Michael Perrone Wins Event #10: $5,000 NLH High Roller For $120,704
Day 2 of Event #10: $5,000 NLH High Roller has come to its conclusion after almost 17 hours of play that saw a day start with 30 and end with one champion with the last card dealt at 7:37 am.
That high roller champion was Michael Perrone of Chicago who conquered the field and won the $120,704 grand prize as well as the shiny Lodge Championship Series trophy.
Perrone has almost $750,000 in career tournament winnings to his name prior to this victory, including a WSOP Bracelet that he won in October. He noted following his win that this was his first ‘high roller’ event. He said he has played the WSOP Main Event and some 10k’s but he usually sticks to 3k buy-ins or lower, so for him to take down his first 5k event was quite the accomplishment.
Perrone also made sure to give a shout-out and credit to his poker mentor/coach Philip Shing, who finished in ninth place earlier in the day. Perrone said that Shing’s coaching has meant a lot to him and appreciates what he has done for his game.
When asked when he felt he had a real chance to win the tournament, Perrone said it was when he took the chip lead three-handed after he collected a big pot with a set of deuces. Prior to that point he had been focusing on laddering up as he had never really been a big stack, rather a middle stack coasting along for most of the day. But he would take the reigns once he got the chip lead and not let go as he impressively finished off his final two opponents to gain the title.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Hometown | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Perrone | Chicago, IL | $120,704 |
| 2 | Farid Jattin | Colombia/Miami, FL | $74,686 |
| 3 | Alain Bauer | Scotland | $52,054 |
| 4 | Badr Imejjane | Frisco, TX | $38,907 |
| 5 | Brandon Lulov | Brooklyn, NY | $27,391 |
| 6 | Bin Weng | Philadelphia, PA | $21,123 |
| 7 | Ryan Riske | Cambridge, ON, Canada | $16,597 |
| 8 | Jeremy Lyons | Moncton, NB, Canada | $13,956 |
Action of the Day
Play began hot and heavy from the start as players busted fairly quickly despite the deep stacks, as the first level was full of big action and chip swings. That pace continued at a consistent clip as half the field was gone after the first three levels and play got all the way down to eleven before the dinner break.
After dinner things would get much slower as the bubble at ten players took three hours and 60 hands of hand for hand play before Noel Rodriguez finally bowed out as the bubble boy.
Shortly after that, Philip Shing busted after he had grabbed the chip lead halfway through the day thanks to a very fortuitous river card that gave him a full house to break a broadway straight but he would not be able to spin that chip lead up more as he ended up on the short end when the final table began and became the first to go in ninth place.
There was another long gap between eliminations as it took over an hour to lose the next player when Jeremy Lyons fell victim to preflop jacks vs kings. Ryan Riske headed out the door next as his short stack was finally dwindled after securing a pay jump.
The start of day big chip leader Bin Weng was the next to go in sixth place after having a steady day before losing momentum at the final table.
Brandon Lulov was taken out in fifth place after a dramatic day that saw him go from being down to a few blinds on the bubble to spinning it up at the final table to a bombastic last hand where his straight was pipped by the rivered flush that he called off.
At four-handed, play would slow once again, as it took another two hours until Badr Imejjane, who had a day where he found a one-outer to stay alive before the bubble and went runner-runner straight to stay alive early in the final table, was eliminated in fourth place,
Three-Handed play would then last for about an hour and a half without any chop discussion whatsoever, and ended when Alain Bauer eventual hit the rail in third place after he had held a chip lead going into the final table. His fortunes changed when he shoved into a set to lose a lot of his stack and exit soon after.
Heads-up play would not last that long as Farid Jattin, who started the day second in chips, had a large chip disadvantage and was called down by Perrone in several hands, unable to gain any upward momentum and eventually was finished off after about 20 minutes.
That does it for PokerNews’s coverage of the high roller here in Round Rock. Coverage of the Main Event will roll on later today, so keep things locked here