This Week in Poker: Murderer's Row, CryptoTube, Another for Germany

With non-stop action around the globe, there are sure to be story lines and news that slips through the cracks. Poker Central’s “This Week in Poker” fills those cracks though, highlighting headlines, news, and big events with quick-hitting recaps of the biggest stories from around the poker world.

Maria Bests Murderer’s Row

We’ve talked about Maria Lampropulos’ PCA Main Event win a few times this week. The massive victory and score, coupled with the fact that she more or less did the same thing nine months ago in the United Kingdom, is enough to demand every headline, but more should be said about the field that she defeated. With two tables remaining, Lampropulos was still alive, but so were the last two GPI Player of the Year winners, David Peters and Adrian Mateos, and German High Roller Koray Aldemir. Add in Shawn Buchanan, who is one of the best players in online poker history, and you have a PCA Main Event murderer’s row. Those greats, save for Peters, who fell in 11th place, made the final table and Lampropulos outlasted them all, en route to a headline-making and perhaps career-defining victory.

Doug Polk Dominating CryptoTube

Over the last two years, Doug Polk has become one of the biggest names and personalities in poker. He’s done this through a combination of his Upswing Poker training site, success in the world’s biggest tournaments, and through his massive presence on YouTube. His “Doug Polk Poker” page has over 166,000 subscribers, but after turning his attention to the CryptoTube space earlier this month, Polk is starting to dominate another realm of the internet. Polk’s “Doug Polk Crypto” page has over 110,000 subscribers at the time of publishing and that number is likely only going to grow. Is a cryptocurrency trading training site next?

Another Week, Another High Roller Goes to Germany

Outside of the PCA, it was a relatively quiet week for high stakes poker. Save for Poker After Dark cash games, there were only a few events that really moved the high stakes needle. One of them was the $50,000 Super High Roller at the 2018 Lucky Hearts Poker Open. The $1 million guaranteed event drew 24 players and when the dust settled, Stefan Schillhabel was in the winner’s circle. The Super High Roller Bowl bronze medalist took down a $25,000 REG Charity High Roller at PCA and picked up another $493,000 for his LHPO win. That score pushes Schillhabel’s career earnings just over $8 million and he’s now closing in on the top-ten of Germany’s all-time money list. Just over $500,000 separate Steffen Sontheimer in 12th place and Koray Aldemir in 10th, Schillhabel currently sits in 11th, meaning the battle to climb the German leader board will be a fun one to track throughout the rest of the year.