The German poker player Steffen Sontheimer is the latest Poker Masters champion, after winning the closing fifth event on the schedule. Besides bagging a cool cash prize of $1,512,000, he will have the honor to pose in his brand new Poker Masters Purple Jacket, which has turned into a symbol of poker professionalism. Sontheimer reached the final table of the famed event 4 times out of 5 possible and managed to seal victory 2 times, which means his total winnings for the Poker Masters stand at $2,733,000.
The German poker pro Sontheimer, also known as “Goose” was more than successful in this Poker Masters event, which took place at Aria Resort & Casino. The player cashed in 4 times in the five-series event. A brief look at his performance shows that Sontheimer finished in 4th place in Event #1 for $204,000. Once the player entered Event #2, he seemed to be more than confident in his skills, busting his heads-up opponent and compatriot Fedor Holz for the first prize of $900,000. Sontheimer finished in 4th place in Event #4, pocketing another cash prize of $175,500. For those wondering where did we miss Event #3, it should be mentioned that the poker pro could not win a money prize in it, but he was the one who burst the money bubble, being eliminated in 8th place. This is explainable having in mind that only a few days ago, the poker heavyweight was celebrating his birthday.
This, on the other hand, did not stop his sprint to the triumph. Sontheimer entered the final Event #5 of the series ready to eliminate everyone, who stood on his way to the throne. And that is what happened – the event attracted a field of 36 entries. The poker contention was packed of action, as it continued for 3 days.
Sontheimer Walks the Path to Success
By the time the field was narrowed and there were only 6 remaining players, the final table was set. After 5 hours of play, the first player to depart was Stefan Schillhabel, pocketing $180,000. The USA-based Justin Bonomo was the next to be eliminated, bringing back home a cash prize of $216,000. Seth Davies followed Bonomo’s example as he needed to exit the game in 4th place with $324,000 more in his bank account.
This led to the 3-handed play, in which Steffen Sontheimer, Christian Christner and Fedor Holz were striving to survive in order to enter the heads-up duel. But the cards were not well-disposed to Holz, who was eliminated in 3rd place. The player was awarded $504,000 cash prize, which boosted his total Poker Masters earnings to $1,054,000. It is interesting to note that he was playing in a heads-up duel against Sontheimer in Event #2 and collected $550,000 for his runner-up finish.
The elimination of Holz gave a start to the heads-up match between Sontheimer and Christner, who was ahead of his opponent at that time. But the things changed soon and Sontheimer outmaneuvered his opponent to gain the upper hand. Hand #167 appeared to be the final decisive hand, which was to determine the winner. By the time the two players placed all of their chips into the pot, Sontheimer was holding [Qh][Qd] against Christner’s small pair of [2d][2c]. The two players saw the board running [3c][Jd][8h][4d][9d], which rocketed Sontheimer directly to the first place.
