Inaugural Poker Masters Champion Steffen Sontheimer entered the final day of the partypoker $250,000 Super High Roller Championships with both the chip lead and an eye on taking home a new career-high score.

Sontheimer leveraged that chip lead for the entirety of the final table, never relinquishing the chip lead and, in the end, he earned the mammoth $3,685,000 first place prize, besting a table of poker’s elite in the process.

At the beginning of play only six players of the original 35 entries remained. Sontheimer was joined by partypoker ambassador Isaac Haxton, Nick Petrangelo, David Peters, Sean Winter, and Mikita Badziakouski. Of the remaining six, only four made the money.

After the elimination of Haxton in sixth place, it was time to sweat the massive $710,000 money bubble.

After mixing it up with chip leader Sontheimer, Petrangelo was left with a short stack and not many moves left. Sontheimer opened the action with [ah][5s] which prompted a three-bet shove from Petrangelo with [as][ks]. It folded to Peters in the small blind who four-bet shoved holding [js][jd]. Sontheimer folded and Petrangelo was flipping for his tournament life. The board ran out [th][9d][2d][4c][8s] giving Peters the pot and eliminating Petrangelo as the last player to walk without a payday.

The final four including Sontheimer, Peters, Winter and Badziakouski battled four-handed for hours as Sontheimer continued put distance between himself and the other three. Winter managed to make a little headway as Peters and Badziakotuski’s stacks drifted downwards.

The next elimination occurred when, in a blind on blind confrontation, Winter open shipped from the small blind with [ah][qd]. Badziakouski, with just over ten big blinds left, called with his tournament life on the line with [kd][jc]. The [ac][9h][2h] flop gave Winter a virtual lock on the hand. While the [kh] turn gave Badziakouski some life, the river came the [3d], sending Badziakouski to the rail in fourth place. Badziakouski collected the $710,000 payday and added it to his current $20 million total live earnings. In 2018 alone, Badziakouski has earned over $13.8 million in live tournaments, second only to Justin Bonomo.

Peters, who was now left on the bottom of the chip counts, exited next. Facing a raise by Sontheimer, Peters looked down at [kh][qc]. He moved all in over the top from the small blind only to be snap called by Sontheimer and his [ah][kc]. The flop came [9d][5c][5d] keeping Sontheimer in the lead. The [kd] turn paired both players, however, the [6s] sealed Peters fate and he fell in third place for $1,420,000. The sum lifted Peters to over $9 million in earnings for 2018. It also allowed Peters to pass Dan Colman on the All-Time Money List and enter the top-5.

At the start of heads-up play Sontheimer held a 2-1 chip lead over Winter. A pre-flop cooler made sure that what could have been a long battle, ended the tournament only 30 minutes into heads-up play.

The final hand saw Winter limp the button with [ac][qh]. Sontheimer then raised from the big blind with [ah][kh]. Winter three-bet, Sontheimer shoved and Winter snap called for the rest of his stack. Dominated, Winter was going to need some help. It did not come as the board ran out [ts][5d][3h][4s][9h]. Winter finished the tournament as the runner-up, earning a career-high cash of $2,430,000. It was his second runner-up finish in as many days as he also finished in second place in the partypoker $50,000 Super High Roller for $550,000.

With the win, Sontheimer earned himself his third seven-figure live cash and a career-high score of $3,685,000. The victory pushes his total live earnings up over $12.5 million in lifetime earnings.

Final Table Results

1. Steffen Sontheimer – $3,685,000
2. Sean Winter – $2,430,000
3. David Peters – $1,420,000
4. Mikita Badziakouski – $710,000