After four days of action-packed, high-stakes poker spectacle, the 2018 Super High Roller Bowl crowned its new champion who took home a staggering $5 million prize. Justin Bonomo defeated Daniel Negreanu heads-up for the title, winning the biggest live tournament cash in his career only a couple of months after he took down the Super High Roller Bowl China in Macau for a little over $4.8 million.
Poker fans and grinders all over the world praised the 32-year-old player from Las Vegas, as he emerged victorious in one of the most exclusive and elite live tournaments, the 2018 Super High Roller Bowl. It ran for four days at the ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas and although it was not a part of a large festival, it collected a total prize pool of $14.4 million. The event had a $300,000 entry fee and attracted a strong field of 48 high-stakes players, including several amateurs, lots of highly esteemed pros and even some of the legendary names in the world of poker today.
The prestigious title went to Justin Bonomo, a high-roller tourney regular, who survived and managed to eliminate in the final hand one of the most experienced entries in the event, Canadian poker pro Daniel Negreanu. With this trophy, Bonomo continues his winning streak after taking several big cashes in the past few months, including the two titles and two Top 5 finishes during the EPT Monte Carlo, where he took more than $1.5 million in combined prizes. In March, he also won the Super High Roller Bowl China, which took place in Macau and awarded him approximately $4,823,077 for his first-place finish.
Daniel Negreanu, on the other hand, stayed away from big tournaments in the past few months in order to practice for this year’s top events such as the Super High Roller Bowl and the WSOP events. With total live earnings of over $39.5 million, the Canadian poker legend is still the biggest live tournament poker winner of all time. The runner-up position in this tournament brought him a nice cash prize of $3 million, which he earned by staying concentrated and competitive throughout the game. After the end of the event, he congratulated Bonomo on social media, saying that we have a “deserving winner”.
Final Day Action
The Final Day of the 2018 Super High Roller Bowl started Wednesday with only six players left in the game. But this quickly changed and the first elimination was Nick Petrangelo (USA) who received a cash prize of $900,000 after busing to Jason Koon. The chip leader was Mikita Badziakouski but quickly started losing his stack. Last year’s champ Cristoph Vogelsang (5th, $1,200,000) from Germany was the second player to hit the rail and he was later joined by Badziakouski (Belarus) who must have been disappointed to leave in 4th position and with a prize of only $1,600,000.
This left Bonomo, Negreanu and Jason Koon who had to fight for every hand if they wanted to stay in the battle. Eventually, Koon could not keep up with Bonomo and his huge stack and he busted in the third place for $2,100,000. In the final heads-up Bonomo held a huge 4 to 1 lead over Negreanu but defeating him was not as easy as it looked. Eventually, the Canadian player lost to Bonomo’s Full House, a hand which determined the outcome and put an end to Negreanu’s hopes for taking the first spot. Justin Bonomo captured the title and the top prize of $5 million, while Daniel Negreanu became $3 million richer for finishing second in the 2018 Super High Roller Bowl.
