Sign Up For Card Player's Newsletter And Free Bi-Monthly Online Magazine

BEST DAILY FANTASY SPORTS BONUSES

Poker Training

Newsletter and Magazine

Sign Up

Find Your Local

Card Room

 

Brian Rast Wins $500,000 Buy-In Super High Roller Bowl

American Poker Pro Topped A Field of 43 Players In Mega High Roller To Win $7,525,000

Print-icon
 

Brian Rast has emerged victorious in the inaugural $500,000 buy-in Super High Roller Bowl, taking home the flashy championship ring and a gigantic $7,525,000 payday for the win. Rast already had three seven-figure tournament scores to his name, but this victory is on a level of it’s own. Rast was not on his own though, as a group of his friends and family surrounded him as soon as the last card came down.

“I’m so humbled by the turnout of my friends, there was really a lot of people that came out for this,” said Rast. “I’m glad I was able to put on a show.”

The money and the championship ringRast overcame a field of 43 players that turned out to build a total prize pool of $21,500,000. Among those who put up the half-million dollars were some of the biggest names in the game, but in the end Rast stood alone. As a result of this huge win Rast increased his lifetime live tournament earnings to more than $15.5 million, moving him into 11th place on the all-time earnings list.

Rast entered the final table of seven with roughly a third of the chips in play and more than double his nearest competitor, Scott Seiver. Eight-time World Series of Poker gold bracelet winner Erik Seidel was the first to hit the rail, followed closely by 2010 Card Player Player of the Year Tom Marchese in sixth place. David Peters began the day with the third largest stack but had dwindled and eventually hit the rail in fifth place. Timofey Kuznetsov, a high stakes pro known online as “Trueteller” was the next to go, running top pair into Seiver’s flopped set of nines. He hit the rail in fourth, setting up a three-handed battle between Rast, Seiver and Connor Drinan that saw some of the most dramatic hands of the event.

Rast had held the chip lead for much of the day, but his lead evaporated in one hand, in which Seiver four-bet all-in with 8Heart Suit8Diamond Suit and got called by Rast’s KSpade SuitKHeart Suit. Seiver was in bad shape, but found a third eight on the flop and held from there, doubling through Rast to take a commanding lead with roughly two-thirds of the chips in play.

Rast was left with just a slightly larger stack than Drinan, who would be the next opponent he tangled with. The two got their stacks in just moments later, but this time Rast held the pocket eights up against Drinan’s pocket queens. Just like in the previous hand the eights came from behind, with Rast making a full house on a 4Club Suit3Heart Suit3Diamond Suit8Heart SuitKDiamond Suit board. With that he eliminated Drinan in third place and regained some of the chips he had lost just moments earlier.

Rast and Seiver heads-up for the titleHeads-up play began with Seiver holding a 2-to-1 chip advantage but Rast quickly doubled up to retake the lead. By the time the final hand arose Rast was up 3-to-1 on Seiver. With blinds at 80,000 – 160,000 with an ante of 20,000 Seiver raised to 380,000. Rast made it 1,040,000 to go before Seiver moved all-in for 5,300,000 total.

After some deliberation Rast made the call with the ASpade Suit9Spade Suit and found that he was racing against Seiver’s 5Spade Suit5Heart Suit. The board ran out QHeart Suit9Diamond Suit2Club SuitKDiamond Suit6Diamond Suit to pair Rast’s nine, earning him the pot and sending Seiver to the rail as the runner up with $5,160,000 for his impressive run. Seiver climbed to six on the all-time earnings list as a result, increasing his career live tournament earnings to $20,805,230.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at this final table:

Place Player Earnings (USD) POY Points
1 Brian Rast $7,525,000 600
2 Scott Seiver $5,160,000 500
3 Connor Drinan $3,225,000 400
4 Timofey Kuznetsov $2,150,000 300
5 David Peters $1,505,000 250
6 Thomas Marchese $1,075,000 200
7 Erik Seidel $860,000 150

The massive event was filmed for television, and is set to air on NBC Sports Network. The tournament is being sponsored by Poker Central, the new 24/7 poker television network that produced a $250,000 buy-in cash game TV show earlier this week.

You can check out the listing for this event’s seven episodes, as well as six episodes of a Super High Roller Celebrity Shootout event, right here.