Poker's a skill game, sure. But there are days when the cards fall your way and you just can't do anything wrong. When that happens to a pro with all the gear in his toolbox to take full advantage, then you get what happened on Sunday when Amichai Barer took first place in three tournaments in one day. All on the same site.
The Canadian pro ended up with around $155k U.S. for his three victories. And probably some gnawing existential worries that he might be living in the matrix.
His first victory came at the cost of his heads-up opponent "StillFlyYYY" in the GGPoker High Rollers Marathon. 323 players had coughed up $840 apiece, hoping for the $48,145 first prize. But only one had a hope of winning.
Barer sent "StillFlyYYY" to the wall, clicked the 'x' in the top right of the window, and turned his attention back to the hands in progress in the other two tourneys.
Bounty on Barer
Up next was the GGPoker High Roller Pot-Limit Omaha Bounty Builder. The $2k buy-in made for a smaller field. Just 82 players to get through, with half the $164,000 prize pool going out as bounties.
The unlucky fella in 9th at the final table got $3,549 for his position. But he failed to knock a person out all tournament. Barer on the other more than quadrupled his prize money. He went from $13,984 for first place, to a total of $55,734 with bounties included.
This was no soft table either, with Barer having to survive players like Rui Ferreira, Idris Ambraisse, and Christian Rudolph to beat the final table.
Mouse to 'x' for him then. But no time to celebrate yet. He was still in the $2,100 buy-in GGPoker Pot Limit Omaha Crusaders High Roller and the 114-player field was getting shorter and shorter.
Crusader King
In the PLO Crusaders event, the betting might have been pot limit, but there was no limit on Barer's run.
Ferreira found himself having to deal with Barer again on this final table, moving up the podium slightly to 5th from his 8th place finish in the Bounty event. The table was stacked with other pros. As well as Barer and Ferreira, the table sported Niklas Astedt, Yuri Dzivielevski, and George Wolff, all of whom have seven-figure lifetime cashes.
In the end, Barer even had to take on fellow Canadien and high-roller Philippe D’Auteuil at the heads up stage in order to win the event. But he won that too.
With the hattrick under his belt and his full year's allotment of table voodoo spent, Barer hit that final 'x'.
Featured image source: Twitter
