Peters Paces High Roller of the Year Race

The High Roller of the Year race is off and running. Each week, Poker Central is your home for the results, stats, and stories from the world’s biggest events. From 2019 U.S. Poker Open to Super High Roller Bowl VI and everything in between, Poker Central is your High Roller of the Year headquarters.

Heading into Saturday’s final table, Sean Winter controlled his own USPO destiny. If he cashed the $100,000 Main Event, a sixth result of the series, Winter would win the 2019 U.S. Poker Open Championship. Even if Winter failed to cash, the odds were still in his favor. The only problem, David Peters doesn’t care about odds. Winter finished a few spots short of the money and Peters finished the series with a historic High Roller Triple Crown comeback. He won the USPO Main Event for $1.3 million and the U.S. Poker Open Championship for an additional $100,000.

The win also put Peters atop the 2019 High Roller of the Year leaderboard entering the next set of qualifying high rollers. The current top-five is shown below and more High Roller of the Year information, including an upcoming schedule, can be found here.

Leave No Doubt

Ignoring Super High Roller Bowl V, Peters now has three wins over the last two High Roller Triple Crown series and two of those wins have come in $100,000 Main Events for a combined $2.5 million. Only one of those Main Event wins led to an overall series title though. Peters fell just short of Poker Masters glory in September, but he left no doubt at the U.S. Poker Open. Peters needed a clutch performance and he was nearly perfect at the Saturday’s final table.

After a perfect start to 2019, High Roller of the Year hopefuls should be on high alert. Peters is one of the best players on the planet and few will be able to match his high stakes volume down the stretch. It’s early and David Peters could lose his HROY lead just as quickly as he got it, but Peters has some past Player of the Year experience to draw from.

Soverel’s No Show

After winning High Roller of the Year honors in 2018, Sam Soverel entered the U.S. Poker Open looking to pick up where he left off at ARIA. From the 2018 Super High Roller Bowl to the end of the year, Soverel cashed 20 events and won 9 times. Those stats were enough to hold off HROY challenges from the best players in the world, including Super High Roller Bowl V winner Isaac Haxton.

Soverel didn’t start his title defense how he would have liked. Instead of picking up where he left off, Soverel was left off the USPO leaderboard. He failed to record a single cash, meaning he’ll have to wait to open his 2019 High Roller of the Year account.

Looking Ahead

The High Roller of the Year race continues into March with World Poker Tour high rollers from the L.A. Poker Classic. Dates and multiplier information is provided below, while more information on the entire LAPC series can be found here.

Follow Poker Central for weekly High Roller of the Year updates and subscribe to watch High Roller of the Year qualifying events exclusively on PokerGO. A complete HROY schedule can be found here and more information about the year-long points race can be found here.