German poker pro Dietrich Fast has had a really nice start to 2017. In February, the player won a $25,000 buy-in turbo high roller during the WPT L.A. Poker Classic festival and only hours ago he topped the field of another high roller event.
Fast has just won the $50,000 Super High Roller or the highest buy-in tournament on the 2017 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown schedule. The player was crowned victor after two days of play and a two-way deal with Spanish poker pro Adrian Mateos. The German collected $483,693 in prize money as he held the chip lead at the time the deal was struck. Mateos left in second place with not a bad payout of $413,567.
But here is how action unfolded over the two days during which the tournament took place. The Super High Roller’s field was comprised of 28 entries by the time registration was closed. The generated prize pool of $1,380,400 was split among the last five players at the table.
Popular poker pros and high roller regulars like Erik Seidel, Byron Kaverman, Jason Mercier entered the tournament at Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Florida. However, they all failed to survive through Day 1 and come anywhere close to the money.
Day 2 of the tournament was played on Thursday, with the original field whittled down to just five players. The final pack of five included two German players – Fast and Rainer Kempe, two US players – David Peters and Jason Koon, and Mateos from Spain.
Koon was the first to leave after failing to make it against Kempe. Peters and Kempe then bust to Fast to determine the two participants in the heads-up match. The three players collected $110,432, $151,844, and $220,864, respectively, for running so deep into the tournament.
Given Fast and Mateos’ proven poker skills and qualities, a heads-up match between those two would have certainly been a spectacle to watch. However, the players decided that they would be happy enough to split what had left of the prize pool and call it a day.
Including his latest victory, Fast now has more than $2.6 million in live tournament earnings. Although his Poker Showdown accomplishment was definitely a big one, it was far from being his career’s best. Last year, the player emerged victorious in the WPT L.A. Poker Classic $10,000 Championship for a massive first-place prize of $1,000,800.
The 2017 edition of the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown kicked off on March 16. Hosted by Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, the festival will run through April 9. It will be concluded with the $3,500 WPT Poker Showdown Championship, starting today. The event is a re-entry one and features a guaranteed prize pool of $2 million. Justin Young won last year’s Championship, defeating 1,222 entries for a first-place prize of $654,161.
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