Isaac Haxton Wins 2018 Super High Roller Bowl V33-Year-Old Poker Pro Defeats Elite Field of 36 Entries To Win More Than $3.6 Million |
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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.”
Haxton and Alex Foxen playing heads-up for the title
“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 A
5
. 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.
Adrian Mateos
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. The online poker pro 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 A
Q
. 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.
Alex Foxen
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
Place | Player | Earnings (USD) | POY Points |
1 | Isaac Haxton | $3,672,000 | 480 |
2 | Alex Foxen | $2,160,000 | 400 |
3 | Stephen Chidwick | $1,512,000 | 320 |
4 | Talal Shakerchi | $1,188,000 | 240 |
5 | Adrian Mateos | $972,000 | 200 |
6 | Igor Kurganov | $756,000 | 160 |
7 | Ali Imsirovic | $540,000 | 120 |