2017 Poker Year In Review: Tournament Recap Part 2A Look At The The Highlights From The Second Half of the Year On The Tournament Circuit |
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The following is the second part of Card Player’s recap of 2017’s action on the live tournament circuit. You can get up to speed on what happened in the first half of the year by reading part one here.
Summer
All of the major year-round tours were on hiatus as the poker world converged on Las Vegas as it geared up for its busiest time of the year: the World Series of Poker. The first major event of the summer was the $300,000 buy-in Super High Roller Bowl. Christoph Vogelsang beat 56 entries to walk away with $6,000,000.
With that, the 2017 WSOP got underway. From May 31 through July 20 the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino hosted 74 bracelet events, with 120,995 total entries setting a new record for attendance. Over the course of the series $231,010,874 in prize money was awarded, the most in WSOP history.
Several of the biggest names in the game won bracelets this summer, including Liv Boeree and Igor Kurganov who combined to win the $10,000 tag-team no-limit hold’em event, Jesse Martin ($2,500 mixed triple draw lowball), Abe Mosseri ($10,000 Omaha eight-or-better), Ben Yu ($10,000 deuce-to-seven triple draw), Joe McKeehen ($10,000 limit hold’em), John Monnette ($10,000 no-limit deuce-to-seven single draw), Frank Kassella ($1,500 no-limit deuce-to-seven single draw), Ben Zamani ($1,500 Omaha eight-or-better) and Upeshka De Silva ($3,000 no-limit hold’em shootout).
Adrian Mateos made history by becoming the youngest player to ever win three WSOP bracelets. The 22-year-old Spanish super star took down the $10,000 heads-up no-limit hold’em event to win $336,656. His previous two wins came when he won the 2013 WSOP Europe main event for $1,379,300 and the 2016 WSOP ‘Summer Solstice’ $1,500 no-limit hold’em event for $409,171.
Mohsin Charania also earned a rare distinction this summer. He took down a $1,500 no-limit hold’em to win his first bracelet and complete poker’s triple crown, having now won main event titles on the World Poker Tour, the European Poker Tour and a bracelet at the WSOP.
Several other notable players also won their first bracelets, including Chris Moorman ($3,000 six-max no-limit hold’em), James Obst ($10,000 razz), Max Silver ($3,000 limit hold’em six-max), Chris Klodnicki ($1,500 no-limit hold’em), Bryce Yockey ($10,000 pot-limit Omaha eight-or-better), Tom Cannuli ($3,333 online no-limit hold’em), and Nipun Java, who won two bracelets this summer in the $1,000 tag-team no–limit hold’em event (with teammate Aditya Sushant) and the $1,000 online no-limit hold’em event.
The 2017 series hosted three high roller tournaments. Elior Sion took down the $50,000 Poker Players Championship, winning $1,395,767 and his first bracelet. The second high roller event was the $25,000 pot-limit Omaha tournament, which James Calderaro won for his first bracelet and $1,289,074. The $111,111 One Drop High Roller attracted a massive field of 130 entries. Doug Polk emerged victorious to capture the $3,686,865 first-place prize and his third bracelet.
For the first time since 2007, the champion of the WSOP $10,000 no-limit hold’em main event was decided during the summer. The November Nine format was officially shelved this year. The 2017 WSOP main event drew 7,221 entrants to build a $67,877,400 prize pool. In the end 25-year-old Scott Blumstein dominated the final table to win the championship bracelet and $8,150,000.
In August the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open series ended in a climax that saw over $7 million in guaranteed prize money awarded across five events that all finished on the same day. The marquee tournament was the $5,250 no-limit hold’em main event, which drew 887 entries. Martin Koslov came out on top to win $754,083.
The 2017 World Poker Tour Legends of Poker rounded out the summer. Art Papazyan defeated Phil Hellmuth heads-up to deny the all-time bracelet leader his first WPT title. Papazyan earned $668,692 after overcoming the 763-entry field.
Fall
Autumn kicked off with a brand new high roller series, the Poker Masters. The series of five super high rollers awarded a champion’s purple jacket to the player with the most in cashes. The jacket went to Steffen Sontheimer, who won two of the five tournaments, cashing for $2,733,000 over the course of the week.
Art Papazyan won his second World Poker Tour title of the year by taking down the WPT Maryland Live! main event for $389,405.
For the first time ever the World Series of Poker Europe was hosted in the Czech Republic, at the King’s Casino Rozvadov. Among the bracelet winners at the series were home-country hero Martin Kabrhel (€1,100 no-limit hold’em super turbo bounty) and Chris Ferguson (€1,650 pot-limit Omaha eight-or-better), who earned his sixth bracelet for the win.
Niall Farrell completed poker’s triple crown by winning his first bracelet in the €25,000 high roller event.
Dominik Nitsche won $4,049,782 and his fourth gold bracelet by outlasting 132 entries in the €111,111 One Drop High Roller event. The €10,000 main event drew 529 entries, with Marti Roca De Torres earning $1,301,815 as the eventual winner.
PartyPoker increased its live tournament circuit presence considerably in 2017 with its PartyPoker LIVE events. One of the largest series it hosted was the Caribbean Poker Party. The festival saw several large events won by notable pros, including Adrian Mateos, Chris Hunichen, Rainer Kempe and Sam Greenwood, who took down the main event for $1,000,000.
The final WPT event of the year was the Five Diamond World Poker Classic at Bellagio in Las Vegas. The tournament drew a record field of 812 entries. Incredibly 2016 runner-up finisher Ryan Tosoc was able to improve on his previous finish and come out on top, earning $1,958,065 for the win.
There is a look at the most impactful poker tournaments that took place in 2017. Poker is now a global game, with huge events taking place essentially non-stop throughout the year and around the world. Make sure to stay tuned to CardPlayer.com throughout 2018 as we bring you continuing coverage of the biggest and best poker tournaments around the world.
Again, if you missed it you can check out part one of the 2017 Poker Year In Review Tournament Recap here.
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