Yan, Kitai, Astedt, Watson, and Parssinen at Final Table of the HRW 18: $10,300 Super MILLION$ Main Event
The HRW 18: $10,300 Super MILLION$ Main Event was the highlight of the High Roller Week festival at GGPoker and it didn't disappoint with some of the biggest names in poker joining in on the action.
The $5 million guarantee slapped on this two-day event was smashed with the tournament attracting 581 entrants including 356 re-entries to generate a $5,810,000 prize pool.
New Zealand's David Yan virtually bagged the chip lead with a stack of 10,941,325. Yan was near the top of the chip counts most of the day.
While Yan isn't the only big name that will appear at the final table when the action resumes on Tuesday, Nov. 17 at 6 p.m. GMT as many other well-known players are still in contention including Davidi Kitai, Niklas Astedt, Michael Watson, Aleksei "JokerFace" Barkov, Eelis Parssinen, and Aleks Ponakovs.
Parssinen's appearance at the final table is especially impressive as he was also battling it out at the final table in a similar event last week when he took second place in the HRW 2: $10,300 Super MILLION$ featuring a $3 million guarantee for $472,222.
HRW 18: $10,300 Super MILLION$ Final Table Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | David Yan | New Zealand | 10,941,325 | 44 |
| 2 | Davidi Kitai | Belgium | 9,848,764 | 39 |
| 3 | Niklas Astedt | Sweden | 8,968,541 | 36 |
| 4 | Andrii "Brahman33" Novak | Ukraine | 7,428,832 | 30 |
| 5 | Michael Watson | Canada | 6,283,910 | 25 |
| 6 | Aleksei "JokerFace" Barkov | Russia | 4,382,660 | 18 |
| 7 | Sergei "iplaytooslow" Denisov | Russia | 4,368,476 | 17 |
| 8 | Eelis Parssinen | Finland | 3,220,398 | 13 |
| 9 | Aleks Ponakovs | Latvia | 2,657,604 | 11 |
Day 1 Action
Day 1 took just under 11 hours to go from a field of 581 entrants down to a tidy nine-max final table.
GGPoker Ambassadors Felipe Ramos and Fedor Holz were both in action. Ramos was eliminated before late registration was closed and opted not to re-enter while it took Holz four bullets to make it through late registration but he failed to cash.
Boxing legend Riddick Bowe called out Dan Bilzerian on Twitter before the start of the match. The two-time heavyweight champion never got the chance. Bilzerian sat out for the first 100 minutes of the event and Bowe hit the rail before Bilzerian began to play hands.
Despite blinding off in the beginning, Bilzerian chipped up as soon as he began playing hands but opted not to re-enter the tournament after losing his chips during the late-registration window.
The top 60 players were in the money for at least a min-cash of $25,556 after the elimination of Jimmy "KOBE_BRYANT8" Guerrero in 61st place.
Among the players to cash but unable to advance to the final table included Timothy Adams, Dan Smith, Ludovic "Gr4vyB04t" Geilich, Samuel Vousden, Rui Ferreira, Anatoly Filatov, and Dan "oiltrader" Shak.
One of the biggest hands of the day took place near the end of the day when Yan, holding king-jack, managed to hit a straight to oust both George Wolff in 11th place with jacks and "Valderrama" in 12th place with tens.
Shortly after, Astedt sent Arthur "meiiYunqi" Conan packing short of the final table in 10th place when his tens held against sixes.
HRW 18: $10,300 Super MILLION$ Final Table Payouts
The action will resume at 6 p.m. GMT on Tuesday, Nov. 17 with each of the nine final tablists guaranteed at least a six-figure payout of $161,097 with their eyes on the $726,839 top prize.
| Place | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1 | $726,839 |
| 2 | $602,066 |
| 3 | $498,713 |
| 4 | $413,101 |
| 5 | $342,187 |
| 6 | $283,445 |
| 7 | $234,787 |
| 8 | $194,482 |
| 9 | $161,097 |
Stay tuned at PokerNews as we bring you the conclusion on Tuesday of the HRW 18: $10,300 Super MILLION$ Main Event.
