David Coleman closed out the $15,300 6-Max at the 2026 Onyx High Roller Series with a heads-up win over Italo Modena, banking $270,000 and picking up his second tournament title of the year in the process. The result came at the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa in Cyprus, a venue that has quietly become one of the busiest stops on the high-stakes calendar this summer.
A Stacked 62-Entry Field Compressed Into One Long Day
The 6-Max event drew 62 entries, building a prize pool of $892,800 against a $15,300 buy-in, a healthy number for a short-handed high roller format that tends to move fast and punish any hesitation. The tournament had originally been scheduled to play out across two days, but the field moved quickly enough that organizers compressed the schedule into a single day, pushing the action deep into the early morning hours before a winner was finally crowned.
That kind of marathon session is common at high roller series, where a smaller field and faster structures often mean the difference between a two-day and a one-day event comes down to how the cards fall rather than anything on the schedule itself.
A Final Table Full of Familiar High-Stakes Names
The unofficial final table read like a who’s who of the international high-stakes grind. Aren Bezhanyan of Armenia and Geoffrey Mooney of Australia were the first two out, both collecting $30,000 for their run. Orhan Ates of Turkey followed in seventh for $40,000, then Artsiom Lasouski of Belarus in sixth for $52,400. Nicholas Seward, one of two Americans left at that stage, busted in fifth for $67,400, and the UK’s Ravi Sheth departed in fourth for $94,000.
That left three players for the final stretch. Aleksandr Kirichenko of the Russian Federation was eliminated in third for $128,000, setting up a heads-up battle between Coleman and Italo Modena of Italy. Modena ultimately settled for the runner-up prize of $181,000 after Coleman closed out the win.
Coleman’s Second Title of a Strong 2026
The win marks Coleman’s second tournament victory of the year, following his title run at the $25,000 U.S. Poker Open finale earlier in 2026. Between the two results, Coleman’s live tournament earnings for the year have climbed past $2 million, according to figures tracked by The Hendon Mob. It is the kind of year that cements his place among the sport’s most consistent high-stakes grinders rather than a one-off score.
What stands out about Coleman’s résumé is the range of formats behind it. A win in a fast 6-Max structure against a mixed international field is a different test than closing out a marquee event like the U.S. Poker Open, and stacking both in the same calendar year says as much about adaptability as it does about raw results.
Cyprus Keeps Pulling the High-Stakes Circuit Back
The Onyx High Roller Series has become one of the busiest fixtures on the Merit Royal Diamond’s calendar, and this 6-Max title adds to a summer that has already produced multiple seven-figure scores and a steady stream of recognizable winners at the venue. For players chasing consistent action against tough, experienced fields, the appeal of a series like this is straightforward: big buy-ins, fast structures, and a concentration of talent that rewards players who can navigate deep stacks under pressure just as well as they handle short-handed aggression.
Newer players looking to understand how to survive and thrive once a tournament field thins out to six-handed or fewer can find a practical breakdown of that transition in Poker Pro Academy’s guide to going deep in tournament pokerwhich covers the adjustments players need to make as blinds rise and stacks shrink relative to the pot.
A Result That Fits the Season
Coleman’s win adds another data point to what has been an eventful August for the high-stakes scene, coming just as attention on the wider tournament calendar shifts toward the fall series. As PokerNews reported, the victory pushes his 2026 cash total well past the seven-figure mark, and with a compressed one-day structure that tested stamina as much as skill, it is a result that says plenty about why Coleman remains one of the sport’s steadiest high-stakes performers.
It also underscores a broader trend at the top of the high-stakes game this year: fields keep getting more international, and titles keep getting spread across a wider circle of players rather than concentrated among a handful of familiar regulars. A final table with players representing the United States, Italy, Russia, the United Kingdom, Belarus, Turkey, Australia, and Armenia is a reminder of how global the modern high roller circuit has become, with venues like the Merit Royal Diamond drawing talent from every region willing to make the trip for a shot at a seven-figure prize pool.
For Coleman, the timing could hardly be better. With the fall high-stakes calendar already taking shape, a second title heading into the final months of the year gives him momentum and a reason for opponents to take notice the next time his name appears on a starting list. Two wins, two different formats, and a cash total climbing toward eight figures over his career all point to a player operating at the top of his game right when the stakes, and the scrutiny, are highest.
