Normally an event of this magnitude would be savoured and played slowly, but the players decided otherwise yesterday and following a vote it was completed in a single day.
In all, 100 entries were posted to build a prize pool of $4,850,000 to be spread amongst the top 14 finishers.
Action Recap
Given the monstrous buy-in, it was no surprise to see plenty of big names falling by the wayside prior to the final table being set.
Ben Lamb, Matthias Eibinger, and 11 times GGMillion$ SHR winner Artur Martirosian all just missed out on a final table appearance.
Brit Armin Ghojehvand led the final nine, followed by Aram Oganyan and Daniel Rezaei, but there was a long way to go.
First Markkos Ladev left the table, running K♥ Q♠ into David Nicholson’s K♦ K♣, and then a few minutes later Frenchman Loopoo followed him after his 10♠ 10♥ lost to Nicholson’s K♦ J♦.
The rail didn’t have time to catch its breath because while Loopoo was still packing up Johan Guilbert was knocked out by Nicholson who rivered a pair in fours versus ace-ten race.
Nicholson was now in the lead while Rezaei had the shortest of the six stacks. But it was Rezaei’s turn to shine and he put a dent in Nicholson’s stack after turning a queen against the Austrian’s pocket threes.
Aram Oganyan was next to go before a long period of cagey play began. Even so, by an hour later Nicholson held more than half of the chips in play.
After a short break, Nicholson knocked out Manuel Fritz after shoving 6♣ 3♣ from UTG and getting a call in the cutoff with A♦ Q♠. Fritz missed the board entirely meaning a 3♠ river was enough to take the event to four-handed play.
Only 10 minutes later Armin Ghojehvand was out, unfortunately calling off A♣ Q♦ in a blind versus blind situation against Rezaei who had A♠ K♥. A king on the flop was enough to set the podium positions.
Straight away, Jamil Wakil was also picking up his gear, once again being denied at the sharp end of an event after almost winning the $10,400 GG Million$ and finishing in fifth place in the Onyx SHRS NLH Invitational.
With Nicholson holding a two-to-one advantage, the players decided to negotiate a deal, leaving only $55,000 to play for. Incredibly even that took a full four levels to finish but eventually Rezaei was the champion leaving Nicholson to ponder how this one got away from him.
$51,000 SHRS NLH Championship Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1 | Daniel Rezaei | Austria | $1,043,530* |
| 2 | David Nicholson | United Kingdom | $1,101,570* |
| 3 | Jamil Wakil | Canada | $585,000 |
| 4 | Armin Ghojehvand | United Kingdom | $445,000 |
| 5 | Manuel Fritz | Austria | $360,000 |
| 6 | Aram Oganyan | United States | $290,000 |
| 7 | Johan Guilbert | France | $230,000 |
| 8 | ”Loopoo” | France | $180,000 |
| 9 | Markkos Ladev | Estonia | $140,000 |
