25 Days of SHRBowl: No Strangers to Big Stakes

The countdown to the year’s biggest event has begun and over the next 25 days, Poker Central will introduce the entire 2017 Super High Roller Bowl field. From the world’s best high-stakes players, to online crushers and successful businessmen, poker’s most exclusive event has it all. Follow Poker Central’s “25 Days of SHRBowl” to know who will be competing when cards get in the air on May 28th.

What is the most alluring aspect of the Super High Roller Bowl? The exclusive field? The celebrity guest? The world’s most successful poker players? Those would all be valid answers but most would point to the enormous $300,000 buy-in and the world’s highest stakes. For some, those stakes could be intimidating but for Andrew Robl and Matt Berkey, regulars in Las Vegas’ biggest cash games, it should just be another day at the office.

As a teenager, Andrew Robl rocketed to the top of the online poker world and over the last two decades, has confirmed himself as one of poker’s elite. Robl’s rise through the stakes came well before Black Friday and was highlighted in the book Ship It Holla Ballas!: How a Bunch of 19-Year Old College Dropouts Used the Internet to Become Poker’s Loudest, Craziest, and Richest Crew.

Since then, Robl has lived and breathed high-stakes cash games. He has traveled the world to find the biggest and best action, from Macau, to Europe and domestically in Las Vegas. Cash games aren’t the only place Robl competes at the highest stakes though, as his tournament resume, although small in stature compared to other’s competing in the Super High Roller Bowl, is filled with High Roller results and victories.

Robl has amassed nearly $5 million in live tournament earnings, with many of his best career finishes coming in big buy-in events. Robl won the Aussie Millions $100,000 Challenge in 2013, good for his first career major tournament title and a $1,000,000 result.

Prior to that breakout score, Robl earned three sizable six-figure results in events with buy-ins ranging from $10,000 to $100,000. His best finish, for $822,000, came in the $100,000 WPT World Championship Super High Roller in 2012 and since that Aussie Millions win, Robl’s tournament appearances have been few and far between, save for some ARIA High Roller podium finishes over the last three years.

While Andrew Robl’s breakout tournament performance came a few years ago, Matt Berkey’s should be fresh on every Super High Roller Bowl fan’s mind. The Pennsylvanian, pictured above, made his debut in last year’s event and while he may have started the tournament as a relative unknown, the field quickly learned that Berkey was a force to be reckoned with.

After taking control of the chip lead on Day 2, Berkey navigated the stacked 49-player field to make the final table and eventually finished 5^th for a $1,100,000 result. Prior to that Super High Roller Bowl run, Berkey’s experience in High Roller events was minimal but he does have an ARIA $25K High Roller title from December of 2015 on his resume.

Outside of those two finishes, Berkey has done most of his tournament damage at the World Series of Poker. He has five six-figure scores from WSOP branded events, including a deep run in the 2010 Main Event, that earned him $206,000, and a podium finish in the $3,000 No Limit Hold’em Six Handed event in 2013.

Berkey recorded two other final table runs that summer, in $1,500 and $5,000 No Limit Hold’em events and Berkey’s most recent tournament result also ended with a final table run. He finished 7^th in the $10,000 buy-in WPT LA Poker Classic Main Event, arguably one of the tougher WPT events held each year, for a $161,000 score.

Robl and Berkey will return to the Super High Roller Bowl later this month, with Robl making his third-straight appearance. Both will bring valuable high-stakes experience that few others in this year’s field will have, which will make them dangerous players come May 28^th.

Tomorrow, “25 Days of SHRBowl” continues with the last batch of non-professional players. Follow Poker Central’s coverage of the year’s biggest event here.