Jason Mercier raised to 16,000 from the hijack seat, and Ole Schemion reraised to 36,000 on the button. Play moved back to Mercier, and he moved all in for 178,000. Schemion folded, and Mercier won the pot.
Talal Shakerchi and John Morgan saw a big action flop given both of their hold cards. The two got all of the money in on the flop with Shakerchi holding the against Morgan's .
Shakerchi was all in on the flop for 147,000, and his hand held after the turn and river. He doubled to nearly 400,000, and Morgan was knocked back to 144,000.
Talal Shakerchi raised under the gun to 17,000 and Scott Seiver made the call, as did Byron Kaverman. Connor Drinan three-bet to 65,000 from the button and Isaac Haxton moved all in from the big blind for 350,000.
Shakerchi folded right away, and Seiver went into the tank. Seiver asked Drinan how much he had behind, and after finding out he folded. Kaverman folded too, but Drinan made the call.
Haxton:
Drinan:
The board ran out and Haxton hit the rail, while Drinan now sits on a very big stack.
Christoph Vogelsang raised to 18,000 and Brandon Steven three-bet from the small blind to 32,000. The acton folded back to Vogelsang, who after verifying that Steven's raise was legal, went into the tank.
After throwing in a time bank card, Vogelsang ultimately made the call.
The flop brought out and Steven immediately threw in 125,000 chips to put Vogelsang all in.
The German pro had 92,000 chips left and after a while he decided to make the call.
With the beginning of Level 7 came the close of registration. There were 43 entries in this event, generating a prize pool of $21.5 million. Of that, the top seven spots will be paid a minimum of $860,000. The winner will take home $7.525 million in first-place prize money and the right to be called champion of the inaugural $500,000 Super High Roller Bowl.
The Day 1 structure for this event has 10 levels listed as the plan, but the players spoke up and wanted to stop after Level 9. The tournament staff opted to change the schedule and only nine levels will be played out on Day 1. If the field happens to be cut down to 24 players before then, the day will be halted as well.
Scott Seiver has been on a tear lately, and he just won two more important pots. One he took off John Morgan, and in the other he busted Fedor Holz.
First, we picked up the action with the board showing . Seiver had a bet in front of him of 75,000. Morgan went into the tank for quite some time, but ultimately he made the call.
"Two pair," Seiver announced, as he tabled the .
Morgan mucked, and Seiver raked in the pot. As he was pulling in the chips, Phil Ivey commented that he would've played the hand the same way.
"But you don't flop two pair every damn hand like I do," Seiver smiled.
"Yeah, it's because the stakes aren't high enough yet," Isaac Haxton joked.
"Exactly," Ivey smiled, as the players at the table continued to joke around.
Seiver and Haxton said they weren't on Ivey's level just yet, and Ivey joked about how he "wills the cards to come" when it really matters — when the stakes are really high enough.
On the very next hand, the action folded to Seiver in the small blind, and he put Holz all in in the big blind. Holz called right away for just a few big blinds, and the showdown went as follows.
Holz:
Seiver:
The flop brought out the . Holz now needed to dodge spades and running straight cards as well as a king. When the hit on the turn, Ivey said, "Why are you still here?"
After a short pause, he looked at Holz again and said, "Why aren't you at the door yet?"
Holz and Ivey had been joking around all day, and the river was the , which gave Seiver a flush.
"I hate to be like this," Ivey said to Holz, as he gathered his belongings before exiting the room. "But it's just like this."
"What if it doesn't come?" Seiver asked Ivey.
"What do you mean, 'If it doesn't come?'" Ivey said. "You know it's going to come."
After a pause, Ivey looked over at Seiver, who's one of the bigger stacks in the room, and said, "How long does it take for people to to know that you're the best tournament player in the world?"
"Usually minus five years," Seiver smiled, "But you've known for a while, right?"
Ivey nodded, and Seiver continued.
"But yet you turn down a swap for the Main Event," Seiver said, referring to the World Series of Poker Main Event.
"The Main is different," Ivey quickly responded.
"Yes, the Main is different for sure," Seiver said.
Ivey went on to say that he would perhaps crossbook with Seiver in the Main Event, but that it was really close. Seiver was quick to turn that down, though.