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James Chen Wins WSOP Europe €250,000 Super High Roller

James Chen is enjoying his best year as a live tournament pro. Earlier this year, Chen finished runner-up in the $25,000 PLO High Roller at the 2019 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. He then fell just shy of the final table in the $100,000 NL High Roller, finishing 9th.

Now, Chen has finally broken through for his first career WSOP bracelet and he picked perhaps the best event to do it outside of the WSOP Main Event. Chen took down the inaugural €250,000 Super High Roller at the 2019 WSOP Europe for his first bracelet and a career-best $3.14 million first-place prize.

€250,000 Super High Roller Draws 30 Entries

You may remember that Aussie Millions used to have a $250,000 Super High Roller Event until a lack of participation forced it off the schedule. WSOP officials decided to add their own Super High Roller to the 2019 WSOP-E schedule and created the €250,000 Super High Roller.

Some speculated that this event would be lightly attended, but the event ended up drawing a respectable field of 30 entries. That may not sound like a big field, but for a €250k bracelet event in Europe, that was a fantastic draw.

The total prize pool for the event was €7.12 million with just five players making a payday. The final day of action on Friday morning saw a final table of seven return, but two would finish short of the money.

Dominik Nitsche came into the final table with the overall chip lead but went into a tailspin early and was the first player knocked out. Ryan Riess, the 2013 WSOP Main Event champion, was the unfortunate bubble boy, finishing in sixth place.

This left a strong final five, including Poker Central founder Cary Katz, former pro and Lithuanian politician Tony G, Christoph Vogelsang, James Chen, and Chin Wei Lim.

James Chen Makes Epic Comeback to Win First Bracelet

With five players left, it seemed that James Chen would be the next out as he was a severe short stack. However, a pair of doubles through Lim and Vogelsang got him back to a healthy stack. In the meantime, Cary Katz fell in fifth place.

Tony G was then knocked out in fourth place when he moved in with an open-ended straight draw against Chen and missed. At this point, Chen took the overall chip lead.

Christoph Vogelsang was knocked out in third place when Chin Wei Lim’s A-10 outdrew Vogelsang’s pocket fives. This left Lim and Chen to battle heads-up for the bracelet.

Lim started with a 40 million chip deficit but soon pulled his stack even with Chen’s. The pair battled for a while with both players holding the chip lead. Finally, Chen took a better than 2:1 chip lead and it wasn’t long before it was over.

James Chen wins the €250,000 Super High Roller @PokerroomKings! Chen just barely missed out on a bracelet in Vegas over the summer, and now earns the first of his career and €2,844,215.https://t.co/KSn5hGtr2O pic.twitter.com/BBzZjm2Ya4

— WSOP (@WSOP) October 18, 2019

The final hand saw Chen shove pre-flop with Ad-4d and Lim call with Ah-5c. After the flop fell Ac-Jh-9s, most figured this to be a chopped pot. The turn fell the 3d and missed both players. However, the river fell the 4c to give Chen a pair of fours and his first career WSOP bracelet.

James Chen almost captured his first WSOP bracelet this summer, but he had to wait a few months to finally take one down. He couldn’t have picked a better event to win for his first bracelet as he also earned €2.84 million ($3.14 million USD) in first-place prize money.

Chen became the first player from Taiwan to win a WSOP. After winning the bracelet, he told reporters that it “feels great to be the first from Taiwan to win a bracelet.” He also hopes that his win will inspire fellow players from Taiwan to chase their dreams in poker and in life.

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