Ike Haxton faded a field of 36 super ballers to win the $300,000 buy-in 2018 Super High Roller Bowl at the Aria Casino in Las Vegas. Haxton banked $3.6 million for his victory in the fifth installment of the SHRB. The American pro defeated Alex Foxen heads-up for the win. The final table for the SHR included Ali Imsirovic, Igor Kurganov, Adrian Mateos, Talal Shakerchi, and Stephen Chidwick.
Ship it to Ike. This is not a huge shocker. I mean, Ike is one of the best pros on the planet and has been one of the top American grinders over the last decade. It's no joke when you can write stuff like "Ike has been crushing the tables for half of his life" and it's not hyperbole. Hey, those Ivy League pros from New York are no slouch.
Isaac Haxton has won over $23.6 million (according to Hendon Mob) in tournaments. Keep an eye out for Ike. He's chasing the Top 10 All-Time Money List. He's 12th and slowly making his way into the top tier.
The win at the SHR Bowl marked Haxton's largest cash of his career. Hey, those Ivy Leaguers from New York know how to play cards, eh?
Ike previously won a Poker Masters event at the Aria in September during his quest to win the Purple Jacket. Ike is easily on the top of the list of "Best Americans Who Never Won a Bracelet." Not that that actually matters to Ike. But if he was hellbent on winning one and played a heavy diet of events like Hellmuth, I'm confident he would win multiple bracelets in a single year.
Ike came close. Superclose. THISCLOSE to winning bling back in 2009. It was the 40th anniversary of the WSOP and Haxton was the runner-up in the $40,000 buy-in event (eventually won by Russia's Vitaly Lunkin). He won $1.1 million and missed his first bracelet at a final table that included Greg Raymer, Dani Stern, Alec Torelli, Justin Bonomo, Lex Veldhuis, Noah Schwartz, and Ted Forrest. And as a funny side note, Tony G bubbled the final table in tenth place. Interesting to see who's still crushing the tables a decade later after that intense final table back in the summer of 2009.
So how about today? The present. The 2018 Super High Roller Bowl attracted 36 runners. The prize pool was $10.8 million and only the top seven places paid out. All of the cheesecake was cut up for the top two spots with the bulk of it served to Ike on a platter.
The final table included Igor Kurganov, Ike Haxton, Stevie Chidwick, Alex Foxen, Adrian Mateos, Igor Kurganov, and banker turned high roller specialist Talal Shakerchi. Don't let the quiet demeanor of the old guy at the table fool you. He's a shark in the virtual waters too playing under the moniker 'raidalot' and shipped the 2016 SCOOP Main Event on PokerStars for a score worth almost $1.5 million.
Ali Imsirovic had a sick year with nearly all of his career earnings happening in 2018. The realtive newcomer to the high roller scene from Bosnia and Herzegovina banked over $3.2 million. He shipped two Poker Masters events at the Aria back in September and earned the swanky Purple Jacket. Alas, Imsirovic could only min-cash in this event for a $540K score when he busted in seventh place.
Igor Kurganov bounced in sixth place. Spanish pro Adrian Mateos, who represents Winamax, almost banked a cool million for his deep run at the SHRB. Mateos finished in fifth place.
Talal Shakerchi, the London banker, held off the whizkids and banked nearly $1.2 million for a couple of days of work in Vegas. Fellow Brit, Stevie Chidwick, hit the bricks in third place. He won $1.5 million.
When Chidwick busted, that set up the heads-up finale between Haxton and Alex Foxen. Foxen is no slouch with $6.6 million of his $8.8M in career earnings occurring in 2018. And that's a weird technicality. If you want to go back and include December 2017 (Foxen was the runner-up at the 2017 WPT Bellagio Five Diamond Classic for $1.1M), then Foxen has won pretty much the majority of his career earnings over the last 54 weeks.
On the final hand, Foxen lost with 
against Haxton's 
. Haxton flopped a gutter ball Broadway draw, but won the pot with runner-runner two pair. Haxton snuck in the backdoor and knocked out Foxen.
For a runner-up finish at the SHRB, Foxen earned $2.16 million. Not too shabby, eh? Foxen banked the largest cash of his short, yet illustrious career.
Haxton outlasted a final table with two of the hottest players in 2018. He also beat one of them heads-up for the SHRB title.
On the win, Haxton told the press, "It's a 36 player tournament, I was the luckiest guy in there this time and I won. Don't think that really changes anything about the poker player that I am. Or my legacy or anything like that. But, damn. It feels good to win a tournament."
2018 SHR Bowl V
Buy-in: $300,000
Entrants: 36
Prize Pool: $10,600,000
Payouts: 7
SHR Final Table Results:
1. Isaac Haxton $3,672,000
2. Alex Foxen $2,160,000
3. Stephen Chidwick $1,512,000
4. Talal Shakerchi $1,188,000
5. Adrian Mateos $972,000
6. Igor Kurganov $756,000
7. Ali Imsirovic $540,000
