In the $50,000 Super High Roller, the field was 124 entries. In 2022, when Jake Schindler won, there were 101. A noticeable increase in the number of participants has been seen in all tournaments of this series. So the record-breaking Main Event, which is being talked about more and more boldly, is unlikely to surprise anyone.
Only eight levels were played on the first day. This is another trend of this World Series. In all big buy-in tournaments, they made extremely short starting days, but in the second they play a long time.
At the very end of the day, Justin Bonomo and Ren Lin battled for the chip lead. At 6,000/12,000, Bonomo called a 3-bet for 75,000 with . On the flop he check-called 65,000, the turn checked, on the river Justin shoved all in. Villain, with a stack of 800,000, called and showed . Justin had two million.
In second place in the chip count was Talal Shakerchi, followed by a whole string of regulars – Chris Brewer, Sam Soverel, Chance Kornuth, Alex Foxen, and Leon "Rumuku!us" Sturm.
Toward the end of the evening, Kornuth and Dan Smith decided to entertain themselves with some strange game.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CtScKh-gsrZ/
“I gave this guy a $100 freeroll,” Kornuth explained. He has to play with the bottle on his head for 15 minutes so that it does not fall. I hope they start giving him good cards so that he can't sit out.
“It will be easy,” Smith promised. And so it happened, the bald man earned an easy $100.
On the second day, 14 more players entered the game, including Koray Aldemir, Phil Ivey, and Bill Klein. They all started the game with a stack of 19 blinds.
At one of the first levels of the day, Alex Foxen eliminated Jake Schindler from the tournament.
Recall that it was Alex who started the discussion last year, which led to the ban of Schindler and Imsirovic from all major series, except for the WSOP.
Phil Ivey with couldn't beat the of Brian Rast busting early as well. Shortly before the start of the WSOP, Phil became a father. This is probably why he missed the last Triton series, even though he was one of the first invitees to the $200,000 tournament.
The fates of Chance Kornuth and German pro Anton Morgenstern intertwined in this tournament in an interesting way. With about 10 people left before the money, Chance doubled up with sixes against Anton's aces. Kornuth opened with 35 blinds in UTG and called his opponent's push in the BB. River – .
Anton had only 3 blinds left, but he quickly spun up to the middle stack. Morgenstern shoved aces again, Kornuth made a call with jacks, but couldn't outrun the opponent for the second time.
Two people before the money Morgenstern, who learned from Kornuth's success, showed on the flop a set of fours against a set of sevens by Mikey Ruskin. On the river, the dealer opened the case four. Soon Mike busted out against Bill Klein ( < ).
Poker bad beats are unlikely to scare Ruskin much, he is no stranger to the blows of fate. In 2018, he was arrested by FBI agents for drug dealing. After that, for obvious reasons, he did not play poker for some time. This is his first appearance at the tables in 5 years. During the arrest, Mikey had the following seized: 350 pounds (162 kg) of marijuana (he sold a pound for $1,400), concentrated hash oil, a loaded shotgun, a stun gun, two cars, detailed documentation with a history of payments for his products, $140,000 in cash and works of art worth more than $100,000. It remains a mystery how he managed to get free so quickly, given such a rich catch. Apparently, American justice considered that Mike did not pose a great danger to society.
Kornuth busted out on the bubble. Ironically, he was let down by aces. Alex Foxen with pushed on the board and got called.
Eliminated in 18th place was Alex's wife Kristen.
Kevin Rabichow left the tournament in 15th, confirming that it was better not to show aces that evening. Justin Bonomo with nines made a set against him.
Cary Katz, Chris Brewer, and Talal Shakerchi all exited the tournament in 13th, 12th, and 11th places.
Anton Morgenstern, after all his adventures on the bubble, knocked out Dan Smith (in 14th place) and Chris Brewer in the money, but he himself left the tournament in 9th place ( < Seth Davies).
When the final table was decided, Alex Foxen was in the lead. In second place was 75-year-old billionaire Bill Klein, who became the main star of the final table. He immediately demonstrated that he was not going to sit out surrounded by professionals.
At 40,000/80,000 the Bill opened late and Justin Bonomo called the SB.
On the flop Justin check-raised from 90,000 to 300,000 and Bill 3-bet to 850,000.
Turn , Bonomo called the 350,000 bet.
River , Bill bet 700,000, Justin called with , Klien had .
After this hand, Bonomo approached Foxen, but failed to stay at the top. First, he lost a huge pot to Jans Arends – on the board Arends bet 650,000, Justin with raised to 2,650,000 and got called by .
Bonomo had 20 blinds left, which he soon shoved with and busted in 6th against the of Arends.
The remaining players continued to sort things out every other day on the TV table.
Almost immediately, Foxen doubled up Arends.
Alex defended the big blind, check-raised the flop, bet the turn, and shoved the river. After this hand, Jans received almost half of the tournament chips.
Klein continued to rock and bluffed the chip leader with 9-high. It was lucky that Jans did not have the strongest hand.
Bill called the 3-bet, check-called the flop, the turn was checked, and on the river, Klein took the pot with a 40% bet.
A few hands later, Foxen also had to admit defeat against the fearless Bill.
Klein opened from early, Foxen defended BB. Alex check-raised from 300,000 to 925,000 on the flop and immediately folded to a 2.3 million bet.
Seth Davies was eliminated in 5th place.
Sturm on the SB raised, Seth paid on the BB. The German check-call on the flop, the turn was checked, and on the river, Davies called with his whole stack.
Immediately after that, the young German sent Foxen to rest.
Sturm defended the big blind and check-raised the flop, and Alex shoved. Turn and river blanks.
Three-handed started with these stacks:
Jans Arends – 72bb
Leon Sturm – 54bb
Bill Klein – 23bb
But Klein quickly called and then played another epic hand against Arends.
Bill made a 900,000 call on the SB. On the flop, he check-raised from 700,000 to 2.2 million. On the turn, he bet 1.6 million into a pot of 6.5 million and went all-in on the river.
Jans had almost no timebanks left and folded, leaving himself 16 blinds.
“Misread my hand,” Klein smiled.
Why are you doing this to me, Bill? Jans asked.
– You have nothing to do with it at all, I did it solely for myself.
– Eh, if I had at least a couple more time-banks…
“The guy just didn’t understand,” one of the commenters on Twitter condemned the fold. Bill is a billionaire and one of the top high-stakes bluffers. I'm happy to call here 100% of the time. Eights block 87, the board has paired, so the probability of sets is also small. Nine will never shove the river, too much showdown value.
“Waiting for you in the $50k tournaments,” Jans replied.
We talked about Bill many times. He is indeed a retired billionaire who loves to bluff.
In a selection of the best hands from Hustler streams from last year, his bluff against Brian Kim was ranked 9th.
Bill's family owned a large cement and other building materials company for many years. However, when he was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer, Bill decided to sell the business and retire to focus on his health and family. He plays poker purely for fun.
“I give to charity not only all the profits, but also the losses, too,” he once admitted. – Therefore, I always tell my opponents that the main thing is that they do not leave me with their own money. If I win $200k, I'll give it all away; if I lose $200k, I'll write a check for that amount too.
After the accident with Arends won several pots without a showdown and pulled himself up to the leaders.
Bill 3-bet all-in against him in one hand.
“I don't think I can throw it away,” Jans admitted.
At this point, Bill revealed his cards by mistake.
This made Arends' problem a bit easier:
The good news is that I have the same hand.
There were no incidents, the pot was divided.
“I need to be more careful,” Bill chided himself. “I messed up yesterday too. I thought that dinner had begun (ed. – in the early days of high rollers they play without big breaks ), and just went to rest in my room. It's good that a couple of guys wrote to me right away, and I quickly returned.
A hand with trips paid Bill with the flush on the river.
Sturm limped preflop and Bill checked. The flop was check-checked, on the turn Klein called the 1 million bet. On the river Sturm bet-call 1 million – 3.5 million.
Sturm had less than eight blinds left, and he could have busted in one of the next hands.
Bill raised to 900,000 and "Rumuku!us" defended the big blind and shoved the flop. Bill didn't call the 4.5 blinds with low pair.
The stacks gradually leveled off again, and then in a big pot, Bill outbid Arends on the river.
On the river, Klein bet 4.1 million into a pot of 4.5 million.
– Do you have a flush? Jans asked and then called.
“Full house,” Bill disappointed him even more.
At some point, Klein had 60 blinds against 17 for both opponents, but he could not convert such an advantage.
At first, the online regulars found out the fate of the 3rd place in a face-to-face confrontation.
On the flop, Arends check-shoved and got called instantly, needing three outs. However, if Arends was upset, it was not for long. A couple of days later, he became the champion in the $100,000 buy-in tournament.
In the early hands of heads-up, Bill pulled away a little, but then he lost a big pot, in which he did not dare to bluff the river.
Preflop, Sturm called a 3-bet. Bill bet 2.4 million on the flop into a 6.5 million pot and on the turn 2.7 million into 11.3 million. Sturm called both bets, and the river was check-checked.
In the final hand, the players shoved on the turn.
Bill defended the big blind and check-called the flop. On the turn, he just shoved 13.7M into a 5M pot. Sturm thought for a bit, clarified the stacks, and called.
River .
A week before this victory, Leon won the $10,000 Super MILLION$ phase.
Highlights of the final table (comments full of words of love for Bill Klein):