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Sam Soverel Wins 2019 Poker Masters Main Event, Purple Jacket

  • Soverel won $1.5 million overall at the 2019 Poker Masters
  • Defeated Chris Hunichen heads-up in Main Event
  • Made seven out of ten final tables, lapped field in Purple Jacket race
Dan Katz

Dan Katz graduated with a BS in Commerce from the University of Virginia and an MBA from Emory University. He clearly uses neither of those degrees now, having been writing about the gambling industry (specializing in poker) since 2005. Prior to that, he was an IT and management consultant. He is an avid gamer, primarily on PC, and enjoys collecting retro video games and consoles; finding room to set them all up is his current challenge. Dan lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife and two children. You can get in touch with Dan at [email protected].

poker player peeking at hole cards at poker table
Sam Soverel made seven of ten final tables at the Poker Masters, including a Main Event victory, en route to claiming the Purple Jacket. [Image: Shutterstock.com]

Soverel ruled Main Event end-game

Sam Soverel won the Poker Masters $50,000 Main Event late Thursday night, capping off one of the most dominant weeks and a half in recent poker memory. In addition to the $680,000 purse for the victory, Soverel also earned the Purple Jacket as the top points earner for the series.

It seemed like a foregone conclusion that Soverel would win and as it turned out, it was

Soverel had a sizeable chip lead going into heads-up play in the Main Event against Chris Hunichen. It seemed like a foregone conclusion that Soverel would win and as it turned out, it was. Holding Q?-T? and a 5,670,000 to 1,130,000 chip lead, Soverel moved all-in, putting Hunichen himself all-in. It was apparent that Hunichen didn’t want to put his tournament life on the line with pocket Deuces, but he realized he didn’t have much choice at that point and called.

It was a statistical coin-flip. A Queen appeared on the flop, the turn and river were of no help to Hunichen, and Soverel was crowned the Poker Masters Main Event champ.

Purple Jacket race was a runaway

The Poker Masters, held at the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, consisted of ten tournaments. Sam Soverel made the final table in seven of them. He won one other tournament: $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha.

Overall, Soverel cashed for $1,396,800 throughout the Poker Masters and won an additional $100,000 for capturing the Purple Jacket.

Soverel ran over the competition so completely that he did not even need to receive any points for his Main Event victory. If his 350 points were stripped from his record, he still would have ended up with 810 points, 180 more than the co-runners-up, Kahle Burns and Chance Kornuth. Burns and Kornuth would have still needed another second place finish in a tournament to beat Soverel in that case.

As it stood, Soverel finished the Poker Masters with 1,160 points, nearly the combined total of Burns and Kornuth, who each amassed 630 points.

Soverel has worked on his tournament skills

After his triumph, Soverel spoke with Poker Central, reflecting on how his confidence has grown recently. He said: “A lot of the guys I thought were really good I saw make mistakes online recently and I actually think now that the playing field is a lot more level than I originally thought.”

used to feel like he was at a “disadvantage” against many elite tournament players

Soverel went on to say that he used to feel like he was at a “disadvantage” against many elite tournament players, but after his online observations, he felt much better about how he compared.

As primarily a cash game player, Soverel noted that he was not as well-versed in some aspects of tournament strategy as he could have been. After further study, he shored up those weaknesses and now feels he has an advantage because of his live poker experience.

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