Michael Addamo Continues Hot Streak, Wins Super High Roller Bowl For $3.4 Million

Michael Addamo is on an unbelievable hot streak, leaving some of the best players in the world in his wake as he secures multiple huge titles and millions upon millions in tournament earnings along the way.

The 27-year-old Australian poker pro took down back-to-back events at the end of the Poker Masters to earn over $1.8 million and secure the Purple Jacket in mid-September. The tournaments he won were the two largest buy-in events of that series, with a $50,000 and $100,000 price tag to enter, respectively.

Just over a week later he finished second in another $50,000 high roller event for an additional $322,000 payday, the smallest of his run. And the very next day, he emerged victorious in the Super High Roller Bowl $300,000 buy-in event, defeating a field of 21 entries to add another $3,402,000.

“It hasn’t really sunk in,” Addamo admitted when asked whether he’s been able to put his high-stakes run into perspective yet. “I think maybe after a week with some good sleep and rest that I’ll be like, ‘All right, that was an insane week.’”

These live scores came after an extended run online, where Addamo has climbed the ranks with multiple high roller titles, including the partypoker MILLIONS Online Super High Roller, two World Poker Tour Online high rollers, and a whopping four GGPoker Super MILLION$ events.

Incredibly, Addamo’s final opponent in this event was none other than three-time Super High Roller Bowl event winner Justin Bonomo, who beat Addamo heads-up to win the 2020 SHRB Online. This time around Addamo was able to get some revenge and secure his first SHRB ring.

“I’d say I’m a very competitive person, so I was definitely trying my best and battling hard,” said Addamo when asked about the rematch with Bonomo.

The score brought Addamo’s career tournament earnings to $17,942,679, which includes some online scores in tour events where real names are reported. The cash was also enough to see him surpass 2005 WSOP main event champion Joe Hachem ($12.4 million) to become Australia’s live tournament earnings leader.

Addamo earned 600 PokerGO Tour rankings points for his latest win, bringing his total for the year to 1,601. With three wins and four cashes on the tour, his qualified earnings now exceed $5.5 million for the season. He currently sits in seventh place on the PokerGO Tour leaderboard as a result of his surge in September.

The SHRB final table began on the bubble with just five players battling for the final three spots in the money. With a buy-in of $300,000, there ended up being a seven-figure difference ($1,008,000 to be exact) between finishing fourth in this event and making the money. Addamo held the chip lead, with Bonomo comfortably in second place.

Alex Foxen lost a key pot with his pair of eights beaten by the eights and deuces of Bonomo, leaving the former college football player on just a handful of blinds. Not long after that, he shoved from the small blind for around seven blinds with A 5 and received a call from Bonomo in the big blind with K 10. Bonomo turned a pair of tens and rivered a straight to take down the pot and narrow the field to four.

With that, Bonomo surpassed 80 big blinds to put more distance between himself and short stacks Chris Brewer and Sean Winter who had around 19 and 23 big blinds, respectively. Winter slipped to the bottom for a while, but won a preflop race with a small pocket pair facing two Broadway cards to take an important 5.5 big-blind lead over Brewer.

The bubble ultimately burst a few hands later, when Brewer called all-in from the big blind for just under 12 big blinds with A Q. Bonomo had raised enough on the button to put Brewer at risk with 10 4. The flop came down Q 7 5, giving Brewer top pair and Bonomo a flush draw. The J on the turn made Brewer a 4:1 favorite to win the hand and leapfrog Winter on the leaderboard. Unfortunately for the former college track star, the K completed the board, filling Bonomo’s flush to send a devastated Brewer to the rail on the million-dollar bubble.

Winter found a quick double up to nearly 30 big blinds when his pocket deuces beat the A-2 suited of Bonomo. Not too long after that, however, he three-bet all-in with pocket tens facing a button raise from Addamo, who remained in the lead despite Bonomo’s recent pair of eliminations. Addamo called with A J and the board ran out K Q 5 10 7 to give Addamo a straight.

Winter’s set of tens was not quite enough, and he hit the rail with $1,008,000 as the third-place finisher. This was Winter’s third seven-figure tournament payday, increasing his lifetime earnings to more than $19.1 million.

Winter also earned plenty of rankings points with his deep run in this event. He took home 240 Card Player Player of the Year points for what was his 15th POY-qualified final table of the year. With 3,301 points, Winter now sits in 12th place in the 2021 POY race, which is sponsored by Global Poker. He also earned 400 PokerGO Tour points, moving him into third place on that leaderboard.

Heads-up play began with Addamo holding 3,670,000 to Bonomo’s 2,630,000. Addamo extended that lead in the early going without much fanfare, only to have Bonomo build back to nearly where heads-up started by the time the final hand of the event was dealt.

With blinds of 15,000-30,000 and a big blind ante of 30,000, Bonomo raised to 80,000 from the button with Q 10. Addamo called from the big blind with 7 2 and the flop came down 4 3 2. Addamo checked, and Bonomo checked behind. The Q on turn gave Addamo a flush, and he bet 250,000 into the pot of 190,000. Bonomo called with his top pair.

The river brought the 10 and Addamo moved all-in into the pot of 690,000. Bonomo went deep into the tank, having improved to top two pair. After plenty of thought, he announced the call and was shown the bad news. Addamo locked up the pot and the title with his flush, while Bonomo was eliminated in second place.

Bonomo earned $1,890,000 as the runner-up, falling just short of securing his fourth SHRB title. He won his first in the 2018 SHRB China, and later that year took down the SHRB IV in Las Vegas. Those two victories saw him earn $4,823,077 and $5,000,000. He added another $1,775,000 as the 2020 SHRB Online champion.

He has now cashed in six of the 13 SHRB events ever held, accumulating $14,595,299. That means approximately 25 percent of his $57,141,422 in career earnings have come in SHRB events. With this win and some marquee online finishes, Bonomo has surpassed Bryn Kenney ($56,649,561) to move into first place on Card Player’s all-time money list.

Final Table Results