Isaac Haxton Captures Super High Roller Bowl V Title For $3.6 Million

“This is my biggest score ever and easily the best accomplishment. This is the highlight of my tournament career,” an elated Isaac Haxton said after winning Super High Roller Bowl V late on Wednesday night inside the PokerGO Studio.

Haxton crossed the $20 million mark of career tournament earnings with a bang. On Wednesday evening in Las Vegas, in the PokerGO studios at the Aria, Haxton took earned $3.672 million for a victory in the fifth edition of the Super High Roller Bowl.

Haxton is one of the most successful players in the history of the game and there are only a couple of holes in the 33-year-old’s resume. He filled one of them with his victory in the $300,000 buy-in, 36-player field. It wouldn’t come easy as he battled many of the game’s best players and defeated the current GPI #1 ranked player in the game, Alex Foxen, heads-up.

Looking back on the day, Haxton said, “I came in with nearly a quarter of the chips in play and had position on the other big stack, so I was feeling pretty confident.”

“I felt like I was in a great spot coming into today, but obviously it’s still very lucky to come away with the win.”

It Wasn’t Imsirovic’s Day

The final day started at 1 p.m. with the final seven players at the final table and in the money. Haxton came into the day with the chip lead, but with very deep stacks, there wasn’t much chip movement early on. 23-year-old Ali Imsirovic came into the final day as the short stack and was the first player to hit the rail when he clashed with Haxton.

Imsirovic got his money in good with his pocket jacks against Haxton’s ace-five of clubs, but Haxton turned a flush, ultimately sending the up-and-coming star home in seventh.

Kurganov Downfall

Imsirovic’s departure left Igor Kurganov as the short stack. Kurganov doubled up a few times, but then sent most of his stack to Adrian Mateos when Mateos doubled through him. It was a tricky spot with Kurganov flopping two overs and a straight draw in a three-way pot with Mateos and Haxton. Mateos got all in on the flop with pocket aces and Kurganov bricked his draw.

Kurganov was down to his last 12 big blinds and they got into the middle with pocket sevens against Talal Shakerchi’s pocket 10s. Shakerchi’s hand held up and Kurganov was the sixth-place finisher for $756,000. One of the crucial hands in which Kurganov was involved was versus Alex Foxen, and he was kind enough to explain his thought process in the video below.

Three Quick Exits

Haxton was still in the lead five-handed, but the chips were very evenly spread out. Over the next two levels, Mateos became the short stack and Foxen moved into the chip lead. Mateos’s short stack found its way into the middle with pocket nines against Foxen’s ace-king. A king on the flop sealed Mateos’ fate and he was eliminated in fifth.

After Mateos’ elimination, the pace of the action picked up considerably. The chips began to fly and the eliminations racked up.

The first hand after the final four players returned from a break resulted in a bustout. Talal Shakerchi got the last of his chips into the middle with against Haxton’s . Haxton won the flip and Shakerchi was out in fourth.

Just a few hands later, Haxton won another ace, this time against Stephen Chidwick, who started the day second in chips. Chidwick’s chips got into the middle with against Haxton’s pocket jacks.

Heads-Up: Foxen vs Haxton

The flop came jack-high and Chidwick was drawing dead on the turn. Just like that, it was down to Haxton and Foxen. For the first time in quite some time, it wasn’t Foxen with the chip lead.

Early on in Haxton’s poker career, he grinded his way up the stakes playing heads-up no-limit hold’em cash games. His chops in that variant showed as he made quick work of Foxen heads-up.

At the beginning of the heads-up play, Haxton turned the second nut flush and allowed Foxen to bluff into him on turn and river. After folding to Haxton’s river shove, Foxen was down to nearly 9-to-1 in chips.

They got the last of the chips into the middle with Haxton’s up against Foxen’s . Foxen flopped an ace, but wasn’t out of the woods yet with Haxton flopping a gutshot. He didn’t make his straight, but he hit a king on the turn and a jack on the river to make two pair. He eliminated Foxen in second-place to put a close on Foxen’s monster year.

In closing, Haxton added, “It’s easy, in the moment, to fall into putting too much significance into one tournament. It’s a 36-player event and I was the luckiest guy this time and won. I don’t think it changes anything about the player I am or my legacy, but damn does it feel good to win a tournament.”

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