25 Days of SHRBowl: Rast Rewriting the Record Books

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.

This year’s Super High Roller Bowl field includes players that have won 65 combined World Series of Poker bracelets and account for over 125 wins in High Roller events with buy-ins over $10,000. The field also includes over half of the All-Time Money List’s Top 20 but only two players have ever been the last man standing in the Super High Roller Bowl arena.

Many have tried, a few have come close but only two players have ever tasted Super High Roller Bowl glory. Brian Rast was the first to do so in 2015, when he won the inaugural $500,000 buy-in event for $7,525,000. The victory confirmed Rast as one of the best high-stakes players in the world but that is something that Brian Rast seems to prove on a near yearly basis.

Rast first announced himself to the live tournament world in 2011, when he won his first WSOP bracelet in a $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em event. Later that summer, Rast turned himself into a household name, winning the illustrious $50,000 Poker Players Championship for $1,720,000. The next year, Rast returned to the World Series and raised the stakes again, cashing in the 2012 $1,000,000 buy-in The Big One for One Drop.

Add in a 2013 victory in the $100,000 WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond Super High Roller and within a matter of two years, Rast had claimed some of the poker world’s biggest titles. He wasn’t done though, adding a Super High Roller Bowl victory to this resume in 2015 and then returning to the World Series of Poker last year for a historic repeat.

Five years after his first Poker Players Championship victory, Rast won the event for a second time, becoming the second player in the history of the event to do so. That 2016 win, which was good for $1,296,000, earned Rast his third bracelet and further cemented his legacy as one of the best to ever play the game.

Legacy is something that Brian Rast takes very seriously and to make sure that that legacy continues to grow with each event, Rast has remained motivated despite his immense success. There are few players that can contend in the nosebleed High Roller tournaments and in the world’s biggest mixed games but Rast is trying to push himself to continue to win at the highest levels.

So far in 2017, Rast has continued to win. Through the first few months of the year, Rast is the most successful ARIA High Roller player, with three wins. His first came in a $50,000 Super High Roller in February and he added $25,000 High Roller wins in March and April to push his career earnings over $20 million.

This past week, Rast won his first PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker title and if Rast’s recent run of results are any indication of how primed he is for the Super High Roller Bowl, no one would be surprised to see Rast again add to his legacy on poker’s biggest stage.  

Tomorrow, the final installment of “25 Days of SHRBowl” features the defending champion and the man looking to defend his title in 2017. Follow Poker Central’s coverage of the year’s biggest event here and get in the game with PokerGO.