For the third hand in a row, Brandon Adams opened with a raise from under the gun holding . Doug Polk called in the cutoff holding , as David Peters looked down at on the button and folded.
The flop landed and Adams continued for 65,000 with Polk making the call as the turn landed the .
Both players checked, and the river landed the . Adams checked, and Polk bet out 210,000. Adams folded, and Polk collected the pot.
Heading into the inaugural Poker Masters at ARIA Resort and Casino, few people were talking about Steffen Sontheimer. To most, he was just another German, and arguably the least known from that contingent. Now, the man who celebrated a birthday less than a week ago is the talk of the town and primed to become the first Master of Poker.
Sontheimer, known as “Goose” by his friends and on Twitter @RunGo0seRun, may be new to you, but he’s certainly not new to poker. In fact, coming into the Poker Masters he had $3,551,390 in tournament earnings, and all of that has come since June 2015.
His best score to date was $1,223,264 for finishing runner-up to his countryman, Christian Christner, in May’s ARIA Super High Roller 19 $100,000 Super High Roller. Other highlights on his relatively new résumé include winning the 2017 Poker EM €25,000 Super High Roller for $501,183, sixth in the PokerStars Championship Monte Carlo €100,000 Super High Roller for $415,348, and sixth in this summer’s Triton Super High Roller Series Budva for $313,423.
Consider this amazing fact – coming into the Poker Masters, Sontheimer had 27 documented tournament cashes, of which 14 have come in High Rollers events.
Cleaning Up at the Poker Masters
In the last few days, he’s added $1,104,000 to that total after finishing fourth in the Poker Masters Event #1 for $204,000, and the following day winning Event #2 for $900,000. In Event #3, he barely missed the money bubbling in eighth place, and today in Event #4 he is back at the final primed to add to his total and extend his Poker Masters lead.
If you recall, the player with the best results (highest total earnings) throughout all five Poker Masters tournaments (four $50,000 buy-in tournaments capped by a $100,000 freeze out finale) will win The Poker Masters Purple Jacket™.
At this point, Sontheimer is the odds-on favorite to win, but he faces some stiff competition from the likes of Event #3 champ Bryn Kenney, who has amassed $1.085 million in earnings, and Event #1 winner Nick Schulman, who currently sits in third with $918,000 in winnings. Erik Seidel ($576,000) and Matt Hyman ($561,000) round out the top five.
Others who could still surpass Sontheimer are his friends and fellow Germans Fedor Holz and Stefan Schillhabel, who have won $550,000 and $306,000 respectively. Likewise, it’s too early to count out Germans Dominik Nitsche ($178,500) and Koray Aldemir ($153,000).
Sontheimer Eyes $50K from Negreanu, Frustrates Hellmuth
Sontheimer, who now resides in Brighton, UK, also stands to win an extra $50,000 as he is one of the players who bet Daniel Negreanu that he’d win the Poker Masters. Negreanu, who stands to win over $1 million if he were to win it, has just one min-cash through four events. If he’s to stand a chance, he’ll likely have to win the $100,000 finale and hope those with preliminary success come up empty in that tournament.
Meanwhile, Sontheimer has proven to be a thorn in the side of Phil Hellmuth throughout the Poker Masters.
Yesterday in this very event, Christian Christner raised to 11,000 from under the gun and was called by Sontheimer in the small blind and Hellmuth in the big blind. The flop came and the action was checked to Christner who continued for 13,000. Sontheimer called and Hellmuth check-raised to 35,000. Christner folded and Sontheimer still called.
The turn was the and both players checked to the on the river. Both players checked again and Sontheimer tabled the . Hellmuth couldn't beat it, mucked his cards, and mumbled under his breath about how bad "these young kids" play.
Sontheimer has taken the “Poker Brat’s” jabs and have joined the throng of German players who’ve needled Hellmuth throughout the series. For Sontheimer, he’s taken most of his shots on Twitter while letting his play speak for itself at the tables.
Look who got moved to my table. Let's have some more fun @phil_hellmuth !!#
— Steffen Sontheimer (@RunGo0seRun)
Clearly Sontheimer is doing something right, and the poker world, Hellmuth included, will just have to wait and see if the young German can close out the inaugural Poker Masters.
David Peters raised to 36,000 holding the in the hijack and Jake Schindler three-bet to 90,000 from the cutoff with the .
Action folded back to Peters and he just called before the flop came down . Peters checked top set and Schindler, who flopped top two pair, moved all in for 334,000.
Peters snap-called and suddenly Schindler was looking for either running sevens to win or spades to chop. The turn took away any chance of that happening, and Schindler was officially eliminated in sixth place for $97,500 after the was run out on the river.
Action folded to a short-stacked Zach Clark on the button and he moved all in for his last 79,000. Doug Polk was in the small blind and three-bet to push David Peters out of the big.
Clark:
Polk:
The flop paired both players, but Polk's aces kept him in the lead. Neither the turn nor river helped Clark, and he left empty handed in seventh place while the final six players are now guaranteed $97,500 in prize money.
. Doug Polk called in the cutoff holding 
, as David Peters looked down at 
on the button and folded.
and Adams continued for 65,000 with Polk making the call as the turn landed the 
.
. Adams checked, and Polk bet out 210,000. Adams folded, and Polk collected the pot.
, and Doug Polk responded with a three-bet to 135,000 holding 
and the action was checked to Christner who continued for 13,000. Sontheimer called and Hellmuth check-raised to 35,000. Christner folded and Sontheimer still called.
and both players checked to the 
. Hellmuth couldn't beat it, mucked his cards, and mumbled under his breath about how bad "these young kids" play.
and Justin Bonomo called in the big blind holding 
.
and Bonomo checked to Peters, who checked behind.
and Steffen Sontheimer called in the big blind holding 
.
in the big blind, and he called.
.
. Peters checked top set and Schindler, who flopped top two pair, moved all in for 334,000. 
was run out on the river.
