Christoph Vogelsang Wins 2017 Super High Roller Bowl

The fifth and final day of the 2017 Super High Roller Bowl at the ARIA Resort & Casino saw the final three players out of the starting 56 world-class entrants – Jake Schindler, Christoph Vogelsang, and Stefan Schillhabel – play for the title. After five hours of tense action, Christoph Vogelsang defeated Schindler heads-up for his first title, Super High Roller Bowl championship ring, and $6 million.

“I’m just happy and it came unexpectedly, because I didn’t have a lot of chips and was up against a really good player,” Vogelsang said. “It’s great, I feel good. It’s such a great tournament – it’s got the best structure ever and the ARIA is doing such an amazing job and I hope I can play here again.”

Schindler carried a massive chip lead to the final table with 10.6 million, Vogelsang 5.2 million, and Schillhabel with 885,000.

“I kind of thought ahead to heads-up play, last night I looked at the odd of making heads-up and I thought I was only 15% to not make it,” he said. “At the beginning, I had to play a little more passive because of the pay jumps. It’s difficult to say how I played because I don’t know all the cards Jake had. I feel like I got quite lucky in the big pots and he won more of the small pots.” 

Schillhabel’s day didn’t last long. Less than an hour before, he went all in preflop holding ace jack and Vogelsang calling while holding pocket queens. Schillhabel hit a jack on the flop, blanked the turn and river, and Vogelsang’s queens won the hand.

“It feels great , the bigger the tournament, the more shares and swaps you have with friends,” he added. “So it’s fun to win together rather than on your own. I’m happy to celebrate that with my friends. It’s nice to have won a tournament – I always said before I’m really happy to play poker even if I never win a tournament. It’s not predictable – you’re just trying to make money.”

The final hand came on a limped flop of ten-three-deuce with one heart, where Vogelsang checked and Schindler bet small. Vogelsang called, with the turn bringing the seven of hearts -giving Schindler a flush draw. Vogelsang responded with another check, Schindler bet 400,000, Vogelsang check-raised to 1.5 million, and Schindler called. The river showed the deuce of clubs, and Vogelsang bet 2.3 million. Schindler moved all in.

Bereft of time extensions, Vogelsang had 30 seconds to make a decision. With less than ten seconds remaining, Vogelsang called with two pair of ten seven of spades. Subsequently, Schindler turned his missed flush draw into a bluff, only holding jack-eight of hearts. 

The rest is history – Vogelsang won the hand and the tournament.

The chips went back and forth all day, but it all came down to this. Re-watch the entire #SHRBowl on @PokerGO! pic.twitter.com/l9zY6Q4G29

— Poker Central (@PokerCentral) June 2, 2017

Voglesang joins Brian Rast and Rainer Kempe as Super High Roller Bowl Champions. This year’s Super High Roller Bowl – along with previous Super High Roller Bowls – are available to stream in their entirety on PokerGO. 

Final Table Payouts

1. Christoph Vogelsang – $6,000,000
2. Jake Schindler – $3,600,000
3. Stefan Schillhabel – $2,400,000
4. Leon Tsoukernik – $1,800,000
5. Byron Kaverman – $1,400,000
6. Pratyush Buddiga – $1,000,000
7. Justin Bonomo – $600,000
8. Jason Koon – $60,000