From the keyboard to the crown. That’s how PokerGO commentator Brent Hanks described Wiktor “Limitless” Malinowski’s Super High Roller Bowl Europe (SHRBE) championship win on Wednesday.
The description is certainly now fitting. The high stakes online poker pro scored the biggest win of his career for $3.7 million – this time in a live setting. Malinowski isn’t a traditional high roller. A glass of wine and smoking a cigar is a regular part of his online poker streaming routine. That was the case in March when he battled Fedor Holz heads-up at GGPoker.
With the SHRBE title, he’ll now have even more reason to celebrate. The championship brought the series to a close. Here’s a look at Malinowski’s big win as well as the last few events closing out the series.
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Super High Roller Bowl Europe championship
The SHRBE featured nine events at Merit Royal Hotel Casino in North Cyprus. Some of the game’s best turned out for the high stakes action. That has included some big wins by players like Phil Ivey and Tony G.
Malinowski added his name to that list in the championship event. Along with the money, the Polish pro takes the SHRBE championship ring and adds his name to a long list of SRB winners that includes Justin Bonomo, Brian Rast, Christoph Vogelsang, Isaac Haxton, and others.
The event kicked off on Monday with Malinowki as chip leader going into Wednesday’s final table. However when play reached heads-up, Ivan Leow held a chip advantage over Malinowski.
That lead flipped back and forth a bit however, before both players got it all in with Malinowski holding Ace-King to Leow’s Ace-Four. Neither player paired and Malinowski scooped a massive payday.
In total, the tournament attracted 71 entries for a $10.3 million prize pool. Leow scores $2.5 million for runner-up.
In April, Malinowski took to Twitter longing for the return of live poker. In North Cyprus, Limitless returned in a major way.
Missing live poker – hope to get an invite to the next $1 million buy-in @tritonpoker event. I will wear a suit and I promise not to drink too much 🍷
Online challenge with @CrownUpGuy is back in a few hours on https://t.co/TTKfiFFk9h pic.twitter.com/nTylmfGTng— Wiktor Malinowski: 'Limitless' (@Limitless_poker) March 13, 2021
Event 5: $50,000 Short Deck
The stripped-deck action returned to the series with China’s Santi Jiang taking the title for $756,000. The score meant four nice series cashes for Jiang, who is based out of Spain.
In total, he cashed for more than $1.2 million in the series. Seth Davies finished runner-up for $504,000 and the event attracted 42 entries for a $2.1 million prize pool.
Short Deck has become a popular poker variant on the high roller circuit. Phil Ivey won the first event of the series, which also featured the game.
In Short Deck, deuces through fives are removed from the deck. This makes for plenty of action and big hands. Because of the differing mathematics in the game, straights are worth more than flushes. Jiang certainly seems to have figured out Short Deck’s intricacies.
Event 6: $100,000 NLHE
This six-figure buy-in saw Artur Martirosyan finish on top for $1.4 million. The payout becomes the biggest live score for this player from Russia.
David Peters also continued his huge run over the last few months, taking runner-up for $910,000. He also scored fifth in the championship event for $820,000.
These finishes come after he earned overall champion of the US Poker Open in June after winning three events. He also grabbed a World Series of Poker bracelet at WSOP.com in July.
The tournament attracted 35 entries for a $3.5 million prize pool. France’s Johan Guilbert continued his impressive run after already scoring one win in the series. This time he took third for $560,000.
Event 7: $100,000 Short Deck
Tony G was back in the winner’s circle after already winning the second event, $25,000 Short Deck. He got it done again in the game a week later, this time in this six-figure buy-in version.
The Short Deck wizard scored $1.2 million this time after topping Paul Phua heads-up for the title.
Didn’t make the final table of the $250k but got to be happy with my results this week. It’s goodbye to Cyprus from me and on to the next events. You can catch all the action from the FT of the $250k live now on @PokerGO with @BuffaloHanks and @jeffplatt pic.twitter.com/GpCxn0QrFD
— Tony G (@TonyGuoga) September 1, 2021
Phua took home $728,000 for runner-up. Jiang also had another deep Short Deck run, finishing fourth for $260,000. It was certainly a huge series for Tony G.
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Event 8: $50,000 Short Deck
After some huge runs throughout the series, including a runner-up and a third-place finish, Seth Davies broke through with a win. He took home $435,400 after topping a field of 19 entries for a $950,000 prize pool. Jake Schindler took runner-up for $362,600.
Davies made numerous final tables and deep runs over the last two years and now has another title on his deep poker record. In four cashes in the series, Davies added more than $1.3 million. Here’s a look at all the SRBE winners.
Super High Roller Bowl Europe 2021
Start Date Event Buy-in Tournament Winner Payout
Aug. 23 1 $25,000 Short Deck Phil Ivey $408,000
Aug. 24 2 $25,000 No Limit Hold’em Johan Guilbert $506,250
Aug. 25 3 $25,000 Short Deck Tony G $382,500
Aug. 26 4 $50,000 No Limit Hold’em Selahaddin Bedir $832,000
Aug. 27 5 $50,000 Short Deck Santi Jiang $756,000
Aug. 28 6 $100,000 No Limit Hold’em Artur Martirosyan $1.4million
Aug. 29 7 $100,000 Short Deck Tony G $1.2 million
Aug. 31 8 $50,000 Short Deck Seth Davies $435,400
Aug. 30 Main Event $250,000 No Limit Hold’em Wiktor Malinowski $3.7 million
* Lead image courtesy Merit Poker