Level 16
: 7,000/14,000, 14,000 ante
2017 Poker Masters
Event #5 $100,000 No-Limit Hold'em
Day: 3
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
2017 Poker Masters
Buy-in
$100,000
Prize Pool
$3,600,000
Entries
36
Level
22
Blinds
20,000 / 40,000
Ante
40,000
Level 16
: 7,000/14,000, 14,000 ante
The cards are now in the air.
Level: 16
Blinds: 7,000/14,000
Ante: 14,000
With $5,595,947 in career tournament earnings, Stefan Schillhabel, who hails from Dusseldorf, currently sits 13th on Germany’s all-time money list. His best score to date was $2.4 million for finishing third in May’s Super High Roller Bowl.
He’s also a World Poker Tour champion having won the 2016 WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star for $1,298,000. Not too shabby for starting out as a recreational player after playing with friends in 2006. In fact, just two years ago he was studying for a Masters in sociology and had a part-time job in sales. Now he’s among poker’s elite.
Other big scores he’s managed in the past couple years is fourth in July’s Bellagio Cup XIII for $299,084, fourth in the EPT11 Malta Main Event for $281,792, and winning the EPT13 Prague Event #2: €10,000 8-Max NLHE for $266,158.
As far as the Poker Masters is concerned, Schillhabel finished third in Event #1: $50,000 NLHE for $306,000.
Another German at the final table is Christian Christner, who currently sits 22nd on Germany’s all-time money list with $2,855,014 in lifetime earnings. More than half of that, $1,454,720 to be exact, came this past May when he won the $100K Super High Roller right here at ARIA. Interestingly, his fellow German, Steffen Sontheimer, finished runner-up in that tournament.
Other highlights on his poker résumé include winning June’s ARIA $25K High Roller 60 for $332,712, finishing fifth in the 2016 WPT $100K Super High Roller for $223,440, and fifth in May’s ARIA $50K Super High Roller 18 for $188,160.
As for the Poker Masters, he cashed one prelim tournament, finishing fifth in Event #2: $50,000 NLHE for $175,000. Christner will need a win today if he’s to take home The Poker Masters Purple Jacket?.
In 2012, Germany’s Fedor Holz had just $19,288 in tournament earnings. In 2013, he won $123,231 playing tournaments, and a year later $202,143. Beginning in 2015, his career really took off when he won $3,492,368, and he cemented his poker legacy in 2016 when he won an astounding $16,484,154 playing poker.
He “retired” after that to focus on other ventures, including his business Primed Mind, but he’s still managed $3,583,701 in tournaments thus far in 2017, not including whatever he’ll win today. Holz finished runner-up to Steffen Sontheimer in Event #2 for $550,000, which means he has a legitimate shot of winning The Poker Masters Purple Jacket?.
A victory would also give him his sixth seven-figure score. His biggest cash to date was the $4,981,775 he received for winning the 2016 World Series of Poker $111,111 One Drop High Roller for a bracelet. A month before that, he finished runner-up to Rainer Kempe in the 2016 $300,000 Super High Roller Bowl for $3.5 million. In January 2016, he won the Triton Super High Roller Philippines for $3,463,500, and a moth before that he won the WPT Alpha8 Five Diamond World Poker Classic for $1,589,219.
Oh, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that Holz, who has had his entire Poker Masters journey filmed by a documentary crew, is also an accomplished online player. In 2014, he won PokerStars’ WCOOP Main Event for $1.3 million.
“I’m confident that I’m going to win the Purple Jacket,” Holz said at the start of the Poker Masters. We’ll find out whether or not he does later today.
Seth Davies, who hails from Bend, Oregon, doesn’t play many high rollers, but don’t let that fool you as he’s quite the accomplished player. Since 2010, he has won $1,424,570 playing live tournaments, which includes a career-best $575,000 for finishing runner-up to Jason Koon in last year’s Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship.
In April of last year, Davies became a World Poker Tour champion when he won the partypoker.net WPT Canadian Spring Championship at the Playground Poker Club, good for $203,992. Earlier this year, he also finished 12th in the Aussie Millions Main Event, which came with a $117,061 payday.
As far as High Rollers go, Davies did finish third in April’s ARIA $25K High Roller 56 for $93,600. Davies didn’t play any of the prelim events, so he’ll need to win and hope some of his other opponents fall short in order to capture The Poker Masters Purple Jacket?.
Heading into the inaugural Poker Masters at ARIA Resort and Casino, few people were talking about Steffen Sontheimer. To most, he was just another German, and arguably the least known from that contingent. Now, the man who celebrated his 27th birthday last week is the talk of the town and primed to become the first Master of Poker.
Sontheimer, known as “Goose” by his friends and on Twitter @RunGo0seRun, may be new to you, but he’s certainly not new to poker. In fact, coming into the Poker Masters he had $3,551,390 in tournament earnings, and all of that has come since June 2015.
His best score to date was $1,223,264 for finishing runner-up to his countryman, Christian Christner, in May’s ARIA Super High Roller 19 $100,000 Super High Roller. Other highlights on his relatively new résumé include winning the 2017 Poker EM €25,000 Super High Roller for $501,183, sixth in the PokerStars Championship Monte Carlo €100,000 Super High Roller for $415,348, and sixth in this summer’s Triton Super High Roller Series Budva for $313,423.
Consider this amazing fact – coming into the Poker Masters, Sontheimer had 27 documented tournament cashes, of which 14 have come in High Rollers events.
Over the last week, he’s added $1,221,000 to that total after finishing fourth in the Poker Masters Event #1 for $204,000, and the following day winning Event #2 for $900,000. In Event #3, he barely missed the money bubbling in eighth place, and today in Event #4 he finished fifth for $117,00 to extend his Poker Masters lead.
That makes Sontheimer, who now resides in Brighton, UK, the odds-on favorite to win The Poker Masters Purple Jacket?, but it's really anyone's game as the $1,512,000 first-place prize in Event #5 means each of the remaining players are drawing live.
It’s also worth noting that Sontheimer is one of the players who bet Daniel Negreanu that he’d win the Poker Masters. If he does, he’ll receive an additional $50,000 from “Kid Poker.”
Currently second on Nevada’s all-time money list with $17,016,779 in earnings, Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo is just one of two Americans at the final table.
Bonomo has plenty of high roller experience and even won the EPT8 Grand Final Super High Roller for a career-high $2,165,217. His only other seven-figure score was $1,163,500 for finishing runner-up to Blair Hinkle in the 2013 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Main Event.
Other career highlights include finishing second in the 2016 World Series of Poker $50,000 Poker Players’ Championship for $801,048, winning May’s ARIA $50,000 Super High Roller 18 for $779,520, and taking second in the 2016 Asia Championship of Poker (ACOP) Super High Roller for $721,392.
As for the Poker Masters, he managed just one cash in the prelims, finishing fourth in Event #4: $50,000 NLHE for $175,000. That means he needs to win today and hope some of his competition busts quick to have a chance at the The Poker Masters Purple Jacket?.
The Poker Masters Purple Jacket race has been a hot topic over the past few weeks with everyone arguing that either the system is fine or a points system would have been much fairer. However, for this inaugural Poker Masters, the winner of the Purple Jacket will be whoever has accrued the most tournament winnings over the five events.
Germany's Steffen Sontheimer played all five events, collected three in-the-money finishes, and won one event to sit at $1,221,000 in winnings heading into Day 3. With $1,512,000 up for grabs for whoever can win on Wednesday, all six players still have a chance at capturing the Poker Masters Purple Jacket if a specific set of outcomes are reached.
| Rank | Overall Rank | Player | Country | Wins | Cashes | Events Played | Winnings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Steffen Sontheimer | Germany | 1 | 3 | 5 | $1,221,000 |
| 2 | 8 | Fedor Holz | Germany | 1 | 5 | $550,000 | |
| 3 | 10 | Stefan Schillhabel | Germany | 1 | 5 | $306,000 | |
| 4 | 17 | Justin Bonomo | USA | 1 | 5 | $175,500 | |
| 5 | 18 | Christian Christner | Germany | 1 | 5 | $175,000 | |
| 6 | 29 | Seth Davies | USA | 1 | $0 |
Unfortunately for five of the players, the not only need to win this event, but they also rely on where Sontheimer finishes. However, for Sontheimer, he can finish as low as 4th place and still be crowned the inaugural Poker Masters Purple Jacket winner.
| Player and Finishing Place | Opponents and the Best Spot They Can Finish |
|---|
| Player and Place | Opponent | Opponent | Opponent | Opponent | Opponent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seth Davies | Sontheimer | Holz | Schillhabel | Bonomo | Christner |
| 1st | 5th | 2nd | 2nd | 2nd | 2nd |
| Christian Christner | Sontheimer | Holz | Schillhabel | Bonomo | Davies |
| 1st | 4th | 2nd | 2nd | 2nd | 2nd |
| Justin Bonomo | Sontheimer | Holz | Schillhabel | Christner | Davies |
| 1st | 4th | 2nd | 2nd | 2nd | 2nd |
| Stefan Schillhabel | Sontheimer | Holz | Bonomo | Christner | Davies |
| 1st | 3rd | 2nd | 2nd | 2nd | 2nd |
| Fedor Holz | Sontheimer | Schillhabel | Bonomo | Christner | Davies |
| 1st | 3rd | 2nd | 2nd | 2nd | 2nd |
| Steffen Sontheimer | Holz | Schillhabel | Bonomo | Christner | Davies |
| 1st | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 2nd | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 3rd | 2nd | 2nd | 1st | 1st | 1st |
| 4th | 2nd | 2nd | 2nd | 2nd | 1st |
From the above table, Seth Davies will need to win Event #5 and see Sontheimer finish no better then in 5th place.
Both Christian Christner and Justin Bonomo will also need to win Event #5 and see Sontheimer finish no better then in 4th place.
Stefan Schillhabel and Fedor Holz have a little more breathing room that allows Sontheimer to finish in 3rd place if they manage to claim victory.
For Sontheimer, finishing in 1st or 2nd secures him the Poker Masters Purple Jacket with a side note being that if Holz wins, and Sontheimer finishes 2nd, Sontheimer will have just $2,300 more in total winnings. If Sontheimer finishes in 3rd place, he needs Holz and Schillhabel to finish no better then 2nd place, while if he finishes in 4th place, he needs Holz, Schillhabel, Bonomo, and Christner to finish no better then 2nd place.
Today is going to be an exciting day!