Wynn Millions Opening High Roller Event Won by Jake Schindler for $166,000

The first event of the Wynn Millions High Roller Series saw Jake Schindler crown a fine individual performance by wrapping up a victory as the regular at the high stakes won the $166,000 top prize.

Toppling Joseph Cheong heads-up, Schindler was the pick of seven players to make the money in the event, which cost $10,000 to enter and saw 49 entries, with a prize pool of $490,000.

Elias Bullies on the Bubble

A six hit on the river to leave the Bosnian-American on fumes.

Darren Elias is looking super comfortable at these high stakes as the man who ran deep in multiple PokerGO Cup events earlier in the year returned to Vegas and has already started the Wynn Millions High Roller series in fine style. Elias dominated the money bubble period of play, and with eight players left, eliminated Thomas Boivin to burst the bubble and put the remaining seven players in profit.

Not content with that pot, which helped him gain the overall chip lead, Elias then busted Chris Brewer in seventh place for $19,600. The momentum looked like it might continue to build, but just a few minutes later, Elias’ stack – and that of Ali Imsirovic – took a big hit when the pocket sixes of Joseph Cheong won a three-way all-in against the ace-king of Elias and pocket aces of Imsirovic as a six-hit on the river to triple Cheong up and leave the Bosnian-American on fumes.

Imsirovic busted in the next hand to take place, as his king-five was shot down by the pocket tens of the eventual winner Schindler. Imsirovic busted for $29,400 in sixth place, but the final five all looked like they had either the chips or momentum to go for the win.

It All Goes Wrong for the Chip Leader

It was a cold deck for Sean Winter, as he busted in fifth to Joseph Cheong. Cashing for $39,200, Winter saw his queen-ten dominated then delivered from contention by Cheong’s king-queen. The WSOP bracelet winner was not content with that bust-out, either. Shortly afterward, he busted Byron Kaverman in fourth place for $53,900 when a flop gave Cheong a set of sevens, more than enough to take down the pot after Kaverman’s pair of tens on the flop was pronounced not good enough.

Cheong looked good to at least make heads-up, but Elias – by then down to his last 700,000 chips – was running low. The four-time WPT champ got his final chips into the middle with king-queen against Schindler’s pocket kings, and despite flopping a gutshot, couldn’t complete the comeback to bust in third place for $73,500.

Schindler needed that knockout to accumulate chips that would guarantee him the chip lead and they did exactly that. After eliminating Elias, Schindler had a 4:1 chip lead against Cheong and went into the final duel determined to seal the victory.

Cheong Fightback Cannot Last

Joseph Cheong was hoping to grind his way back into contention as heads up began and he got to a good start, reducing his arrears a little. Trailing by a 1:3 deficit, Cheong moved all-in with king-seven and was ahead of Schindler’s nine-eight. A seven on the flop kept Cheong ahead, and the turn was safe. He had just one street to fade and eight or a nine.

Six outs could come, however, and an eight landed on the river to condemn Cheong to the $107,800 runner-up prize, giving the title and the top prize of $166,600 to Schindler, who bagged the first Wynn Millions event win.

With Event #2 costing $15,000 to enter, the action is bound to be huge as players build towards to the second of five tournaments to take place in the next week in the 2022 Wynn Millions High Roller Series. Jake Schindler has put himself in pole position for a lengthy run towards the top end of the leaderboard.