Mikita Badziakouski Leads Final Six Players on 2018 Super High Roller Bowl Final Table
After three days of intense high-stakes poker action, the 2018 Super High Roller Bowl is now down to the final table of six players.
48 players begin play in the new PokerGO studio located just outside the ARIA Resort & Casino, and with the bright lights shining down, and cameras filling the room, some of the world's greatest poker players were reading to battle it out on the purple felt. One-by-one players hit the rail in one of the best structured tournaments, and also one of the prestigious of the year as the $14.4 million prizepool had $5 million set aside for the eventual winner.
Late on the penultimate day of play, hand-for-hand play would last well over 50 hands before Seth Davies would fall in 8th place. Fortunately for Davies, he wouldn't go home empty-handed as the three forfeited deposits would be paid his way. With the final seven players converging into one table, it would take around an hour until Stephen Chidwick would be eliminated in 7th place when his 
couldn't hold true against Jason Koon's 
on the 
run out, and just like that, the 2018 Super High Roller Bowl final table was set.
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Justin Bonomo | USA | 3,965,000 | 159 |
| 2 | Christoph Vogelsang | Germany | 445,000 | 18 |
| 3 | Mikita Badziakouski | Belarus | 4,205,000 | 168 |
| 4 | Daniel Negreanu | Canada | 4,000,000 | 160 |
| 5 | Nick Petrangelo | USA | 600,000 | 24 |
| 6 | Jason Koon | USA | 1,185,000 | 47 |
Leading the final six players into the final day of play is Belarus' Mikita Badziakouski who bagged the chip lead with 4,205,000. Badziakouski launched his way up the leaderboard when he firstly flopped a set of eights against kings, before flopping top set and holding against a straight and flush draw. Although Badziakouski would drop back down the leaderboard, he would regain his momentum to bag the most chips at the final table.
Sitting just a handful of big blinds behind Badziakouski is Daniel Negreanu. Negreanu has been continuously working on his game over the past few years so that he could compete at the highest level in these high-stakes tournaments, and without doubt, the proof is in the pudding as he bagged 4,000,000 in chips. Negreanu ended Day 1 as chip leader, before dropping to fifth overall on Day 2. Day 3 saw Negreanu spend his entire day on the feature table, and he put in plenty of work to build his stack up to be good for second overall.
Speaking of previous day chip leaders, Justin Bonomo ended Day 2 as the chip leader and had one of the most up-and-down days of poker that could be expected in a tournament of this nature. Entering the day as chip leader, he doubled Badziakouski up with an overpair and then eventually found himself as one of the few short stacks approaching the bubble. Bonomo then managed to crack pocket kings on the river before using that momentum to ride his way to 3,965,000 in chips. Between these top three chip leaders, they have roughly 85% of the chips in play.
Fourth overall is Jason Koon who was last year's bubble boy. Koon also dealt with being one of the short stacks during the day, but after he built his stack back up and eliminated his close friend Davies, Koon managed to bag 1,100,000, which would be good for 47 big blinds.
Like Koon, Nick Petrangelo battled his short stack all day eventually doubling several times on the feature table. Although Petrangelo entered the unofficial final table fourth in chips, he would lose a big pot with trips against Negreanu's full house before bagging 600,000.
Rounding out the final table is defending champion Christoph Vogelsang. Vogelsang was trending upwards on the bubble before Bonomo cracked his pocket kings. Vogelsang then pressed a hard reset and grinded his way to back-to-back final tables to join Erik Seidel (2015-2016) as the only players to do so. Vogelsang will have a lot of work to do if he is to become the first back-to-back champion as he is sitting with 445,000; good for 18 big blinds.
The 2018 Super High Roller Bowl final table is set to recommence at 12:00 p.m. (PDT) with the final six players playing down until a champion is crowned. The PokerNews Live Reporting team will be back to provide continuous updates of all the final table action, and as it has been the case this week, they will be updating in accordance with the delayed stream on PokerGO. So stay tuned to PokerNews.com for continued 2018 Super High Roller Bowl coverage from the PokerGO studio, and the ARIA Resort & Casino.
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