Today at the Poker Masters: Open and Close

The 2018 Poker Masters is officially underway. Over the next week, the world’s best will compete across seven High Roller events for the title of Poker Masters champion. The Poker Masters Purple Jacket awaits and “Today at the Poker Masters” will take you through the highest stakes week of the year with daily updates from the PokerGO Studio.

It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. The highest stakes week of the year opened with David Peters in the Event 1 winner’s circle and it could end with Peters in the exact same spot. The former GPI Player of the Year holds the $100,000 Main Event final table chip lead, with just three players separating him from a massive seven-figure score. Despite the potential payout, Peters is not playing for purple today.

After earning 300 points for his Event 1 victory, Peters failed to add to that total across the remaining preliminary events. That means that 650 points is Peters’ ceiling, which still puts him 10 points behind Purple Jacket winner Ali Imsirovic.

Using total earnings, which was the Poker Masters metric in 2017, Peters would still be Purple Jacket eligible. A Main Event win would bump Peters series earnings to $1,343,200 or $55,200 more than Imsirovic. A different year, a different storyline, and maybe a different champion.

Regardless of how today’s final table shakes out, the margins that decided the 2018 Poker Masters Champion were razor thin. The margin between David Peters and Dan Smith is similarly thin.

Smith returns just 200,000 chips behind Peters, but the separation from the other two players at the final table is drastic. The pair controls over 80% of the total chips in play and each have close to four times the stack of Koray Aldemir.

The German had a chance to trip Imsirovic in Event 6. Aldemir held a heads up lead, but Imsirovic battled back to book a second consecutive win. Two days removed, Aldemir has a chance at Poker Masters redemption and another High Roller Triple Crown podium finish.

Podium finishes were the norm for Bryn Kenney in 2017. He dominated High Rollers around the world, but this year has been modest by Kenney’s standards. While Kenney was unable to gain early momentum, King Kenney brought his best in the biggest event of the series.

The #PokerMasters $100K Main Event is down to the final four!@dpeterspoker17 and @DanSmithHolla lead, but @kooraay90 and @BrynKenney are in contention. $1.15 million is up top and you can watch LIVE at 4 PM ET!
▶️https://t.co/p1vTk3ajxm pic.twitter.com/9GkpeJxDUy

— PokerGO (@PokerGO) September 15, 2018

Four High Roller experts play for the Main Event title today at 4 PM ET. Subscribe now to watch live on PokerGO and to relive all the action from the highest stakes week of the year with on-demand event replays.