$25,500 High Roller No Limit Hold’em $1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts Level 16: 6,000/12,000 with a 2,000 ante Players Remaining: 14 of 75
Lander Lijo
Ben Tollerene opened the cutoff to 28,000, and Stefan Schillhabel three-bet to 90,000 on the button. Lander Lijo called all in for 85,000 in the small blind, and Tollerene folded out of the way.
Schillhabel: Lijo:
The flop gave Schillhabel a big lead, and the turn didn’t change much. Lijo was already standing from his chair, but he snapped his finger at the spot where the river card awaited, just for good measure.
Sure enough, the appeared, giving him sixes full and a double-up.
“Whoops,” Lijo said as he sat back down in his seat.
$25,500 High Roller No Limit Hold’em $1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts Level 16: 6,000/12,000 with a 2,000 ante Players Remaining: 14 of 75
Yesterday’s Lucky Hearts Poker Open High Roller saw the $25,500 buy-in ponied up a total of 75 times. From those 75 starting entries, just 14 remained following 15 levels of play. Those still in return today at 12pm to compete for a spot among the 11 in-the-money places and a piece of the tournament’s $1,875,000 prize pool.
Justin Bonomo
Leading the way by a margin is Justin Bonomo. Fresh off a third-place finish in the $50,000 buy-in Super High Roller, Bonomo bagged a monster yesterday ultimately taking the overnight chip lead with 1,866,000.
Next up in the counts is none other than Stefan Schillhabel, last week’s Super High Roller champion. Schillhabel sits on 1,083,000 chips and is the only other player over 1,000,000.
Adrian Mateos lost that heads-up match to Schillhabel last week in the $50k, but he might get a shot at redemption today. He begins in third place at the moment.
As mentioned before, only the top 11 spots finish in the money with a min-cash worth $54,375. The winner, meanwhile, earns $556,873 along with the property’s token guitar trophy.
$25,500 High Roller No Limit Hold’em $1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts Returning to Level 16: 6,000/12,000 with a 2,000 ante Players Remaining: 14 of 75
Justin Bonomo
Level 15 concluded, marking the end of Day 1. Just 14 players remain, with Justin Bonomo way out in front of the pack.
There aren’t many properties that can support events with a buy-in this significant, but Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood is certainly on the short list.
This High Roller drew a total of 75 entries at $25,000 apiece, creating a prize pool worth $1.875 million.
The cast of characters included most of the usual suspects.
Erik Seidel was in there more than once, joined by the likes of Jason Mercier, Isaac Haxton, Stephen Chidwick, Mike Leah, and Brian Hastings. Even Vanessa Selbst, who is taking a step back from full-time poker, showed up to play.
None of those players survived the day. Fortunately, though, there are still 14 familiar faces in the field.
The top four finishers in the $50,000 Super High Roller are still alive in this half-price version. That includes, of course, the winner, Stefan Schillhabel. Other than Bonomo, he’s the only player with a seven-figure stack in the bag, returning for Day 2 in second place.
Stefan Schillhabel (left) and Adrian Mateos (right)
Adrian Mateos finished as the runner-up to Schillhabel in that event, and he’s currently in the third slot on the leaderboard.
Nick Petrangelo, the fourth-place Super High Roller, has one of the shortest stacks in the bag, but he’s well equipped to run it up all the same.
Nick Petrangelo
They and everyone else are all chasing Bonomo, though. The decorated, pink-maned pro is looking to improve on his third-place finish in the $50k, and he’s put himself in a commanding position to do so. There’s still a lot of poker left to be played, though.
Bryn Kenney, Ben Tollerene, and Ben Yu are also among the final 14 players, and literally everyone left is capable of snagging the trophy.
Only final 11 players will finish in the money, so crossing that threshold will be the first order of business on Day 2.
$25,500 High Roller No Limit Hold’em $1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts Level 15: 5,000/10,000 with a 1,000 ante Players Remaining: 14 of 75
John Andress moved all in for just about 100,000 under the gun, and Stefan Schillhabel put him at risk from the button.
Andress: Schillhabel:
The board ran out , and Schillhabel won the pot with a set of kings. He’s comfortably in second place behind Justin Bonomo, having just inched into seven-figure territory.
Andress was eliminated.
Stefan Schillhabel – 1,045,000 (105 bb) John Andress – Eliminated
$25,500 High Roller No Limit Hold’em $1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts Level 15: 5,000/10,000 with a 1,000 ante Players Remaining: 15 of 75
While that last hand was being published, Galen Hall wished his table luck and headed out the door in 16th place. A check on his table found (who else?) Justin Bonomo stacking up the last of Hall’s chips.
The hands and action are unknown, but the result was a familiar one. Bonomo won the pot and added even more cushion to his huge stack.
Nobody else has even half his count.
Justin Bonomo – 1,875,000 (188 bb) Galen Hall – Eliminated
$25,500 High Roller No Limit Hold’em $1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts Level 15: 5,000/10,000 with a 1,000 ante Players Remaining: 16 of 75
In a battle of the blinds, David Peters (small) and Justin Bonomo (big) built a big pot heading to the river of a board. Peters moved all in for 186,000, and Bonomo pondered for an eternity before calling to put Peters at risk.
As soon as Bonomo called, Peters began to stand up from his chair. He showed for a miss, and Bonomo tabled to win the pot with his ace kicker.
Peters was eliminated, while Bonomo’s chip lead has ballooned into something seriously impressive.
The players at the other end of the table were talking about what they just witnessed. Someone, maybe Joe McKeehen, asked, “How do you do it?”
“Just don’t fold,” Bonomo revealed the key to his success.
Justin Bonomo – 1,520,000 (152 bb) David Peters – Eliminated
$25,500 High Roller No Limit Hold’em $1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts Level 15: 5,000/10,000 with a 1,000 ante Players Remaining: 19 of 75
Jason Mercier
Jason Mercier was suddenly missing from his chair, and a quick check with the table confirmed the news. Dylan Linde was the man stacking up chips, and he was kind enough to reveal what happened.
According to Linde, he was the raiser on the button, and Mercier shoved for a bit over 200,000 in the small blind. Linde called and succinctly explained the rest: “He had sixes. I had sevens.”
Mercier was eliminated, while Linde appears to have moved into third place on leaderboard with 19 players remaining.
Dylan Linde – 775,000 (78 bb) Jason Mercier – Eliminated
$25,500 High Roller No Limit Hold’em $1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts Level 14: 4,000/8,000 with a 1,000 ante Players Remaining: 22 of 75
Just the tail end of a pot here, but one definitely worth a mention.
Justin Bonomo and Isaac Haxton were heads-up on the river of a board. Justin Bonomo checked from under the gun, and Haxton moved all in for 363,000 effective. He had the slightly larger stack, and his bet was just more than the size of the pot.
Bonomo spent a short while in the tank, then said, “I don’t think I can fold.” With that, he called to put himself at risk.
Haxton showed , but Bonomo tabled to win the huge pot with aces up.
Haxton was left with less than 35,000 chips, and he was eliminated a moment later.
Bonomo, on the other hand, moved into contention for the chip lead with that monster double.
flop gave Schillhabel a big lead, and the 
turn didn’t change much. Lijo was already standing from his chair, but he snapped his finger at the spot where the river card awaited, just for good measure.
appeared, giving him sixes full and a double-up.
board. Peters moved all in for 186,000, and Bonomo pondered for an eternity before calling to put Peters at risk.
for a miss, and Bonomo tabled 
to win the pot with his ace kicker.
board. Justin Bonomo checked from under the gun, and Haxton moved all in for 363,000 effective. He had the slightly larger stack, and his bet was just more than the size of the pot.
, but Bonomo tabled