Super High Roller Bowl: Rounding Out the Rookies

After a second straight year of overwhelming interest, 61 players entered the 2018 Super High Roller Bowl Lottery. Of those players, 30 locked up a seat in the year’s most exclusive event. Over the last month, Poker Central has introduced those players, but ARIA’s Super High Roller Bowl VIP selections also need to be introduced. Follow along as Poker Central runs down the rest of the field, from legends of the game to High Roller regulars, successful non-professionals, and more.

Dennis Blieden

Someone who wins a World Poker Tour event for seven-figures should not be a relative unknown heading into the Super High Roller Bowl, but that’s exactly how most would describe Dennis Blieden. The L.A. Poker Classic champion spends his days as the VP of Finance for StyleHaul, but later this month, Blieden will sit down in the biggest buy-in tournament of his life. With only three rated scores on his tournament resume, one of them being a WPT victory for $1,000,000, it is hard to compare Blieden to the rest of the Super High Roller Bowl field. We can compare game tape though and while the rest of the field is likely going to be quiet and tense, Blieden will likely be the same entertaining, heart on his sleeve player that bossed the LAPC final table earlier this year.

Matt Hyman

The only thing more difficult than trying to tell Matt and Zack Hyman apart, is trying to pick a winner when comparing their tournament resumes. The nearly identical twins boast nearly identical resumes, with High Roller scores and deep runs in countless big buy-in events. After Zack made his Super High Roller Bowl debut in 2017, Matt is set to enter the arena in 2018 and he enters with plenty of experience in High Roller Triple Crown events. Matt finished 2nd in the opening Poker Masters $50K event for $561,000 and then a final table run during the U.S. Poker Open pushed Matt’s career tournament earnings near $2 million.

Seth Davies

One of the most experienced rookies in this year’s Super High Roller Bowl field is Seth Davies. The Oregon native has been playing live and online for the better part of the decade, but has just recently made the jump to High Roller events. That jump has been successful, as Davies has notched a handful of High Roller scores including a final table run in the Poker Masters $100K Championship in 2017. Davies’ best finishes came in 2016 though, when he won the WPT Canadian Spring Championship and finished second in the $5,000 SHRPO Championship. Those scores netted Davies just under $600,000 in the span of six months and in one month, Davies will be putting $300,000 down in the biggest event of the year.