Just a week after making the final table of the inaugural North American Poker Tour Venetian $25,000 High Roller Shootout and collecting $215,000 in bounties and prize money, Scott Seiver strikes lightning yet again, winning the $25k High Roller Championship event at the L.A. Poker Classic.
Besting a six-handed final table with notable poker phenoms Jason Mercier (recently mentioned World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe final tablist/WSOP bracelet winner) and Daniel Alaei (World Poker Tour champion/WSOP bracelet winner), Seiver (WSOP bracelet winner himself) climbed to the top of the heap, staking his claim in the $425,334 first-place prize and trophy.
Heads-up play concluded when Seiver’s AsJs held against the pre-flop all-in of Alaei’s QdJd. Seiver faded Alaei’s flopped straight and diamond flush draw to become the champion. With his win, he moves just under $2 million in lifetime tourney winnings.
Now I use the term “champion” loosely because he is really just a “winner”. While these events bring out some of the biggest names in the game, with all due respect, it’s tough for me to call a 41-man event a “tourney” and the person coming out the other side a “champion”. Truth be told, it’s really just a rich man’s sit-and-go, which with the inflated buy-in, replaces the need for an additional 3000+ players in the field to have a huge payout for the top prizes. Don’t get me wrong–these are some of the greatest players in the world and combating their skill probably negates having to wade through a sea of no-names in your way to the top, but is that truly an accomplishment? I won a 45-man sit-and-go once. When is my trophy arriving in the mail?
