Rainer Kempe Wins 2016 $300,000 Buy-In Super High Roller Bowl

Rainer Kempe has won the $300,000 buy-in 2016 Super High Roller Bowl, overcoming a tough field of 49 of poker’s biggest stars to capture the title, the championship ring and the $5,000,000 first-place prize.

Kempe came into the final table as the chip leader, but he had plenty of tough competition to contend with. The final seven players combined for over $74 million in lifetime live tournament earnings and 23 World Series of Poker gold bracelets, with two Poker Hall of Fame members in Phil Hellmuth (4th – $1,600,000) and Erik Seidel ($2,400,000).

In the end it came down to a heads-up showdown between Kempe and fellow German poker pro Fedor Holz. The two battled it out for several hours, with Holz fighting back from a big deficit to take the lead, only the cede it back to Kempe.

By the the time the final hand of the tournament arose Kempe had built roughly a 2-to-1 lead. With blinds of 80,000 – 160,000 with an ante of 20,000 Holz raised to 400,000 from the button with the 22. Kempe made it 1.2 million to go with the 88 and Holz moved all in for around 4.4 million. Kempe made the call and was a big favorite to seal the deal with the bigger pocket pair. The board ran out 109543 to secure the pot and the title for Kempe.

For his runner-up finish Holz earned $3,500,000 and 500 Card Player Player of the Year points. This was his eighth final table of the year, and with 2,368 points and $7,821,741 in year-to-date earnings he has climbed into eighth place on the overall leader board. He now has $11,658,354 in career live earnings, enough to move him into the lead on the German all-time money list.

Fourth-place finisher Bryn Kenney was at his tenth final table of the year. The $800,000 and 200 points he earned from this latest score were enough to move him into fourth place in the POY standings with 2,674 points and $3,558,431 in earnings so far in 2016.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at this final table: