Cary Katz Grabs ARIA High Roller Event #1 Title and $137,340
The first event of the 2022 Aria High Roller Series saw 41 entries create a prize pool of $410,000 at the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Six players made it into the money, and Cary Katz claimed the title and $137,340 after a heads-up deal with Brian Rast ($108,660)
Michael Lang ($65,600), Jake Schindler ($45,100), Sean Perry ($32,800), and Alex Foxen ($20,500) round out those who were able to grab a piece of the prize pool.
The money bubble was burst when Ed Sebesta’s aces fell to Lang’s straight as the rest of his chips went in on the river. From there, the six remaining players played for over three hours before they would see another elimination. One of the hands during that time period saw Katz triple his short stack with a rivered straight on his path to eventual victory.
Eventually, it was Foxen to hit the rail in sixth when Lang flopped a pair and held against him. Perry was next to go when Rast flopped a set of jacks over him, and Schindler fell in fourth when losing almost the entirety of his stack to Katz on a flip and exited shortly after.
Katz began as the short stack in three-handed play, but his pocket eights held versus Lang’s ace-jack and Katz soon had a small chip lead. Lang then got the rest of his chips in from the big blind with suited ace-nine and was at risk against Katz’s ace-king. The turn provided a sweat and gave Lang a flush draw, but the river bricked and Lang was eliminated in third.
Katz then held the majority of chips with almost 80% of the chips in play and agreed to a deal with Rast to forego heads-up play and chop the remaining prize pool based on the stack sizes. Rast claimed the runner-up spot, while Katz took the lion’s share of the prize pool, in addition to the title.
With his victory, Katz moves up to sixth on the 2022 PokerGO Tour leaderboard with 483 points. Perry increased his total to 740 points with his cash and sits in second on the leaderboard, while Nick Petrangelo still holds the top spot with 1,066 points.
2022 Aria High Roller Series Event #1 Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1 | Cary Katz | United States | $137,340 |
| 2 | Brian Rast | United States | $108,660 |
| 3 | Michael Lang | United States | $65,600 |
| 4 | Jake Schindler | United States | $45,100 |
| 5 | Sean Perry | United States | $32,800 |
| 6 | Alex Foxen | United States | $20,500 |
The 2022 Aria High Roller Series will continue on Friday, February 25, at 12 p.m. PT with Event #2: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em.
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