Matt Berkey Takes Commanding Lead Into Day 3 of 2016 $300,000 Super High Roller Bowl
The 2016 $300,000 Super High Roller Bowl played down from 35 to 16 players remaining at the ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas on Monday, setting up a third day on Tuesday where the survivors will vie for spots at a final table with $15 million on the line.
After a huge first day on Sunday, Timofey "Trueteller" Kuznetsov came into play with the chip lead, but found nothing but a bad case of the Mondays. He quickly came back to the pack, and eventually busted with a pair and a flush draw versus Jason Mercier's flush, half way through the day.
But even before Kuznetsov said his goodbyes, a bevvy of players, including Pratyush Buddiga, Dominik Nitsche, Jake Schindler, Nick Petrangelo, Keith Gipson, Ben Tollerene, Stephen Chidwick, Cary Katz, Bobby Baldwin, Vitaliy Rizhkov, Daniel Colman, and Byron Kaverman, all hit the rail.
The legendary Daniel "Kid Poker" Negreanu also found a way out, busting before Kuznetsov when two pocket pairs let him down. First he doubled Kathy Lehne with sevens versus a weak ace, then he busted to Erik Seidel with deuces versus another weak ace.
While it worked out for Lehne and Seidel, the weak ace was not so good to 2015 Super High Roller Bowl champion Brain Rast, as he shoved the A♥5♥ huge over a Dan Smith three-bet. Smith time-banked twice before looking him up with the A♣J♣, holding to end Rast's title defense and skyrocket to a spot among the leaders as the day wore on.
David Peters, Tony Gregg, and Lehne soon joined Rast on the rail, and suddenly, a new leader emerged.
Several other players moved above the million chip mark, including Tom Marchese, Phil Hellmuth, Dan Shak, and Bryn Kenney, but in the day's penultimate level, Matt Berkey pushed up and over 2 million.
In a three-bet pot, Berkey made top-top out of big slick and called down a three-barrel bluff from Marchese to move into the lead. In the end, he bagged 2.816 million and will ride into the event's third day miles ahead of the other 15 players remaining.
Day 2 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Matt Berkey | 2,816,000 |
| 2 | Erik Seidel | 1,299,000 |
| 3 | Dan Shak | 1,243,000 |
| 4 | Jason Mercier | 1,208,000 |
| 5 | Dan Smith | 1,152,000 |
| 6 | Bryn Kenney | 1,097,000 |
| 7 | Andrew Robl | 1,075,000 |
| 8 | Phil Hellmuth | 936,000 |
| 9 | Fedor Holz | 751,000 |
| 10 | Rainer Kempe | 740,000 |
| 11 | Phil Laak | 509,000 |
| 12 | Phil Galfond | 436,000 |
| 13 | Ben Lamb | 415,000 |
| 14 | Bill Perkins | 367,000 |
| 15 | Dan Perper | 344,000 |
| 16 | Tom Marchese | 321,000 |
Play will resume at 1 p.m. local time in Las Vegas with plans to play down to a final table of eight, where the top seven spots will be paid, or through seven more levels, whichever comes first.
Of course, The PokerNews Live Reporting team will be on hand for every raise, three-bet, and showdown, so tune in Tuesday as the excitement of the 2016 Super High Roller Bowl continues.
While you wait for play to resume, check out Sarah Herring's interview with Berkey.
Of course, the PokerNews Live Reporting team will be back at that time to provide live updates from start to finish and you are welcome to follow it all, right here in this space.
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