Seth Davies has claimed the largest score of his poker career by taking down Super High Roller Bowl IX on Sunday. Davies' triumph in North Cyprus was worth a massive $3,206,000, giving him more than $29.2 million in lifetime tourney winnings and moving him to 26th on the all-time money list.
Davies entered Sunday's finale at the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel & Spa in Kyrenia in a strong second-place position behind the Day 2 leader, Spain's Juan Pardo. Pardo finished as the runner-up to collect $1,900,000. American Jeremy Ausmus earned third-place money of $1,200,000 and also climbed to the top of the 2024 PokerGO Tour leaderboard with his run. Fourth place and $750,000 went to Germany's Leonard Maue.
Davies surges early
What might have been a runaway by Pardo instead turned into a dogfight early on. Pardo lost a few small pots early on to allow Davies to draw closer, while Ausmus edged past Maue to leave the German as the shortest stack. Ausmus then doubled up aginst Pardo to make it a tight battle between the top three players, but that didn't last long, as Davies finished off Maue to jump well into the lead.
Davies later picked off a Pardo bluff in a big pot to open a commanding margin, but Pardo battled back and eventually sent Ausmus to the rail in third. Davies still held a 3-to-2 edge in chips as heads-up play began, but just two hands later, it was over when Davies made a straight on the turn and Pardo had a straight draw of his own, then filled it on the river. Unfortunately for the Spaniard, Davies' straight was the better of the two, and the chips and the title went his way.
Davies' fourth career PokerGO Tour win was more than his largest-ever cash; it topped his previous best score, a runner-up showing in the 2023 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Super High Roller worth $1.08 million, by nearly a factor of three. All three of Davies' career million-dollar-plus paydays have come in exotic island locales, as he also owns a $1.02 million score for a fifth-place run in the 2019 partypoker MILLIONS World Bahamas.
Ausmus's finish pushed him more than 300 PGT points clear of previous leader Michael Rocco on the PokerGO Tour's annual leaderboard. Ausmus was previously in second place in what has been a tightly-bunched race, and Sunday's result moved him into the leaderboard's top spot for the first time in his career. Ausmus has enjoyed a fine 2024 to date, with nearly $5.2 million in recorded earnings, including Sunday's $1.2 million cash.
Super High Roller Bowl IX final results:
- Seth Davies (United States) - $3,206,000
- Juan Pardo (Spain) - $1,900,000
- Jeremy Ausmus (United States) - $1,200,000
- Leonard Maue (Germany) - $750,000
Featured image courtesy PokerGO Tour
