Ivey busts $300K Super High Roller Bowl, Kabrhel, Antonius progress

When the buy-in for a tournament is $300,000, you know you’re not going to be disappointed with the feature table. But Super High Roller Bowl IX’s livestream started on a real high, with Patrik Antonius and Phil Ivey joined by none other than Martin Karbrhel. Love him or loathe him, Kabrhel demands popcorn and it didn’t take him long to start complaining. 

His first point of contention was late reg, which had closed by the time the stream started. That meant just 24 players were in the running for the trophy and $3,200,000 first prize. Only four players will get paid, and there’s a $750,000 bubble to look forward to somewhere down the line. 

Kabrhel was actually reasonably well behaved, with just a bit of leaning back and checking legs (for tells, presumably) and blowing on cards to keep the fans entertained. But nothing that got any of the other players wound up until Dejan Kaladjurdjevic asked him to play the next hand “faster”. “Why? You need to pee?" Kabrhel shot back. 

Martin Kabrhel was on his best behavior (mostly)

We were deprived of Ivey just ahead of the dinner break after Alex Kulev weighed up his options and erred on the side of a call on a board. He had and 36% equity; Ivey had and was eying up the 397,000 pot. The river had other ideas for the chips. “A filthy river card,” said Brent Hanks on comms. You can watch Ivey's exit hand below.

Six more players would drop before the end of the night. Adrian Mateos couldn’t keep his incredible run of four final tables in Cyprus going. Mikita Badziakouski, Brian Kim, Matthias Eibinger, Masashi Oya, Nick Petrangelo and Daniel Dvoress joined him on the rail.

Kulev was left with a few big blinds come closing time. Two players bagged seven-figure stacks: Leonard Maue and Juan Pardo Dominguez. Kabrhel clung on to live another day. In all, 14 players will come back on Saturday. Ten more need to fall before the money kicks in. 

Day 2 starts at 9am ET on Saturday, and the feature table will be livestreamed exclusively on PokerGO starting at 11am. 

Super High Roller Bowl IX Day 2 draw

^{Feature image courtesy of PokerGO}