Men Lie, Women Lie, Numbers Don't: Poker Masters Edition

Facts and figures. They make the world go around and, more often than not, tell a story without letting opinions or biases get in the way. Which numbers tell the story of this week’s Poker Masters series and what quick opinions do we have?

5 – The five-event high stakes Poker Masters series if the first of its kind in the poker world. Over the next week, the world’s best players will congregate at the ARIA Resort & Casino for eight days of high stakes poker action, starting with four $50,000 preliminary events. The series concludes with the $100,000 Championship and the action will be live streamed on PokerGO, until the Poker Masters Purple Jacket™ is awarded on September 20^th.

$1,702,733 – Over the course of the summer, Daniel Negreanu extended his lead at the top of the all-time money list. Kid Poker now holds an over $1.7 million advantage over Erik Seidel, who was just featured in a Pokerography episode, but with millions of dollars up for grabs this week, that lead could evaporate and evaporate quickly during the Poker Masters. Negreanu has some added motivation to perform well over the next few days but with or without side action, Erik Seidel is arguably one of the best high stakes tournament players in the world.

$3,908,298 – Piggy backing off the all-time money list leaderboard, Brian Rast has a sizable advantage at the top of ARIA’s all-time list. The 2015 Super High Roller Bowl champion has won nearly $4 million more at ARIA than Jake Schindler, who finished 2^nd in this year’s Super High Roller Bowl. If Rast is able to extend his ARIA lead, he could make some moves on the overall all-time money list, where he currently sits 10^th.

$23,354,887 – Fedor Holz comfortably sits in the top-ten of both the all-time and ARIA money lists but as a retired player, he may not have that many opportunities to make serious jumps up either list over the next few years. The opportunities he has taken though, usually result in some big scores and since Poker Masters could be his last opportunity of 2017, Holz’s Poker Masters vlog could be filled with final table sweats, cashes, and victories.

$300/$600 – Poker Masters fills the PokerGO schedule for the next week but the rest of the month is filled with live poker. Poker After Dark will return later this month, with three $300/$600 Pot Limit Omaha cash games. “PLOMG” week will be the first time a game other than No Limit Hold’em will be played on the new episodes of Poker After Dark, with an announcement of lineups for those September 26-28 cash games coming soon.