Super High Roller Bowl Announces Broadcast Deal with CBS Sports
The Super High Roller Bowl and its parent, Poker Central, have announced the signing of a broadcast deal with CBS Sports Network that will bring the second edition of the ultra-high-buyin event to cable TV. The 2016 Super High Roller Bowl will feature a $300,000 buy-in and a $5 million first prize.
This year’s broadcast deal with CBS Sports calls for 30 hours of SHRB coverage to be aired live (or nearly live) from the host venue, the ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. It’s no surprise that the SHRB is scheduled to run just prior to the start of the seven-week World Series of Poker just a mile or so away, which helps to guarantee that the game’s biggest names will be on hand to participate.
The 49 seats for the 2016 Super High Roller Bowl sold out back in March, and are headlined by the usual no-name types… Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, and Antonio Esfandiari. Inaugural event winner Brian Rast will return to defend his title, as will each of the other players who won at least a million in last year’s event: Scott Seiver, Connor Drinan, Timofey Kuznetsov, David Peters and Tom Marchese. We’ll append the complete players list at the bottom, so you can check to see if your favorite poker pro is among the participants.
There are a few wrinkles in this, the event’s second edition. The $300,000 entry fee is actually reduced from the inaugural event’s $500,000 buy-in, but what the heck — it’s still more money just to sit at a table than most of us will ever see during our entire poker careers. The 49 available seats means the tourney starts with seven tables of seven-handed play. Last year’s debut event tried but failed to quite get to 49 players, though filling 43 seats at a half million per seat cushion wasn’t a bad effort for a first try. And as for this year’s seat sellout at a somewhat-reduced price point, Sean McCormack, ARIA’s Director of Poker Operations, exuberantly gasped, “I’ve never seen a high stakes tournament sell out three months in advance. It’s unprecedented!”
Easy there, Sean…. Anyhow, here’s the dates and times for the 2016 Super High Roller Bowl broadcast on CBS Sports:
Sunday, May 29 7:00 p.m. – 3:00 a.m. ET
Monday, May 30 8:00 p.m. – 3:00 a.m. ET
Tuesday, May 31 8:00 p.m. – 3:00 a.m. ET
Wednesday, June 1 7:00 p.m. – 3:00 a.m. ET
Said Clint Stinchcomb, Poker Central’s CEO, “We are excited to bring this world championship event to CBS Sports Network. With $15 million on the line and the world’s best players, including the top 4 all-time money winners as well as 6 former #1 ranked players, the Super High Roller Bowl will have audiences glued to the game.”
Here’s the player list, which as always is subject to last-minute menu substitutions:
- Andrew Robl
- Anthony Gregg
- Antonio Esfandiari
- Ben Lamb
- Ben Tollerene
- Bill Perkins
- Bobby Baldwin
- Brandon Steven
- Brian Rast
- Bryn Kenney
- Byron Kaverman
- Cary Katz
- Christoph Vogelsang
- Connor Drinan
- Dan Colman
- Dan Perper
- Dan Shak
- Dan Smith
- Daniel Negreanu
- David Einhorn
- David Peters
- Dominik Nitsche
- Doug Polk
- Erik Seidel
- Fedor Holz
- Haralabos Voulgaris
- Igor Kurganov
- Isaac Haxton
- Jake Schindler
- Jason Les
- Jason Mercier
- John Morgan
- Justin Bonomo
- Kathy Lehne
- Keith Gipson
- Larry Wright
- Matt Berkey
- Nick Petrangelo
- Phil Galfond
- Phil Hellmuth
- Phil Laak
- Rainer Kempe
- Sam Soverel
- Scott Seiver
- Stephen Chidwick
- Talal Shakerchi
- Timofey Kuznetsov
- Tom Marchese
- Vitaliy Rizhkov
Most of the players listed above return from the 2015 edition of the event, which was warmly received by most of those who took part. We’ll have to wait a few weeks to see if SHRB II lives up to the hype.
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