After a gruelling 14-hour grind, Day 2 of the 2018 Super High Roller Bowl at ARIA Resort & Casino came to an end with more than half of the entry field already eliminated from the competition. Justin Bonomo bagged the largest stack, overtaking the chip lead from Daniel Negreanu who is one of the 14 players still remaining in play.
With Day 2 of the prestigious Super High Roller Bowl already in the books, the survivors are returning to the tables on Tuesday, May 29. The tournament started Sunday with 48 entrants competing for a share of the massive $14.4 million prize pool, but only 14 of them will have a chance to fight for a seat at the final table. The battle will be tough, however, as all of the remaining players are highly experienced poker professionals, who have demonstrated their exceptional skills at multiple tournaments in the past few years. A handful of true live tournament veterans are also competing for the title but lots of esteemed players also busted early in the action.
Day 2 of the tournament started with 30 players who soon started to bust and at the end of the 14-hour grind at the tables, more than half of them were eliminated. Some of those who hit the rails were Reiner Kempe, Cary Katz, Phil Ivey, and Jake Schindler, followed by later eliminations such as Fedor Holz, Bryn Kenney, and Kathy Lehne. At the end of the day, Justin Bonomo from the United States held the largest stack of more than 2 million (2,144,000), followed by Stephen Chidwick and Seth Davies.
Bonomo is a regular at some of the largest live tournaments of the past decade and he has more than a few notable cash finishes, the best of which is from March this year. On March 20, he won the Super High Roller Bowl China in Macau, banking more than $4.8 million for the first place. Before that, his biggest cash prize was the €1.64 million (approx. $2.1 million) he won at the EPT Super High Roller 8 Max in Monte Carlo in April 2012. Currently, he has close to $27 million in live cash earnings and if he takes down the 2018 Super High Roller Bowl, the prize would push his total earnings to $32 million.
Only 14 Finalists Remaining
With a buy-in of $300,000, the 2018 Super High Roller Bowl currently taking place at ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas gathered a highly competitive, high-profile field of 48 entries. This is a true high-stakes game, as only the last 7 players will make it to the money level. A total of 14 finalists will return to the tables for Day 3 of the prestigious poker event and along with the chip leader Justin Bonomo, many others have a chance of claiming the title.
Bonomo leads with over 2 million in chips, followed by Stephen Chidwick and Seth Davies with stacks of 1,983,000 and 1,754,000, respectively. Defending champion Christoph Vogelsang comes fourth in the chip count with 1,717,000, while in the fifth position, we can see Day 1 chip leader Daniel Negreanu who has 1,515,000 in chips. Many others are also having a great opportunity to compete and qualify for the Final Day on Wednesday, May 30.
Among them are Jason Koon and Mikita Badziakouski, both having more than a million in chips. Those with the smaller stacks still in play include Kahle Burns, Byron Kaverman, Steffen Sontheimer, Nick Petrangelo, Matt Hyman, Sam Soverel, and Sergio Aido.
