25 Days of SHRBowl: The Most Interesting Men in the World

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.

With an exclusive field capped at 56 players, a $300,000 buy-in, an over $16 million prize pool and live coverage from start to finish, it is safe to say that the Super High Roller Bowl is not only the world’s biggest event but also the most interesting. With all due respect to the rest of that interesting field, the most interesting men of the Super High Roller Bowl are Bill Perkins and Haralabos Voulgaris.

Most of the non-professionals competing in this year’s Super High Roller Bowls are regulars in some of the world’s biggest events but Perkins was one of the first to step foot into the High Roller arena. The hedge-fund manager burst onto the tournament scene in 2012, when he recorded his first High Roller cash in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $25,000 High Roller.

A year and a half later, Perkins made even bigger waves at the World Series of Poker. Perkins notched a podium finish in the $111,111 buy-in One Drop High Roller, earning just shy of $2,000,000 for a 3^rd place finish. Over the last few years, Perkins has continued to churn out big cashes and final table appearances that have helped push his career earnings over $2.6 million but Perkins is also known throughout the world for much more than his poker prowess.

A “must-follow” in the Instagram world, Perkins splits his time between family, traveling, poker, exotic locations and action sports. Perkins also may be the King of Prop Bets, with wagers against Antonio Esfandiari, Dan Bilzerian and the Staples brothers making recent headlines.

Perkins’ growing Twitch following has also made headlines, as The Thirst Lounge has not only been the go-to spot for high-stakes online poker streams but also has been giving back to the poker community. Perkins gave away tournament packages to this year’s PokerStars Championship Bahamas series and is constantly offering other pieces and free rolls to his followers.

The other half of the most interesting men of the Super High Roller Bowl is Haralabos Voulgaris. The Canadian, much like Perkins, has been a part of the High Roller community for the better part of the last decade and appeared on two seasons of High Stakes Poker. While Voulgaris, pictured above, has nearly $2 million in career tournament earnings, including two podium finishes in massive World Poker Tour events dating back to 2007 and 2005, he is most known for his sports betting and basketball knowledge.

Voulgaris is widely considered one of the most prolific NBA sports bettors in the world. Over a decade ago, Voulgaris made millions betting halftime totals and by exploiting his edge of game-management tendencies of some NBA head coaches. Voulgaris then created multiple models that used statistics and analytics to continue to find betting edges but then, during the 2009-10 season, left the gambling world to take a front-office position with an unnamed NBA franchise.

The bettor turned executive spent five months working for the NBA franchise but then left the position. Now, he is a thought of as a basketball expert and his gambling exploits have been the feature of ESPN and Business Insider stories. Voulgaris has also been a guest on The Bill Simmons Podcast, as well as a featured speaker at the MIT SLOAN Sports and Analytics Conference.

From sports betting, to prop bets, extremely popular social media channels and High Stakes Poker, it is no surprise that Bill Perkins and Haralabos Voulgaris are the most interesting men of the Super High Roller Bowl. Both will make their second straight appearances in the $300,000 buy-in event and will look to add to their lengthy resumes later this month.  

Tomorrow, “25 Days of SHRBowl” introduces two more non-pros who have had success in the poker world. Follow all of Poker Central’s coverage of the year’s biggest event here.