Thomas Boivin Leads Six Players in $50,000 Super High Roller at NAPT Las Vegas
The biggest buy-in of PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) at Resorts World Las Vegas kicked off on Wednesday with $50,000 Super High Roller, an event that attracted a select group of the top high-stakes pros from around the world.
That included Belgian crusher Thomas Boivin, who bagged the chip lead over American pros Brandon Wilson, Ben Tollerene, Byron Kaverman, and Dan Smith, as well as England's Stephen Chidwick, who is on the quest to dethrone Bryn Kenney on poker's all-time money list.
Boivin, who is looking to add to his $12.7 million in Hendon Mob earnings, bagged a stack of 1,502,000, more than double that of any of his opponents.
$50,000 Super High Roller Day 1 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thomas Boivin | Belgium | 1,502,000 | 300 |
| 2 | Stephen Chidwick | United Kingdom | 714,000 | 143 |
| 3 | Dan Smith | United States | 568,000 | 114 |
| 4 | Brandon Wilson | United States | 464,000 | 93 |
| 5 | Ben Tollerene | United States | 349,000 | 70 |
| 6 | Byron Kaverman | United States | 149,000 | 30 |
Day 1 Action
There were 15 players who entered on Day 1 and all of them were there from the start except for Nick Petrangelo, who was busy taking down the NAPT $20,000 Super High Roller Warm-Up for $309,030 as he defeated poker coach Faraz Jaka following the third-place elimination of Kristen Foxen.
Play started off slow at the three tables but there was eventually blood as Sam Soverel, winner of last year's NAPT $10,300 High Roller, called down an ace-high board with ace-queen only to be pipped by the Big Slick of Boivin.
Next to go was poker content newcomer Seth Davies, who fell to his high-stakes poker doppelganger in a similar manner to Soverel as his ace-queen was dominated by Chidwick's ace-king.
Other eliminations on Day 1 included American pros Andrew Lichtenberger and Isaac Haxton and Belgium's Michael Gathy, who made an ambitious river call with an underpair only to run into the top pair of Petrangelo.
They say cats have nine lives, and it looked like Leon Sturm had feline blood as the German prodigy doubled up several times despite being short for much of the day.
But Sturm, who burst onto the high-stakes Circuit in 2023 with a WSOP $50,000 High Roller victory for $1,546,024 and more recently won a €100,000 EPT Super High Roller at EPT Barcelona in August for €1,450,385, proved to be human after all as he triple-barreled bluffed into the kings of Chidwick.
Around the same time, PokerStars ambassador Jason Koon, who started the day by leading a discussion about what drives him to compete at poker's top level, was eliminated as he bluffed into the flush of Boivin.
The remaining seven players combined at one table and wrapped up early after the elimination of Petrangelo, who three-bet jammed king-queen into the aces of Smith and failed to pull ahead despite flopping a pair of kings.
Day 2 will kick off on Thursday, Nov. 6 at 12:30 p.m. local time with approximately 20 minutes left on Level 8 with blinds of 2,000/5,000/5,000 with late registration open until the start of play.
Stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team is on-site in at Resorts World and will continue providing coverage of the $50,000 Super High Roller at NAPT Las Vegas. Be sure to check out the live reporting portal in the meantime.
