Steffen Sontheimer Wins Poker Masters Event #2: $50,000 NLHE for $900K, Takes Overall Lead for Purple Jacket
Steffen Sontheimer, who celebrated a birthday a few days ago, was one of only two players to make back-to-back final tables in the first two events of the inaugural Poker Masters. He collected $204,000 for finishing fourth in Event #1, and he bettered that in a big way by topping a field of 50 entries to win Event #2: $50,000 NLHE for $900,000.
That puts him in the lead for Poker Masters earnings with $1.104 million. If you recall, the player with the best results (highest total earnings) throughout all five Poker Masters tournaments (four $50,000 buy-in tournaments capped by a $100,000 freeze out finale) will win The Poker Masters Purple Jacket™.
Meanwhile, Event #1 champ Nick Schulman sits second with $918,000, while Matt Hyman ($561,000) and Fedor Holz ($550,000) sit in third and fourth respectively.
Prior to the win, Sontheimer had $3,755,390 in career tournament earnings, his best ever being $1,223,264 for finishing runner-up in the $100,000 ARIA Super High Roller 19 back in May. Amazingly, more than half of his lifetime cashes have come in High Roller events.
Event #2: $50,000 NLHE Final Results
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Steffen Sontheimer | Germany | $900,000 |
| 2nd | Fedor Holz | Germany | $550,000 |
| 3rd | Tom Marchese | USA | $300,000 |
| 4th | Phil Hellmuth | USA | $200,000 |
| 5th | Christian Christner | Germany | $175,000 |
| 6th | Adrian Mateos | Spain | $150,000 |
| 7th | Bryn Kenney | USA | $125,000 |
| 8th | Dan Shak | USA | $100,000 |
Bryn Kenney came into Day 2 as the short stack, and it didn’t take long for him to shove with pocket sixes. Sontheimer called with ace-seven out of the big blind, and an ace on the flop sent Kenney to the rail in seventh place for $125,000.
Not long after, a similar hand unfolded when Adrian Mateos got his stack all in with pocket sevens against the ace-queen of Sontheimer. Once again, an ace appeared on the flop and Mateos hit the rail. The Spaniard had made back-to-back final tables after finishing in seventh in Event #1 for $127,500. With the $150K he received for placing sixth in Event #2, Mateos now has $277,500 in Poker Masters earnings thus far.
After coming back from the first break of the day, the two big stacks collided as Christian Christner, who sat second in chips, got it in holding jacks against the Big Slick of chip leader Fedor Holz. The story remained the same as an ace hit the flop, and Holz ended up with half the chips in play while Christner was out in fifth place for $175,000.
A short-stacked Phil Hellmuth was the next to go after his ace-ten failed to get there against Tom Marchese’s pocket sixes, and then Marchese followed him out the door after a bad beat by Holz. It happened when Marchese got his stack all in with ace-jack suited against the ace-ten suited of Holz. The flop came down all clubs which just so happened to match up with Holz’s hand.
Holz took a stack of 5.444 million into heads-up play against Sontheimer, who had just 810,000. It seemed like a foregone conclusion, but Sontheimer soon managed to double through Holz with quad sixes, slow rolling his good friend in the process. Before long he took over the chip lead, and he never gave it back as he slowly whittled away at his fellow countryman.
With the win, Sontheimer moved up a spot from 17th to 16th on the all-time money list, leapfrogging Benny Spindler in the process. Another final table at the Poker Masters would also likely result in him passing the likes of Niklas Heinecker and Manig Loeser.
The second event of the Poker Masters has come to an end, but already Event #3: $50,000 NLHE is underway. The PokerNews Live Reporting Team is providing complete coverage from that tournament, which you can follow by clicking here.