Isaac Haxton Wins 2018 Super High Roller Bowl V

Isaac Haxton emerged victorious from a field of 36 entries to win the 2018 Super High Roller Bowl V, earning the biggest payday of his tournament career: $3,672,000. As a result of this huge win, the 33-year-old poker pro increased his lifetime live tournament earnings to more than $23.6 million and climbed into 12th place on poker’s all-time money list.

“It’s easy, in the moment, to fall into putting too much significance into one tournament,” said Haxton after coming out on top in this event. “It’s a 36-player tournament, I was the luckiest guy in there this time and I won. I don’t think that really changes anything about the poker player that I am and my legacy or anything like that. But, damn it feels good to win a tournament.”

“There is no feeling like ending up with all the chips,” said Haxton, whose seven largest scores prior to winning this tournament had come in events that he did not win. “I’m not that fixated on winning tournaments and collecting bracelets and titles or whatever. I just want to be a top poker player and show up to high stakes tournaments and cash games and have a big edge, put the hours in and make a lot of money; That’s how I define success in poker.”

This $300,000 buy-in event is one of the most prestigious tournaments in poker, so it comes as no surprise that Haxton had to overcome a tough final table en route to his win. The third and final day of this event began with seven players remaining, who among them had combined prior live tournament earnings in excess of $85 million. Haxton came into the final day essentially tied for this chip lead with Stephen Chidwick.

“I came in with nearly a quarter of the chips in play, maybe 23 percent or so, I had good position on the other chip leader, and it was a table where I felt confident,” said Haxton. “Obviously, I had 23 percent of the chips in play, so maybe if I’m the best player in the world I’d win 26 percent of the time… so I feel pretty lucky that things ended up the way they did.”

Haxton scored the first knockout at the final table. Ali Imsirovic had raised to 40,000 from the button with the JJ. Chidwick called from the small blind and Haxton three-bet to 230,000 from the big blind with the A5. Imsirovic moved all-in for 460,000 total and Haxton called. Haxton made a flush by the turn to send the 2018 Poker Masters purple jacket winner to the rail in seventh place ($540,000).

The next elimination took place when World Series of Poker bracelet winner Igor Kurganov got the last of his chips in with pocket sevens and failed to improve against the pocket tens of Talal Shakerchi. Kurganov earned $756,000 for his sixth-place showing.

2017 Card Player Player of the Year award winner Adrian Mateos was the next to go. He got all-in with pocket nines against the A-K of Alex Foxen and was unable to win the coin flip. Foxen paired his kind on the flop and held from there to knock Mateos out in fifth place ($972,000). This was his 21st final-table finish of 2018, and with this latest score, he currently sits in sixth place in this year’s POY race.

The next bustout also involved pocket nines, but this time they won the preflop race. Talal Shakerchi was all-in with A-10 against Haxton’s pair of nines. Shakerchi could not come from behind and he was eliminated in fourth place ($1,188,000).

Alex Foxen took a solid chip lead into three-handed play, but Haxton narrowed the gap considerably by knocking out Stephen Chidwick in third place. The two got all-in preflop with Haxton holding JJ to Chidwick’s AQ. Haxton’s pocket pair held up and Chidwick was sent home with $1,512,000 for his deep run. This was the British poker pro’s 26th final table of the year, with five titles won along the way. His impressive run in 2018 has put him in contention for this year’s Player of the Year award. With 8,845 points and $9,950,805 in year-to-date earnings, he now sits in second place in the overall rankings.

Despite scoring back-to-back knockouts, Haxton still entered heads-up play with 4,965,000 to Alex Foxen’s 5,840,000 in chips. Haxton was able to gain control of the match right away, winning a sizable pot with pocket eights against Foxen’s A-J. Haxton stretched his chip advantage to more than 7-to-1 by the time the final hand of the tournament arose. Haxton limped in for 60,000 and Foxen raised to 225,000 out of the big blind. Haxton announced that he was all-in and Foxen called for his last 1,330,000 with the A8. Haxton held the KJ. The flop came down AQ6, giving Foxen top pair and a big lead in the hand. The K gave Haxton a lot more outs to win. The J on the end was one of those outs, giving Haxton two pair to secure the pot and the title.

Foxen was eliminated in second place, taking home $2,160,000 for the biggest score of his career. He also earned 400 POY points for what was his 18th final-table finish of 2018. He now sits in third place on the POY leaderboard. Haxton’s 480 points were enough to move him into 11th place in the standings. He has now made 19 final tables, with this being his third title of the year.

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