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Timothy Adams Wins Super High Roller Bowl

With the Australian Poker Open in the books, the remaining players in Queensland turned their attention to the Super High Roller Bowl. This was the eighth edition of the tournament, this time featuring a $250,000 AUD buy-in.

After two days of play, Timothy Adams emerged as the champion, earning $2.15 million AUD ($1.44 USD). He survived an epic heads-up battle with streaking Aussie High Roller Kahle Burns.

Second Smallest Super High Roller Bowl to Date

While the Australian Poker Open was a huge success, the Super High Roller Bowl Australia was somewhat disappointing. Overall, only 16 entries turned out for the event, creating a prize pool of $4 million AUD.

Due to the small field size, only three players made the money. This meant that two of the final five at the final table would go home empty-handed. The final table was naturally stacked and included Aaron Van Blarcum, Cary Katz, Elio Fox, Timothy Adams, and Kahle Burns.

Elio Fox started the final table with the chip lead, but things went south almost immediately. He lost a massive pot to Kahle Burns in the early rounds of the final table and was later eliminated by Burns. In Fox’s final hand, he had a set, but he ended up running into a straight to end his day.

Van Blarcum was the next to fall, as he was the short stack with four remaining. Kahle Burns did the honors to send Van Blarcum home on the bubble. This guaranteed everyone at least $640k AUD.

Timothy Adams Wins Super High Roller Bowl Australia

With three players left, Cary Katz was a severe short stack. Even after doubling up, he still only had around 11 big blinds. Katz decided to shove with K-2 and was in good shape against the 10-8 of Timothy Adams. That was until a ten hit the flop. The pair of tens would hold to send Katz home in third place, earning $640,00 AUD in the process.

At the start of heads-up play, Kahle Burns had more than a 2 to 1 chip lead over Timothy Adams. This began an epic heads-up battle that lasted three hours. During that time, Adams managed to overcome the chip deficit and take the chip lead.

In the final hand, Burns was all-in with Q-J suited against Adams’ A-9 suited. The ace proved enough to take the hand and the first Super High Roller Bowl title for Adams. Despite finishing in second, Burns earned $1.2 million AUD, or around $802k USD.

Amazingly, this is the first time that Timothy Adams has cashed in the Super High Roller Bowl. He made the most of it as he won the event and earned $2.15 million AUD ($1.44 million USD).

After winning the event, Adams told Poker Central that, “This one feels really special. The buy-in is very big and the field is very tough. There were a lot of elite players in the field, and yeah it was a small field, but winning any tournament always feels great especially when you beat tough competition. It’s extra satisfying.”

Will the Super High Roller Bowl Continue to Shrink?

The big question after the Super High Roller Bowl Australia is whether the event will continue to see shrinkage. With the exception of the Super High Roller Bowl Bahamas, every event has seen either a shrinking field size or shrinking prize pool.

The smallest SHRB was the London event that just saw 12 players. The SHRB Australia saw 16 players but the winner’s prize is the smallest since the inception of the event. Some will point to the location as the reason, and that may be the case.

The Las Vegas versions of the event have drawn better but the last Vegas event saw the field size drop below 40 for the first time. When the event was held once a year, it was viewed as special. Now with the event being held multiple times a year, players just aren’t as motivated to put up the buy-in or travel halfway around the world for a small field high roller.

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