For many years, high stakes poker on television was literally that – one single show of the same name that brought to life the world of the elite poker player who could drop six figures and still smile at the end of the night.

When High Stakes Poker, there was definitely a gap in the market for a poker show that featured eye-watering buy-ins and no lack of entertainment. While Poker After Dark fulfilled the cash game element of High Stakes Poker, the big buy-in wasn’t something that you could attribute to a single show. The World Poker Tour’s Alpha 8 project was one that tried to corner the Super High Roller audience, but after only a handful of events, it hadn’t taken off and has since slid from the schedules.

When Poker Central began the Super High Roller Bowl, it was a $500,000-entry event, a tournament that would make someone an awful lot of Super High Roller buy-ins. Would it be popular enough to sustain the format? It proved to be so.

The first-ever Super High Roller Bowl took place in 2015, and it was Brian Rast who won it, taking home $7.5 million when he beat Scott Seiver in the heads-up. Taking place at ARIA Resort & Casino, the event was followed in successive years by two more similar events, won for $5 million by Rainer Kempe in 2016 and for $6 million in the next year by Christoph Vogelsang.