Masashi Oya Wins Super High Roller Bowl Series $51,500 Buy-In Event

Masashi Oya emerged victorious from a field of 30 entries in the $51,500 buy-in no-limit hold’em event at the 2024 Super High Roller Bowl Series at Merit Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino in Cyprus. The Japanese poker pro earned $535,000 as the champion, increasing his career tournament haul to $8.5 million.

In addition to the trophy and the money, Oya also secured plenty of rankings points for the win. The 408 Card Player Player of the Year points he was awarded grew his total to 3,234. With two titles and eight final-table finishes, he is now the 34th-ranked player in the 2024 POY standings presented by Global Poker. Oya also won 321 PokerGO Tour points. With 518 total, he is no sitting in 79th place on that high-stakes-centric leaderboard.

The top five finishers made the money in this event, with $1,470,000 split up between them. Danilo Velasevic was knocked out on the bubble, which meant at least $120,000 paydays for the remaining contenders. That sum ultimately went to Sorel Mizzi when his Q-10 ran into the dominating Q-J of Oya.

A similar scenario played out in the next big clash, with Matthias Eibinger’s Q-J pipped by the K-Q of who else but Oya. Eibinger earned $180,000 as the fourth-place finisher. The Austrian now has more than $22.1 million in career cashes.

That left Oya thre-handed with four-time bracelet winner Adrian Mateos and six-time bracelet winner Jeremy Ausmus.

Mateos was the next to bow out. The Spanish tournament super star had been whittled down just a few big blinds and ended up getting in with 9-3 dominated by 10-3 for Oya. Mateos was unable to come from behind and was eliminated in third place ($262,000). This was his second final-table finish of the series, having also placed second in event no. 3 for $231,000.

Mateos now has 15 final-table finishes in 2024, with more than $9.1 million accrued across those deep runs. With two titles won and 8,124 points, he remains the player to beat in this year’s POY race. This latest score brought his career earnings to more than $50 million. He is just the 10th player in poker history to surpass that milestone.

Oya held a 5:1 chip lead over Ausmus when heads-up play began. The American battled all the way back into the lead, but was soon overtaken again. In the final hand of the tournament, Ausmus got all-in with KK trailing the A6 of Oya on a A865 board. The river was the Q and Ausmus was eliminated as the runner-up ($373,000).

Ausmus now has more than $21.8 million in career cashes. He is ranked second in the PGT season-long standings and fifth in the POY race after this latest deep run.

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

Photos provided by PokerGO.