Winters' Wins Headline Penultimate Poker Masters Warm Up

This weekend, bookended between Poker After Dark cash games and winner-take-all sit and go’s, ARIA kept the high stakes train moving with three ARIA High Roller events. The weekend series opened with a $10,000 buy-in event on Thursday and two $25,000 events followed, with ARIA High Roller staples finding their way to the money and the winner’s circle.

The biggest event of the weekend, in terms of field size, was the 23-player $10,000 High Roller. After some close calls earlier this year, Sean Winter broke through to notch his first ARIA High Roller victory of 2017, beating WPT champion and Las Vegas professional Justin Young heads up for the title. Winter earned $115,000 for the win, with Young, Germany’s Guiseppe Pantaleo and Cary Katz also recording cashes.

While Katz had to settle for a min-cash in the $10,000 High Roller, he got back to his winning ways the following night. Katz beat Brian Rast heads up in the $25,000 High Roller, good for a $217,500 score and his second ARIA victory of the year. Those two wins are separated by six months but during that time, Katz has collected a handful of silver and bronze medals, including a 2^nd place result in a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event that was live streamed on PokerGO during the World Series of Poker.

Sean Winter returned to the winner’s circle on Saturday night, collecting his second gold medal of the weekend in the final $25,000 High Roller. Winter picked up another $175,000 score for the win, while Jason Koon, who will be making his Poker After Dark debut this week, earned $75,000 for his runner-up finish.

The past weekend’s ARIA High Roller series served as the penultimate warm up for the world’s best players before September’s Poker Masters series. The final warm up series will take place next weekend, with three High Roller events, following the same $10,000, $25,000, $25,000 schedule, running from August 30 to September 1. Poker Central will be keeping an eye on those events to end the month and will be previewing the players and action leading up to the Poker Masters series, which begins on September 13 and will be streamed exclusively on PokerGO.