Seth Davies Wins Super High Roller Bowl IX In Cyprus

Seth Davies is a World Poker Tour champion with tens of millions in tournament earnings. While he ascended to the highest stakes on the circuit years ago and has found plenty of success there, his résumé had been lacking a marquee win in the nosebleeds.

That all changed on Sunday, Aug. 25 when the 35-year-old battled his way through an elite field of 24 players to win the $300,000 buy-in Super High Roller Bowl IX. Davies earned a career-best payday of $3,206,000 as the champion, growing his career haul to $29,680,068 in the process.

This was nearly three times larger than any previous score for Davies. His next-largest cash was the $1,078,347 he earned as the runner-up in the $100,000 high roller at the 2023 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. This was the 11th career win for Davies, who now has 185 recorded in-the-money finishes.

Davies was awarded 360 Card Player Player of the Year points as the champion. This was his second title and 12th final-table finish so far. With 3,464 total points, he now sits in 30th place in the 2024 POY standings presented by Global Poker. He is ranked even higher in the season-long PokerGO Tour standings after this title run. The 600 points he secured moved him into 13th place on that high-stakes-centric leaderboard.

This event ran over the course of three days at Merit Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino in Cyprus. The prize pool of $7,056,000 was paid out amongst the top four finishers. Dejan Kaladjurdjevic was knocked out on the money bubble at the end of day 2, ensuring that the remaining four players would all cash for at least $750,000.

That sum was ultimately awarded to Germany’s Leonard Maue. He came into day 3 as the short stack, and eventually ran A-J into the pocket jacks of Davies to finish fourth for a career-high live score.

Jeremy Ausmus was the next to fall. The six-time bracelet winner called all-in from the big blind for his last 15 big blinds with K 9. Juan Pardo, who had shoved from the small blind, held a slight advantage with A 6. The board ran out A K 5 3 10 and Ausmus was eliminated in third place for $1,200,000. The American now has more than $23 million in career earnings after this deep run, continuing a dominant summer at the tables.

This was the 17th final table of 2024 for Ausmus. With 5,587 POY points, he has climbed to fifth place in the POY leaderboard. He also earned 400 PGT points, which was enough to give him the outright lead in that points race. With 2,160 points, he now sits 325 points ahead of second-ranked Michael Rocco. He also earned 400 PGT points, which was enough to give him the outright lead in that points race.

Davies had a small 4:3 chip lead going into heads-up play with Pardo, but the final two ended up playing just two hands against each other. The final hand began with a raise from Davies with 8 7 on the button. Pardo called with 4 3 and the flop came down K 9 5. Pardo checked and Davies checked behind.

The 6 on the turn gave Davies a nine-high straight, while Pardo picked up an open-ended draw at a lower straight. Pardo bet and Davies called. The river brought the 2, completing Pardo’s six-high straight. Pardo bet again, and Davies moved all-in. Pardo called off his remaining chips, only to be shown the higher straight.

Pardo earned $1,900,000 as the runner-up. This was the largest tournament score to date for the Spanish poker pro.

Adrian Mateos Stays Red Hot

The marquee $300,000 buy-in tournament was one of 10 high-stakes events that made up this year’s SHRB Series schedule. The other nine events, which featured a mixture of no-limit hold’em and pot-limit Omaha with buy-ins ranging from $25,000 up through $100,000, combined to award more than $11.1 million in total prize money.

The story of the series, outside of Davies’ win in the big dance, was the impressive streak put together by four-time bracelet winner Adrian Mateos. The Spaniard made four consecutive final tables in events no. 3-6, finishing no worse than fourth as he accumulated $1,075,000 in earnings.

His impressive streak climaxed with a win in the $25,000 mystery bounty event, which saw him eliminate 11-time bracelet winner Phil Ivey in second place to secure the title.

This was Mateos’ third title and 17th final-table finish of the year. With 8,784 POY points, he is now the clear leader in the 2024 standings with a 1,564-point lead over second-ranked David Coleman. The 30-year-old also climbed to sixth place in the PGT standings thanks to this victory.

Before Mateos began his hot streak, the first event to wrap up at the festival was the $25,750 buy-in no-limit hold’em kickoff tournament. Former professional hockey player Roman Hrabec came out on top of the 39-entry field, earning $316,000 for the win.

Hrabec has two other wins this year, including earning his first bracelet as the champion of the WSOP Online $333 buy-in event, while also taking down a massive $100,000 buy-in high roller at the Triton Jeju festival for $4,330,000.

With 3,571 total points and more than $5.5 million in to-date POY earnings, the Czech poker pro is now the 26th-ranked player on the POY leaderboard.

Quan Zhou came out on top in event no. 2, another $25,750 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament. Like Hrabec, he cashed for $316,000 while earning his third title of 2024.
This victory came just over two weeks after Zhou took down a Red Dragon Poker Tour event in Jeju, South Korea for $110,889. Back in the spring, Zhou also won a $25,000 high roller at the Triton Poker stop in Jeju for $530,000.

The third $25,750 buy-in no-limit hold’em event of the series ended up with 41 total entries, resulting in a prize pool of $1,004,500. After two days of high-stakes six-handed tournament action, Maher Nouira emerged victorious with the title and the top prize of $333,000.

This was the third-largest live payday yet for Nouira, who has recorded four of his top five paydays this year. His biggest score came with a fourth-place showing in the $100,000 buy-in event at Triton Montenegro, which earned him $933,000. He now has nearly $3.5 million in career cashes. Mateos began his run in this event, placing second for $231,000.

Masashi Oya emerged victorious from a field of 30 entries in the $51,500 no-limit hold’em event. The Japanese poker pro banked $535,000 as the champion, increasing his career tournament haul to $8.5 million.

With two titles and eight final-table finishes this year, he is now sitting inside the top 40 in the 2024 POY standings. Ausmus finished second for $373,000, while Mateos placed third for another $262,000.

The $102,000 no-limit hold’em event attracted 35 entries, building a prize pool of $3,430,000 for the top five finishers. Recent Poker Hall of Fame inductee Patrik Antonius was the unfortunate bubble boy, ensuring at least $280,000 for the five players who outlasted him. That sum ultimately went to Artsiom Lasouski, while Mateos secured $420,000 as the fourth-place finisher.

Maksim Vaskresenski was able to outlast recent WSOP main event seventh-place finisher Brian Kim (3rd – $610,000) and Thomas Santerne (2nd – $870,000) for the title. This was a career-best performance for the Polish player, who now has nearly $2.1 million in recorded tournament scores under his belt.

The final no-limit hold’em side event was the aforementioned mystery bounty event won by Mateos. He picked up $162,000 from the main prize pool and another $165,000 in bounty payouts to bring his total to $327,000 for the event.

Mateos now has more than $50.6 million in career tournament earnings, placing him ninth on poker’s all-time money list. His streak in Cyprus saw him become just the ninth player in the game’s history to surpass the $50 million mark.

High-Stakes PLO

More than $2.3 million in prize money was paid out during the final three tournaments of this festival, all of which were pot-limit Omaha events.

The first PLO high roller featured a $25,750 buy-in, with 23 entries made by the time registration closed. From that small but tough field, it was Denmark’s Martin Dam who came away with the title and the top prize of $278,000.

This was Dam’s second live win, having also took down a $30,000 PLO event earlier this year at the Triton Montenegro stop. He now has $1,297,638 in career earnings, with the majority of his cashes coming in PLO.

The highest buy-in PLO tournament of the festival wrapped up with Joni Jouhkimainen besting a 27-entry field in the $51,150 buy-in event, earning a career-best score of $526,900.

The bracelet winner from Finland now has $7,173,919 in career earnings, good for third all-time on his home nation’s tournament earnings leaderboard. Only Patrik Antonius ($22.8 million) and Juha Helppi ($8.4 million) have cashed for more.

Gergo Nagy, who finished fourth in the first PLO event just a day earlier, placed second this time around for $431,100. The Hungarian now has more than $1.1 million in lifetime tournament earnings.

The final event of the festival was the $25,750 PLO mystery bounty tournament. It drew 19 entries to create a $465,500 prize pool. The majority of that money was captured by the UK’s Richard Gryko.

He earned every knockout inside the money, securing the title, the top payout of $115,000, and the entire bounty prize pool of $232,750. Gryko now has more than $2.2 million in recorded tournament earnings. ♠

Super High Roller Bowl – Merit Crystal Cove – Kyrenia, Cyprus

$25,750 NLH
Aug. 17-18
Entries: 39
Prizepool: $955,500

1 Roman Hrabec $316,000 (336)
2 Santhosh Suvarna $220,000 (280)
3 Kayhan Mokri $158,000 (224)
4 Leonard Maue $116,500 (168)
5 Sam Greenwood $83,000 (140)
6 Maksim Vaskresenski $62,000 (112)

$25,750 NLH
Aug. 18-19
Entries: 39
Prizepool: $955,500

1 Quan Zhou $316,000 (336)
2 Lewis Spencer $220,000 (280)
3 Ren Lin $158,000 (224)
4 Ben Heath $116,500 (168)
5 Felipe Ketzer $83,000 (140)
6 Jeremy Ausmus $62,000 (112)

$25,750 NLH
Aug. 19-20
Entries: 41
Prizepool: $1,004,500

1 Maher Nouira $333,000 (420)
2 Adrian Mateos $231,000 (350)
3 Jamil Wakil $166,000 (280)
4 Yulian Bogdanov $122,000 (210)
5 Daniel Dvoress $87,500 (175)
6 Samuel Ju $65,000 (140)

$51,500 NLH
Aug. 20-21
Entries: 30
Prizepool: $1,470,000

1 Masashi Oya $535,000 (408)
2 Jeremy Ausmus $373,000 (340)
3 Adrian Mateos $262,000 (272)
4 Matthias Eibinger $180,000 (204)
5 Sorel Mizzi $120,000 (170)

$102,000 NLH
Aug. 21-22
Entries: 35
Prizepool: $3,430,000

1 Maksim Vaskresenski $1,250,000 (480)
2 Thomas Santerne $870,000 (400)
3 Brian Kim $610,000 (320)
4 Adrian Mateos $420,000 (240)
5 Artsiom Lasouski $280,000 (200)

$25,750 NLH KO
Aug. 22
Entries: 40
Prizepool: $980,000

1 Adrian Mateos $162,000 (420)
2 Phil Ivey $113,000 (350)
3 Quan Zhou $82,000 (280)
4 Seth Davies $59,000 (210)
5 Sam Greenwood $42,000 (175)
6 Sorel Mizzi $32,000 (140)

$306,000 NLH
Aug. 23-25
Entries: 24
Prizepool: $7,056,000

1 Seth Davies $3,206,000 (360)
2 Juan Pardo $1,900,000 (300)
3 Jeremy Ausmus $1,200,000 (240)
4 Leonard Maue $750,000 (180)

$25,750 PLO
Aug. 23-24
Entries: 23
Prizepool: $563,500

1 Martin Dam $278,000 (252)
2 Yassin Mahmoud $165,500 (210)
3 Imad Derwiche $95,000 (168)
4 Gergo Nagy $25,000 (126)

$51,500 PLO
Aug. 24-25
Entries: 27
Prizepool: $1,323,000

1 Joni Jouhkimainen $526,900 (306)
2 Gergo Nagy $431,100 (255)
3 Bogdan Capitan $225,000 (204)
4 Christopher Frank $140,000 (153)

$25,750 PLO KO
Aug. 25
Entries: 19
Prizepool: $465,500

1 Richard Gryko $115,000 (168)
2 Jan Peter Jachtmann $79,500 (140)
3 Lautaro Guerra Cabrerizo $42,250 (112)