Sontheimer will carry the chip lead into the final day with a whopping 11,035,000 chips. Sontheimer took over the chip lead when he turned two pair and Nick Petrangelo rivered a smaller two pair. On the contrary, Petrangelo will enter Day 3 on the short stack with 1,100,000 which is just less than 20 big blinds.
Sontheimer broke out into the high roller scene just a little over a year ago when he captured the title at the Poker Masters in Las Vegas. He claimed victory in two separate events and recorded his largest career cash of over $1.5 million. To date, the German high roller has accumulated nearly $9 million in career earnings but will be looking to add to his resume with a huge prizepool up for grabs.
As he referenced in his interview at the end of the day, things won't be easy for Sontheimer who will have to deal with some of the best players in the business. David Peters is knocking at the door with 9,310,000 chips and Sean Winter who is a high stakes regular at the Aria in Las Vegas rounds out the top three with 6,465,000 chips.
One of the hottest players on tour right now is Mikita Badziakouski who is also still in the mix. Badziakouski bagged up 3,760,000 and you can never count him out. The one and only partypoker pro remaining in the field is Isaac Haxton who had a mediocre day at the table. Haxton ended the day with roughly the same stack that he started with, putting 2,290,000 in the bag.
Final Table Seating and Chip Counts
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Steffen Sontheimer | Germany | 11,035,000 | 184 |
| 2 | Nick Petrangelo | United States | 1,100,000 | 18 |
| 3 | David Peters | United States | 9,310,000 | 155 |
| 4 | Isaac Haxton | United States | 2,290,000 | 38 |
| 5 | Sean Winter | United States | 6,465,000 | 108 |
| 6 | Mikita Badziakouski | Belarus | 3,760,000 | 63 |
There were 14 players that returned to their seats after Day 1 but with late registration open until the start of Day 2, three more players entered the field. Ben Tollerene, Cary Katz, and Steve O'Dwyer all came to the felt with fresh stacks of 1,000,000 chips. That brought the total number of entries to 34, meaning four places would be paid.
For O'Dwyer, his 1,000,000 chips didn't last long as he got them in the middle with ace-king suited against Badziakouski's pocket eights. Badziakouski held on and O'Dwyer was eliminated within the first 30 minutes. Dan Smith, Martin Kabrhel, Jason Koon, Cary Katz, Adrian Mateos, and Stephen Chidwick all followed to the rail in succession.
The best hand in Texas Hold'em, pocket aces, wasn't kind to the players today as two players lost a significant portion of their chips with the premium holding. Ali Imsirovic was the first to drop when Petrangelo flopped a set of queens. All of the chips got in the middle on the river, leaving Imsirovic with less than a starting stack. He was eliminated shortly after which set of the unofficial final table of eight.
Talal Shakerchi came in as the short stack and was unable to get things going in his favor as he was ousted in eighth place shortly after. That left Tollerene on the short stack and he also found himself under a starting stack at one point. He picked up the pocket aces as well but Sontheimer turned trip jacks to eliminate Tollerene in seventh place.
There wasn't much maneuvering in the last level of the night that saw no eliminations take place. When the players return tomorrow, they will be just two eliminations away from the money which is a huge bubble. A min-cash will be worth $700,000 and the winner will be taking home the biggest payday in the 2018 Caribbean Poker Party of $3,685,000. The action will get underway at 1 p.m. tomorrow on the feature table and the PokerNews live reporting team will be here to bring you the coverage.