High Roller of the Year Sam Soverel Gears Up for the U.S. Poker Open

Over the years, Sam Soverel has quietly amassed $7.6 million in career live tournament earnings and slowly but surely his name has started ringing louder and louder with poker fans. Soverel might not be a splashy fast talker who dresses to impress, but he lets his play speak for itself. In 2018, Soverel was the most consistent player in high roller events, locking down the High Roller Player of the Year rankings ahead of Isaac Haxton, David Peters, Jake Schindler, and Cary Katz, and we caught up with him as he’s gearing up for the U.S. Poker Open.

Looking back at 2018, Soverel is proud of his accomplishment locking down an overall ranking that was solely made up of the best in the world.

“It was great to win High Roller Player of the Year for 2018, I was really happy with how I played overall. It’s easy to get complacent when things are going your way for a while, and I found the time to put in practice hours. It also really helped to run hot late and dominate the Short Deck events though!”

For its second annual edition, the U.S. Poker Open has added a $100,000 prize for the overall championship winner, and right off the bat, this is something that Soverel is excited about.

“It’s hard to get me excited about a tournament these days, but the $100,000 added and both Pot Limit Omaha and Short Deck as part of an awesome schedule have me planning my personal time, travel, and general life around it pretty heavily.”

Soverel continues, “Considering the $100,000 added along with the rake free element, this is a Top 3 series of the year for me. I don’t really travel for tournaments and focus mostly on cash, so my No Limit tourney game relative to these guys that work so hard is weak.”

“Honestly, these guys are so tough that it’s easy to pass on the big events without that incentive. I think it’s a great addition to encourage players to fire multiple events.”

Soverel, who earned an entire rake-free year at all ARIA Resort & Casino poker tournaments by winning the High Roller Player of the Year race, thinks that this will give him an even bigger edge to risk it all in close spots.

“On top of it all being rake free for me, the $100,000 added also drags people into Pot Limit Omaha and Short Deck, where iI think I’m a pretty big favorite, while I’m a dog to a reasonable portion of the No Limit Hold’em fields.”

While the majority of top No Limit Hold’em players have locked into studying a similar game-theory optimal approach, Soverel has chosen his own path and so far it seems to be paying off very nicely.

“Most of these guys play very similarly since they are mostly studying the same decision trees and using the same programs. I kinda do my own thing with that stuff, so it’s nice that I feel like I’m prepping to play against one player rather than 30.”

The U.S. Poker Open is only a few days away, read the full tournament schedule here. As a poker fan, you can watch it all unfold live on PokerGO where Soverel will, without a doubt, be one of the top contenders.

“There is so much luck in a short 10-day stretch, but it would be great to beat these guys. The studio is fantastic, just a great place to play poker. A full bar nearby, world-class staff, comfortable chairs, nice clean chips, I just can’t say enough good things about it.”

“I’m not too happy about the hands all being shown but for $100,000 added they deserve it. I do think that makes it exciting and I know I personally take the time to go back and see what some of these geniuses are doing.”

Subscribe to PokerGO right now to see what the geniuses are doing.