Brian Rast scoops $7.5mm at Inaugural 2015 Super High Roller Bowl

American poker pro Brian Rast skidded into 11^th place on poker’s All Time Money List over the weekend by winning the debut edition of the Super High Roller Bowl at Aria Las Vegas on Sunday. He claimed the fourth—and by far largest—7-figure cash of his career, pocketing $7,525,000 for the win.

The 2015 Super High Roller Bowl charged a staggering $500,000 buy-in, which was enough to pull 43 of the world’s toughest poker pros and business magnates away from the World Series of Poker tables at the Rio. Suffice to say, the 2x WSOP bracelet winner had his work cut out for him as the top pros gathered to compete for a slice of the $20+ million prize pool.

As one might expect, the final table was teeming with fearsome phenoms of the felt. Brian Rast had to overcome the likes of 8x WSOP bracelet winner Erik Seidel, last year’s $100k Super High Roller Tom “kingsofcards” Marchese, 2013 Bellagio Cup IX winner David Peters, Russian high-stakes online poker specialist Timofey “Trueteller” Kuznetsov, 2011 Florida State Poker Champ Conner Drinan and WSOP bracelet winner / WPT titlist Scott Seiver.

Brian Rast Outlasts Scott Seiver in Heads-Up

Scheduled for three days, the final table of 7, which reconvened on Sunday at Aria, lasted an exhausting 10 hours. Heads up play between Rast and Seiver commenced following the Conner Drinan’s exit to the casher cage, where he collected an impressive $3,225,000 for the 3^rd place finish.

At the start of the one-on-one battle, Seiver held a 2-to-1 chip lead over his fellow American foe, but it wouldn’t last. Hand after hand, Brian Rast fought his way back until eventually taking the lead.

On what would become the final hand of play, a confident Scott Seiver shipped his remaining chips into the middle pre-flop with a pair of 5’s underneath. Seiver made the call, only to find his As 9s was behind. However, another 9 on the flop gave him the higher pair, and the board offered no further help for either player.

Scott Seiver was awarded the most generous consolation prize of his lucrative, 10-year poker career, adding $5,160,000 to a new total of $20,996,032 in live tournament cashes. The runner up finished pushed Seiver into the 6^th spot on the All Time Money List, 5 places higher than his most recent opponent.

Brian Rast was declared the victor of the inaugural 2015 Super High Roller Bowl, capturing the Ring and the 1^st place prize of $7,525,000. The win brings his career live poker total to $15,568,572, including a trio of past 7-figure cashes, not to mention two WSOP bracelet wins.

In 2011, Rast collected both of his bracelets, one of which included his first million-dollar-cash, by winning the WSOP $50k Poker Players Championship for $1,720,328. In 2012, Rast finished 6^th in the WSOP $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop, collecting $1,621,333. Then in 2013, Brian Rast scooped $1,083,500 by taking down the WPT Five Diamond Classic $100k NLHE event.