Tollerene Wins Final BPO Event – SHRB London Draws Poorly

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The final event of the 2019 British Poker Open is in the books. On Thursday, the final event of the series played to a conclusion and it was online High Stakes online poker superstar Ben Tollerene that took the top prize.

Tollerene survived a final table that included Mikita Badziakouski, Christoph Vogelsang, and Poker Central creator Cary Katz. On Friday, the Super High Roller Bowl London kicked off, and as some had expected, the event drew poorly.

Ben Tollerene Wins £100,000 Main Event

The final table of the £100,000 NL Hold’em Main Event played to a conclusion on Thursday. Due to a small field of just 12 entrants, only the final two players were paid. That meant half of the final table would go home without a payday.

Cary Katz came into the final as chip leader, followed by Mikita Badziakouski and Christoph Vogelsang. Ben Tollerene was the short stack.

Vogelsang was the first player to fall after giving large portions of his stack to Katz and Tollerene. Badziakouski then found himself as the short stack and he ended up bluffing his stack off with a straight and flush draw against a pair of kings and better flush draw for Tollerene.

This left Tollerene against Katz heads-up and Tollerene held a 2 to 1 chip lead at the start of heads-up action. Katz battled during heads-up play, coming back from an 8 to 1 deficit to take the chip lead. However, Tollerene started catching lucky and in two big hands went from short stack to champion.

In the final hand, Tollerene’s J-10 outran Katz’s A-6 and once again, Cary Katz fell runner-up in a high roller event.

For his win, Ben Tollerene earned £840,000. After winning, he told Poker Central, “I came in short today but after the first orbit I was back to the average stack. Heads-up was going great and after some swings I won two flips to close it out. This event, and this series, was very tough and I don’t have all the confidence in the world against these guys. If this was PLO I would’ve felt much more comfortable but whenever I do play Hold’em I put in time to study and be well prepared.”

Super High Roller Bowl London Draws Poorly

The inaugural British Poker Open was followed by the inaugural Super High Roller Bowl London. Based on the shrinking attendance from the last few events of the BPO, it seemed unlikely that this event would be well attended. With a buy-in of £250,000, it seemed unlikely that the event would crack two tables.

That’s exactly what happened. At the time of this writing, the event drew a paltry field of just 12 entries. Some big names were noticeably absent from the event. Players such as Daniel Negreanu and Justin Bonomo both skipped this series. Sam Soverel, the winner of the 2019 British Poker Open Championship, also decided to skip this event.

This is the second time that the Super High Roller Bowl has attempted expansion. It had a successful outing in Macau, but the changing legal climate of poker in China forced organizers to abandon the concept.

The Super High Roller Bowl in Las Vegas also experienced shrinkage back in December. Granted, it was the second time that the event had been held in 2018. It is unclear how well the event will perform this coming December.

Looking at the lack of attendance for this event, it seems unlikely that we will see a second running of the event. As such, it now puts the future of the 2020 British Poker Open in doubt. Personally, I have a hard time seeing this event returning, and if it does, I don’t see it returning with the Super High Roller Bowl attached to it.