December is the perfect opportunity for a high-stakes poker tournament in Las Vegas. At the very least, Poker Central is betting on it, and they know what they’re doing.
The month of December is an important one for many poker players, as they begin to take a look at the year that almost passed, goals almost achieved, and bankrolls needing a boost. It’s also a time for those on poker leaderboards to do whatever necessary to earn points and end the year with a solid finish. This makes December tournaments all the more popular.
Poker Central and ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas looked at those factors, talked to some players, and looked at the Las Vegas schedule. The World Poker Tour will be in Las Vegas for the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic from December 11-15 at the Bellagio, and it is one of the largest buy-ins of the WPT season. The $10K tournament is rarer on most tours than in past years, so players with bigger bankrolls tend to flock to these events.
What better time to schedule a second 2018 Super High Roller Bowl?
https://twitter.com/PokerCentral/status/1057303773842993153
SHRB V Details
Typically, there is one Super High Roller Bowl each year, coinciding with the start of the World Series of Poker each year. And there was one at the end of May 2018.
The fifth edition of the Super High Roller Bowl, though, will be held in December this year, as the executives in charge decided it would be a great time to round out the year with some high-stakes action and a celebration of the fifth edition of the event all at the same time, just before the holidays.
The tournament will take place December 17-19, just days after the WPT event wraps up, and it will be at the ARIA on the Las Vegas Strip. But instead of finding room inside the casino, the location for the action will be at the recently-introduced PokerGO Studio.
Players can buy-in for $300,000 and participate in the rake-free tournament. The event will be capped at 48 entries, though, with 18 of those spots reserved for ARIA VIP guest players, and another five seats being reserved for the top five finishers of the 2018 High Roller of the Year leaderboard. That will leave only 25 open seats. Players interested in securing one of those seats can make a $30,000 deposit at the ARIA before Monday, November 26, and all of those names will then be put into a lottery drawing to be held on Tuesday, November 27. PokerGO will livestream the lottery.
Those wanting to watch the Super High Roller Bowl V live can do so with a PokerGO subscription, though highlights will be featured in a broadcast for NBC Sports’ website and mobile app.
High Roller of the Year
There are numerous player-of-the-year races, from WSOP spanning the calendar year to WPT and others that cover their seasons. The Global Poker Index tracks player’s annual accomplishments, but there has always been some controversy surrounding how much high roller tournaments should factor into those leaderboards, as point structures must undervalue high rollers in order to create a fairer field for ranking players who compete in lower buy-in events.
Poker Central took matters into their own hands and created the High Roller of the Year race, which tracks all Poker Central-hosted events throughout the year, including the Super High Roller Bowl, Poker Masters, U.S. Poker Open, and ARIA High Roller Series. The top points earner will receive a complimentary entry into all of the following year’s high-roller tournaments, with the top five on the leaderboard receiving entries into the next year’s Super High Roller Bowl.
Since this upcoming SHRB V is altering the once-per-year schedule, the top five players at the time of the tournament will receive the opportunity to play. They will need to buy in but are guaranteed seats if they choose to use them.
At the time of this writing, those players are – in order on the leaderboard – as follows:
--Sam Soverel (1,220 points for $1,767,807 earnings)--Cary Katz (1,205 points for $1,363,800 earnings)--Justin Bonomo (1,025 points for $10,989,400 earnings)--Dan Smith (1,025 points for $5,836,282 earnings)--David Peters (975 points for $3,401,208 earnings)
It All Started in 2015…
The Super High Roller Bowl began in July 2015 with a $500K buy-in, three-day event that garnered 43 total entries, which created a prize pool of $21.5 million. Brian Rast won that event and collected $7,525,000 for the victory.
The 2016 edition was at the end of May and lasted four days with a lower buy-in of $300K. The 49 entries put the prize pool at $15 million, and Rainer Kempe took first place and $5 million.
In 2017, the pre-WSOP event lasted for five days with a $300K buy-in, though it accepted 56 entries. The $16.8 million prize pool was impressive, and Christoph Vogelsang took home $6 million of it for his victory.
Earlier in 2018, the fourth edition of the SHRB took place over four days at the end of May and was capped at 48 entries. From those entries and the $300K buy-ins, the prize pool grew to $14.4 million, out of which Justin Bonomo took home $5 million for the win.
https://twitter.com/JustinBonomo/status/1002306762198798336
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