Fedor Holz, a 22-year-old German poker pro, has scored his second major High Roller win in the last two weeks, topping his $1,589,219 Alpha 8 victory during the Christmas break with a $3,463,500 triumph in the $200,000 buy-in World Poker Tour Triton Super High Roller Series Cali Cup in Manila, Philippines.
At $200,000, the buy-in was the biggest for any World Poker Tour event, but still attracted 39 unique players, with the prize pool further boosted to over $10 million by 13 re-entries to make total registrations up to 52.
The player list read like a who’s who of top live tournament players (see previous reports) but Holz, who is perhaps better known for his impressive internet poker exploits under the handle “CrownUpGuy”, appeared more than comfortable in such formidable company.
On the final table Holz faced David Peters, Devan Tang, Steve O’Dwyer, Phil Ivey and Dan Colman after Paul Phua departed at seventh for $401,600 and Mike “Timex” MacDonald at eighth for $351,320.
Down to three-handed action it was Holz vs. David Peters and Devan Tang with Holz dominating play. Peters eliminated Tang at third for $1,405,000 and entered the heads up stage against Holz with a 2 to 1 disadvantage; Holz held 6.88 million chips against Peters’ 3.525 million.
By mutual agreement the players at that point decided to speed the game up by shortening the blinds to 20 minutes and skip from 40,000/80,000/10,000 to 75,000/150,000/25,000.
The change worked well, with a resolution in Holz’s favour just four hands further on. Peters received a very handsome runner-up check for $2,309,000 to add to the $426,240 he earned just before Christmas at the Aria $25,000 High Roller, taking his career earnings to $9.56 million, whilst Holz boosted his career live tourney earnings to $7.3 million with his $3,463,500 main prize…not too bad for a 22-year-old!
Other final table cashes were:
Steve O’Dwyer – $953,700
Phil Ivey – $656,500
Dan Colman – $502,000