 Sam Greenwood captured his first PokerStars sponsored Super High Roller title after taking down the €100,000 tournament at PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT. Greenwood scooped a whopping €1,520,000, earning his second seven-figure prize in the last three weeks.
It was a gruelling battle that led to the prestigious victory, one that Greenwood's impressive poker career had missed. The 29-year-old from Toronto is widely acknowledged as one of the best tournament players in the world who also excels in sharing his wisdom as a renowned poker coach.
Greenwood has been vocal on Twitter since this year's Aussie Millions, complaining about the approach of some of the fellow high rollers who are scoping the field before taking their seat. It's almost metaphoric that Greenwood himself arrived first to his Super High Roller table, waiting for the rivals to join. Eventually, he outlasted the 46-entry contest to claim the biggest prize of his career, demonstrating his case about not being afraid to play in the highest buy-in tournaments against anyone.
Greenwood prevailed in a roller-coaster heads-up match versus Christoph Vogelsang. Greenwood held a two-to-one lead but Vogelsang scored a giant double and soon had Greenwood on the ropes. But the Canadian pro bounced back and turned it all over again.
"It's such a culmination getting heads up, then you have a whole other final challenge, last battle. If the cards aren't going your way, it can get very frustrating and it's stressful. I'm not really a heads-up specialist. You deal with playing for really high stakes while also trying to figure out this whole new form of poker. When you win, all the mistakes you made along the way don't really matter. When you lose, you can kind of stew over them and second-guess yourself. No regrets, I can sleep easy tonight." Greenwood said.
Vogelsang locked up €1,046,000 for his runner-up finish, his fourth seven-figure prize.
Vogelsang entered the final day as a chip leader and soon extended his lead, eliminating Isaac Haxton in sixth place. Haxton moved all-in with an up-and-down straight draw on a ten-high board and Vogelsang called off with pocket jacks. The river bricked to allow Vogelsang possess nearly a half of all chips in play.
The tournament then hit a stalemate for a few hours with Vogelsang still in control. He eventually gave up his lead to Ole Schemion who enjoyed the pole position only briefly before returning the lead to his fellow countryman.
Justin Bonomo became the second casualty, falling to Ali Reza Fatehi in a blind-versus-blind limped pot. A disastrous flop tricked Bonomo into shipping all his belongings to Ali Reza Fatehi who flopped the top-and-bottom two pair against Bonomo's bottom two.
Schemion was the shortest stack among the four remaining players and while he doubled twice, he wasn't eventually able to squeeze more from his performance than a €513,000 for a fourth-place finish after losing his stack to Greenwood. It was Schemion's fourth cash from this tournament, making him the winningest player in Monaco's Super High Roller history with over €2.9 million in earnings.
Greenwood was a commanding leader but the stacks narrowed by the time the three remaining players left for a dinner break.
Fatehi repeated his third-place finish from 2016 when he played his first tournament. This time, the bronze was worth €669,920. Fatehi was the only amateur player on the stacked final table and fought bravely but his run came to a close after a massive cooler against Vogelsang. Fatehi flopped the nuts, holding a ten-high straight but Vogelsang improved to a straight flush on the turn and that's where Fatehi shoved all-in. He was left with less than a big blind and lost it right away, leaving Greenwood and Vogelsang heads-up.
Greenwood was one card away from finishing second at one point, but a lucky river kept him afloat and the swingy heads-up concluded when his king-jack beat Vogelsang's ace-five.
EPT Monte Carlo €100k Super High Roller results:
1st - Sam Greenwood, Canada, €1,520,000
2nd - Christoph Vogelsang, Germany, €1,046,000
3rd - Ali Reza Fatehi, Iran, €669,920
4th - Ole Schemion, Germany, €513,000
5th - Justin Bonomo, USA, €401,000
6th - Isaac Haxton, USA, €313,000
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Sam Greenwood captured his first PokerStars sponsored Super High Roller title after taking down the €100,000 tournament at PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT. Greenwood scooped a whopping €1,520,000, earning his second seven-figure prize in the last three weeks.
