November 19, 2022 Augusto Silva
The 2022 BSOP Millions currently taking place in São Paulo, Brazil, with more than 80 events scheduled in the Golden Hall of the WTC Sheraton. An event that has already crowned a winner is the largest buy-in tournament ever held in the entire history of the BSOP, the R$50,000 NLHE Super High Roller.
The final table featured a whole host of Brazilian poker stars, along with the PokerStars ambassador Sam Grafton — but it was Lucio Lima who was the brightest to take home the champion’s trophy and a prize of R$867,025, after agreeing to an endorsement deal with Renan Bruschi.
The Super High Roller was a massive success, drawing a field of 79 entries to create a prize of R$3.3 million, more than triple the guaranteed R$1 million.
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BSOP Millions Super High Roller Final Table Results
*PlacePLAYERCOUNTRYPayout (BRL) 1Renan BruschiBrazilR$867,025* 2Lucio LimaBrazilR$717,025* 3Sam GraftonUKR$431,000 4Saulo SabioniBrazilR$331,600 5Ariel BahiaBrazilR$262,600 6Fabiano KovalskiBrazilR$205,370 7Pedro GaragnaniBrazilR$161,600 8Eder CampanaBrazilR$126,250 9Daniel AzizBrazilR$95,950
*indicates a care agreement
Winner’s reaction
Lúcio Lima, chosen as the Brazilian player to watch in 2022, is known for his success in online poker, where he plays with the account “WizardOfAz”. Now, he’s added a major live title to his resume.
“This title means a lot to me, even more so in such a talented field,” Lúcio told SuperPoker after the win. “I go up against these guys a lot online, but live it’s a different dynamic, there’s an extra adrenaline rush. I’m really happy.”
Lúcio had to beat the cream of Brazilian poker, including the Team PokerStars Pro Rafael Moraes i Andre Akkaripartypoker ambassador Yuri Dzivielevski as well as Pedro Garagnani, Fabiano Kovalski i Elias Netoamong others.
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“Really high level. I’d say it would be a $5,000 tournament for the Internet to have competition of such a high level as here,” commented the champion about the level of the field. “It was fun, but it was also really hard, I was really sweaty.”
Before participating in the Super High Roller, Lúcio Lima only had one cash in live poker tournaments, according to The Hendon Mob. The Brazilian pretty much only plays online tournaments, but he intends to change that. “I’m going to start traveling more to play these events. I’m really happy to get this one right,” he commented.
Final table action
The final table started with Sam Grafton in the lead and comfortably ahead of the chasing pack. The Team PokerStars Pro, who even lived in Brazil for a time, joked on Twitter about Brazil’s dominance in online poker. “Like every online final I’ve done this year: me and eight Brazilians,” said the Briton.
Like every online final I’ve done this year: me and eight Brazilians. https://t.co/RIkEkRgOPi
— Sam Grafton (@SquidPoker)
Grafton started well, clearing Daniel Aziz in ninth place, and continued to pile up chips to stay in the lead for much of the final table.
Fabiano Kovalski managed to close the gap with the leader by eliminating Eder Campana in eighth position and Pedro Garagnani in seventh But with six players left, he lost a giant pot against him Renan Bruschi that changed the course of the final table.
The two ended up all-in preflop with Bruschi holding against Kovalski’s. Bruschi took the pot and moved forward with the chips. Kovalski fell short and was eliminated in sixth place.
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Bruschi made good use of the chips and was responsible for the following two eliminations: Ariel Bahia in fifth place and Saulo Sabioni in fourth place to sit with almost twice as many chips as his two three-handed opponents.
Grafton, the only player with a chance to spoil the Brazilian game, was Bruschi’s next victim. Having recently won the $200,000 Coin Rivet Invitational for $5.5 million, Grafton had to settle for third place on the podium this time around.
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Care offer and All-in in the dark
By sending Grafton into lane, Bruschi built up a nearly 7:1 chip advantage in head-to-head play against Lima.
Despite the huge disadvantage, Lima managed to close the gap and then double his stack to even things up. The two finalists ended up closing a deal, guaranteeing R$717,025 each and leaving R$150,000 up for grabs for the champion.
After the deal, the two decided to go all-in in the dark to find the champion. Bruschi turned and Lima demonstrated. The board came, which took away the champion trophy and a prize of R$ 867,025.
Augusto Silva
