Capping what has been an amazing fortnight of poker, Michael Addamo outlasted a small field in the $300,000 Super High Roller Bowl VI to capture the championship. This comes on the heels of Addamo’s stunning run at the 2021 Poker Masters, where he went from nowhere to the overall championship after winning the final two events on the schedule. Over the past two weeks, Addamo has taken down more than $5.2 million in High Roller paydays.
Third Smallest Field in SHRB History
Perhaps because of the upcoming World Series of Poker (which started on Thursday), the field for the sixth running of the Super High Roller Bowl was an intimate affair. Only fifteen entries were registered in the first day of competition, with only six more coming in before the start of Day 2. The 21 entries made it the third smallest SHRB competition in the history of the competitions, only besting the 2019 Super High Roller Bowl London (12 entries) and the 2020 Super High Roller Bowl Australia (16 entries).
With that said, there was some drama, especially in the departure of one of the major competitors. In the very first level of the tournament, Daniel Negreanu would misread Addamo, and it would cost Negreanu his tournament existence. Many have debated that Negreanu overplayed his hand, but some have stated that there was a good chance that Negreanu beat Addamo’s range and therefore had the best hand.
In the situation (and with the players still extremely deep stacked from their 300,000 starting stacks), Negreanu made a standard two and a half times raise (2500) on the button but holding Big Slick. As has become standard, Addamo defended his big blind with only an 8-6 off suit for battle. What came afterward is where the debate begins.
The flop came 5-7-9 rainbow, giving Addamo the nearly unbeatable nuts in the hand, but he chose to slow play the situation and Negreanu decided to see another card also. The Ace on the turn gave Negreanu top pair but also left him drawing dead in the hand. Addamo innocently checked his option and Negreanu acquiesced by tossing out another bet.
Now Addamo came to life. He pushed out a stunningly large 36,000 chip bet, vastly over the pot size, but Negreanu did not believe his story. Another five made the situation even worse for Negreanu, now sitting on a losing two pair, saw Addamo push in enough chips to cover Negreanu’s remaining stack. After several moments (and time extensions), Negreanu made the call and, much to his dismay, saw the flopped straight and headed for the doors of the PokerGO Studios before his seat was even warm.
Addamo Used the Chips Well…
To say that Addamo used the chips well would be an understatement. He would vanquish Bill Klein on the final hand of Day Two action to take a monstrous lead, holding 3.4 million of the chips in play. The other four competitors at the table – former SHRB champion Justin Bonomo (1.11 million), Sean Winter (1.07 million), Alex Foxen (840K) and Chris Brewer (380K) – did not even have the total chips together that Addamo did. Add into the situation that only three of the five men at the final table would earn a cash from the event and the drama was thick.
Foxen would be the first to depart the Super High Roller Bowl VI final table, sending his chips to the center with an A-5 and Bonomo would look him up with a K-10. A ten on the turn would put Bonomo in the lead and the unnecessary Queen on the river would give a straight to Bonomo, earning him the checkmark and sending Foxen out the doors of the PokerGO Studios.
Brewer battled valiantly but he was not able to withstand the pressure from the larger stacks. He would come up the odd man out for the money, calling a Bonomo shove – correctly, as it was – with an A-Q off suit against Bonomo’s 10♥ 4♥. A Queen would hit the flop, but two hearts came along with the lady. Brewer was able to fade the turn but a third heart on the river earned Bonomo the baby flush and the hand, while Brewer left with just memories.
Winter never gathered any steam at the final table, falling in third place after Addamo turned a winning straight against his set of tens. That set up the heads-up match between Addamo and Bonomo, with Addamo holding a million-chip lead over Bonomo. Strangely enough, during the online version in 2020, the same situation occurred, which saw Bonomo defeat Addamo for the title.
Alas, it was not about to happen again. After a 4♦ 3♦ 2♥ Q♦ 10♣ board rolled out, Addamo moved all in to put Bonomo to the test for his remaining stack. After some debate, Bonomo made the call and turned up a Q-10 for a turn and river Queens up; it was not enough, as Addamo’s diamond “Hammer” (7♦ 2♦) found a flush on the turn to win the hand and take the championship of the Super High Roller Bowl VI.
1. Michael Addamo, $3,402,000
2. Justin Bonomo, $1,890,000
3. Sean Winter, $1,008,000
(photos provided by PokerGO.com)