Phil Ivey Wins Super High Roller Series Europe Player of the Series Title
The Merit Crystal Cove Hotel-Casino in North Cyprus has been the center of the high-stakes tournament poker world for the past two weeks. Merit Poker has hosted a fortnight of high roller action, with both the Triton Poker Cyprus and the Super High Roller Series Europe counting towards the same series leaderboard. All told, there were 16 events included in the points race. Living poker legend Phil Ivey made the final table in five of those events, winning two titles and securing $2,880,100 along the way.
The 45-year-old American poker pro accrued a total of 1,725 rankings points, 570 more than any other player at the series. As a result, he was crowned the Super High Roller Series Europe overall champion and awarded a trophy and $25,000 in additional prize money.
The Poker Hall of Fame member and 10-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner was particularly dominant during the Triton Poker Cyprus segment of the festival. He cashed in three of the five events offered, starting with a fourth-place showing in the $50,000 no-limit hold’em six-max event for $387,100. The very next day he placed fifth in a $50,000 turbo no-limit hold’em event for another $179,000. Ivey scored his first victory of the year by emerging victorious in the $75,000 buy-in short deck event. He topped a field of 51 entries in that tournament to take home $1,170,000.
Ivey added two more big scores during the 11-event SRHS Europe. He started off with a runner-up showing in the $50,000 short deck event for $504,000. Just two days later he came out on top in the $50,000 pot-limit Omaha event, earning $640,000 after defeating a field of 32 entries.
“It’s still nice,” Ivey said after that title run. “It’s always nice to win a tournament.”
Here is a look at the final top ten in the SHRS Europe points race:
Rank | Player | Points | Titles | Cashes | Earnings |
1 | Phil Ivey | 1725 | 2 | 5 | $2,880,100 |
2 | Daniel Dvoress | 1155 | 1 | 6 | $2,188,000 |
3 | Jason Koon | 1139 | 0 | 7 | $1,896,500 |
4 | Elton Tsang | 1063 | 1 | 5 | $1,867,100 |
5 | Danny Tang | 969 | 1 | 4 | $1,616,000 |
6 | Lee Wai Kiat | 875 | 1 | 3 | $1,458,000 |
7 | Jake Schindler | 871 | 1 | 2 | $4,103,000 |
8 | Andras Nemeth | 738 | 1 | 2 | $1,146,000 |
9 | Winfred Yu | 700 | 1 | 1 | $1,010,000 |
10 | Tom Vogelsang | 668 | 1 | 3 | $1,836,000 |
The last two events of the SHRSE were held as the final table of the marquee $250,000 buy-in Super High Roller Bowl Europe played out. The first was a $50,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament that attracted a total of 38 entries to build a $1,900,000 prize pool. The top six finishers made the money on that event, with the largest payday going to eventual champion Elton Tsang.
This was Tsang’s fifth in-the-money showing and first title of the series. The 2016 Big One For One Drop Invitational champion took home $684,000 for this latest win, the second-largest score on his resume behind the nearly $12.2 million he scored in the previously mentioned seven-figure buy-in event. Tsang now has nearly $14.7 million in lifetime earnings. His consistency throughout this series saw him finish fourth in the overall points race.
Daniel Dvoress, who won the $50,000 no-limit hold’em event just two days prior to this tournament, finished as the runner-up for $456,000. The Canadian bracelet winner ended up in second place in the SHRSE points standings, with six cashes and that one victory.
Place | Player | Earnings (USD) | POY Points | PGT Points |
1 | Elton Tsang | $684,000 | 408 | 410 |
2 | Daniel Dvoress | $456,000 | 340 | 274 |
3 | Eelis Parssinen | $304,000 | 272 | 182 |
4 | Danny Tang | $209,000 | 204 | 125 |
5 | Nick Petrangelo | $152,000 | 170 | 91 |
6 | Stephen Chidwick | $95,000 | 136 | 57 |
The last event on the schedule was a $50,000 buy-in short deck tournament. With 19 entries, a total of $950,000 in prize money was divided amongst the top three finishers.
Wai Kiat Lee came out on top, securing $513,000 as the champion. This was the Malaysian player’s third final-table finish of the series, all coming in the short deck discipline. He had previously finished as the runner-up to Ivey in the $75,000 buy-in event for $840,000 and sixth in the $50,000 buy-in event for another $105,00 just a couple days after that.
Seth Davies earned his second cash of the series, placing second for $285,000. Jason Koon took home $152,000 for his seventh in-the-money finish. With nearly $1.9 million in cashes, Koon finished third in the series points race.
Place | Player | Earnings (USD) | POY Points | PGT Points |
1 | Wai Kiat Lee | $513,000 | 204 | 308 |
2 | Seth Davies | $285,000 | 170 | 171 |
3 | Jason Koon | $152,000 | 136 | 91 |
Photo credits: Merit Poker.