By Lisa Yiasemides

Last night was set to be an epic one and it did not disappoint with a whopping 12 players getting their hands on a WPT title, as millions of dollars were awarded in prizes. But more on that in just a moment.

The other big stories of the evening were the start of this week’s Big Game events, which are always crowd favorites. Not to mention, of course, the highlight of the entire festival…the $10 million guaranteed Main Event Championship. Day 1b wrapped up the starting flights in the flagship event, which means Day 2 takes place tonight!
 

Yesterday’s winners

 
$1,050 8-Max Weekender PKO ($500K GTD)

Yesterday, Day 1c saw the biggest field of the three starting flights with 233 registrations. That meant a total of 489 entries were logged overall and of those, 104 progressed to Day 2, which also started yesterday at 7:05 pm (BST).

It was an all-British final, with Phillip Mighall and Ian Bradley going heads up for the title, trophy, and fighting for the biggest cash prize available to them. In the end, Mighall came out on top taking $36,263 from the main pot, compared to Bradley’s $36,212. The real difference was in the bounty prizes though, with Mighall banking a chunky $42,031, which brought his total to $78,243. That was in stark contrast to Bradley’s bounty winnings of $14,125. Still, it meant Bradley took home a very healthy $50,337 bankroll booster.

Phillip Mighall

Both players did extremely well to fight off some of the world’s best, including Adrian Mateos ($24,947 + $9,593) and Dominik Nitsche ($17,124 + $10,359) in third and fourth places. Vojtech Skalak ($11,922 + $2,812) took the last top-five spot, outlasting Ramon Pessoa ($8,557 + $3,062), Scott Margereson ($5,603 + $3,359), Ilya Anatski ($4,573 + $8,212) and Robert Heidorn ($3,845 + $3,968) who all featured on the final too.

Eighty-eight players were paid, which meant 16 needed to go before the bubble burst. József Liszkovics (89th) was the unfortunate bubble boy, failing to eliminate any of his fellow competitors either, which meant the Hungarian was the last player to leave with nothing.

$109 Mini 8-Max Weekender PKO ($200K GTD)

The turbo flight was once again extremely popular, with 793 players (including re-entries) descending on the virtual tables. By the time, late registration had closed for Day 1c, $209,600 had been generated, far exceeding the guarantee.

There was a lot to play for and Ignas Jasinevicius ($13,236 + $5,665) cut himself the biggest slice, but only by a slim margin, as runner up Krzysztof Nowakowski ($13,214 + $4,256) eliminated one more person with seven knockouts compared with Jasinevicius’s six. Noah Vaillancourt ($8,814 + $5,487) had a sensational run too, eliminating an impressive 17 opponents before he exited in third place.

Other notable finishers among the 388 paid were Jan Bednar (11th, $816 + $589), Daniel Wilson (18th, $462 + $951), Viktor Ustimov (40th, 297 + $125), Parker Talbot (66th, $205 + $162) and Andreas Berggren (82nd, $179 +$325).

$11 Micro 8-Max Weekender PKO ($50K GTD)

Despite some huge numbers taking part (4,299 in total), the micro event fell short of its guarantee, giving the 726 survivors who advanced to Day 2 some extra value to play for. It took ten and a half hours to play out, with the heads-up match finally concluding at 5:33 am as Brazilian player Yago Alisson Da Silva Sousa defeated Jordan Smyth from the United Kingdom, to take down the title and $3,400 + $1,538 in cash. Smyth started the day with the overall chip lead and banked a runner up prize of $3,395 + $602 for his efforts.

$1,050 Superstack ($200K GTD)

The first of the one-day events kicked off last night’s proceedings, with an early kick-off of 3:05 pm. 197 entries had been paid by the time late registration closed, with 32 of those reaching the payout stage of the competition.

A $1K event is naturally going to attract some quality poker talent and this tournament was no exception with almost every player who graced the player list a well-known figure in the industry. It was Hungarian pro Tamás Ádámszki’s turn to shine as he took his first title of the series and locked up $40,130 in the process.

Ádámszki took out yesterday’s headliner, and Day 1b chip leader, Preben Stokkan heads up. That left the Norwegian to pick up a very healthy runner-up prize of $29,210. British pro Jonathan Proudfoot ($20,840), partypoker representative Dayane Kotoviezy ($15,600) and Russian regular Sergei Denisov ($11,000) all banked themselves five-figure scores for reaching the top five.

The big names didn’t end there though, with partypoker Ambassador Mikita Badziakouski (6th, $8,400), online titan Conor Beresford (8th, $5,000), Chance Kornuth (11th, $3,560), Sam Grafton (16th, $2,960) and Chris Hunichen (19th, $2,500) just a handful of the notable names to be found in the top 20.

$215 Superstack ($100K GTD)

It may have had a fifth of the buy-in but there were some big prizes up for grabs, attracting some big players to the tables. Mirko Schiano Di Tunnariello ($18,632) came out on top of a 490-strong field, to nab himself the biggest prize after beating József Liszkovics heads up. Liszkovics turned his night around after bubbling the $1K Weekender, bringing home $13,289 for getting as far as second.

Moldovan No.1 Pavel Plesuv ($9,113) took third place, while Santtu Ojala ($6,400) and Alfred Karlsson ($4,550) took fourth and fifth spots. Yann Dion was another familiar name and the Canadian had a great run too, taking $3,300 for his sixth-place finish. WPT Champion Ema Zajmovic also came close to a big result but had to settle for $910 after busting in 21st place.

$22 Mini Superstack ($40K GTD GTD)

Almost two thousand buy-ins were paid, with 1,972 the final number once late reg had closed. It took an epic 11 hours of battle for Jordan Gibson to come out on top. He took $6,630 for first, while Julian Comninos won $4,711 for placing second.

$530 7-Max PKO ($200K GTD)

The prize pool may not quite have reached its guarantee but there were still 378 players for Adam Hendrix ($16,443 + $18,537) to outlast in order to take down the larger buy-in of the two 7-Max PKO events. The last person standing in his way was Raul Martinez Gallego ($16,422 + $1,890) and though both players took an almost identical amount from the main prize pool, Hendrix banked almost ten times the amount in bounties!

Adam Hendrix

Finland’s Tomi Brouk ($5,022 + $5,376) took the second biggest bounty after eliminating eight opponents on his journey to reaching fifth place. WPT Champion Scott Margereson ($2,894 + $2,941) and American pro Jerry Wong, who is playing from Canada, took the last final table seat and won $2,184 + $2,328.

$109 Mini 7-Max PKO ($100K GTD)

The mini event was only mini in name, drawing a crowd of 1,023 and surpassing the guarantee with $102,300 collected for the pot. It took almost eight hours of play, culminating in a duel between the Netherlands’ Gilles Simon ($6,911 + $7,022) and Lithuania’s Lukas Parednis ($6,900 + $616). The Dutchman won it, to take the lion’s share of the prize pool.

Meanwhile, Faris Issa Jamil Qumsieh had his second big cash of the night, collecting $828 + $1,047 and narrowly missing out on his second final table (after coming fourth in the $1K main) when he exited in ninth place.

$2,100 Mix-Max Turbo PKO ($150K GTD)

Team partypoker had good reason to celebrate last night when teammate Ludo Geilich saw off all the opposition to bank $20,904 + $23,687 when he took down the Mix-Max main event. The Scot beat some stiff opposition, including runner up Daniel Rezaei ($20,887 + $3,875), Artur Martirosian ($12,024 + $10,562), Allan Berger ($7,935 + $3,750) and József Liszkovics ($5,854 + $2,500), who made his second final table of the evening.

Ludo Geilich

A total of 69 players were in the running, with re-entries included in that number and the fast format appealed to other notable players too. Included in those were Charlie Godwin (10th) who technically bubbled, but both she and Conor Beresford (11th) banked $500 in bounties. Benjamin Chalot (12th) was the last player to leave truly empty-handed.

$215 Mix-Max Turbo PKO ($100K GTD)

The second Mix-Max Turbo saw 462 entries take part. With a five-and-a-half hour run time, Alastair Smith came through to bag the top spot, taking $8,191 + $10,228 in winnings, for a great hourly rate at the tables. His last competitor was Thomas Hoffmann, who won $8,180 + $3,143 for his time.

James Hopkins ($5,969 + $1,078) took third, WOC Mix-Max Champion Andrey Kotelnikov ($4,311 + $918) displayed his skills to secure fourth place and Mimoun El Hasnaoui of Belgium ($3,087 + $493) took the last of the top five places. Jakub Oliva ($2,247 + $756) and Santtu Ojala ($1,524 + $1,500) also did enough to get a seat at the final table.

Sixty reached the money stages and some of the well-known players to make a profit were Tom Hall (9th, $1,123 + $687), Steven Van Zadelhoff (12th, $721 + $150) and Pim Gieles (16th, $480 + $162). Bruno Alexandre P Bernardino just made it to the money, taking $253 + $50 in bounties, while Valerii Kutepov departed on the bubble but won almost all of their buy-in back with $200 collected in bounties.

$22 Mini Mix-Max Turbo PKO ($30K GTD)

Last but not least, was the final tournament of the night. All in all, 1,563 entries were counted, putting $31,260 into the prize pool. Manuel Puchler ($1,762 + $2,084) dominated, picking off players left, right and centre with 19 players eliminated by the winner in total. Rodrigo Guimarães ($1,758 + $217) did their best to stop him but it wasn’t to be his night and he had to settle for runner up.

Concludes tonight

$5,200 Big Game ($1M GTD)

Each week these tournaments have been extremely popular, with the $5K event appealing to some of the worlds best. This week, the 8-Max freezeout delivered again, with 202 players flocking to take their stab at the huge guarantee.

British online powerhouse Luke Reeves (43,032,357) took the top spot in the chip counts by the end, with partypoker’s own Dzmitry Urbanovich (37,451,342) bagging the second biggest stack. None of the remaining finalists are unknowns, and Alexandru Papazian (27,946,005), Mike Watson (22,470,904), Zach Clark (20,822,880), Barry Hutter (18,1396,453), world No. 2 Justin Bonomo (12,124,422), Mark Davis (7,123,342) and Francois Billard (6,742,296) are all guaranteed at least $20,800 but could win anything up to $200,650 for first.

Julian Stuer’s ($17,800) elimination in 10th place signalled the end of the first day. Sosia Jiang (13th, $14,800), Ali Imsirovic (15th, $14,800), Mark Radoja (20th, $12,500), and Alex Foxen ($23rd, $12,500) all reached the money too. Patrick Leonard (27th) and Roberto Romanello (28th) both banked a min-cash of $10,400, while Kristen Bicknell was the unfortunate bubble girl this time, after the fellow Team partypoker member was eliminated in 33rd place.

Each of the nine remaining are accomplished players and will ensure a tough standard for the final table when it resumes at 7:05 pm tonight. Blinds will continue with Level 23 (250,000/500,000 62,500 ante).

$530 Big Game ($300K GTD)

Paul Höfer (104,354,053) is the only player returning with a nine-figure stack (that is something we don’t often get to say) after he finished up with the decisive chip lead in the mini event. The 564 starters were reduced to 12 by the end of Level 28, which made for a runtime of seven hours and 45 minutes.

Höfer is most closely trailed by Fabio Luongo (75,911,431), Luigi Soncin (68,948,709), WPT Champion Javier Gomez Zapatero (65,180,074) and Alexandru Papazian (54,730,788), the latter enjoying two final tables to look forward to tonight. Pulling up the rear is Floyd Rosner (15,703,615) who returns with 11 big blinds, when Level 29 (700,000/1,400,000 150,0000 ante) gets underway at 7:05 pm.

There are some fantastic prizes up for grabs, with $55,222 up top. All those still in contention have secured themselves at least $3,960 for getting this far. Online specialist Andreas Berggren (13th) won’t be in the mix after the Swede was the last player to fall before the whistle blew.

$55 Big Game ($100K GTD)

The micro edition featured 1,766 registrations and of those, 44 have qualified to the final Day. The top 20 was littered with Brazilian flags and names, most notably Guilherme Magaldi who bagged biggest with 83,546,850 to play with. Luis Felipe Souza (74,028,825) was another, finishing just a whisker behind second biggest stack Matias Arosuo (74,956,139).

In total 248 players were paid, after Sandro Cmrk left on the bubble. The 44 who are still in have won a minimum of $280 but there is a $16,575 prize earmarked for the winner unless any deals are made. Once again play continues with Level 29 (700,000/1,400,000 150,0000 ante).
 

Continues tonight

 
Event #08: $10,000 Main Event Championship ($10M GTD)

There were 490 players (including re-entries) in the second of two starting flights in the flagship event of the series. Added to the 521 who took part in Day 1a, a total of 1,011 entries have combined to beat that incredible guarantee. Now that we know $10,110,000 is the collective prize pool, WPT is excited to confirm that $1,715,667 has been set aside for first place, with another six-figure amount of $1,231,600 for second, and $814,663 the huge prize for whoever takes the bronze medal for third place.

Last night Benjamin Rolle (3,604,241) accumulated the most chips. The online crusher finished ahead of WPTDeepStacks Champion Daniel Szymanski (3,375,987,) Victor Simionato (3,181,776), Ali Imsirovic (2,984,524) and Nicolay Motsenko (2,953,222) who were all chipped up by the end. Seventy-six advance to the second stage and they will join the 80 from Day 1a, to make it 156 who are still in contention.

Daniel Szymanski

Yesterday’s flight elicited most of the biggest stacks that will start Day 2, all except Blaž Žerjav (4,400,082) who claims pole position when the second day starts at 7 pm this evening, with Rolle, Szymanski, Simionato and Imsirovic the rest of the top five stacks.

One player who will not be among them is Matas Cimbolas (88th). The Lithuanian had a dreadful end to the night after he got it all in three-handed with pocket-aces against Pascal Hartmann’s (89th) pocket-kings and Rolle’s ace-king of diamonds. Rolle had the two players covered and hit one diamond on the flop. To more diamonds on the turn and river gave him the flush, sending Cimbolas and Hartmann packing shortly before the end.

Matas Cimbolas

There are twelve 30-minute levels on the clock for this evening and tonight we will see the bubble burst, with just 20 of the survivors needing to go before the money stages are reached. There is a $23,253 min-cash for those who make it to 136th place.

Felix Bleiker (8th, 2,853,043), Dominik Panka (9th, 2,834,144), Shaun Deeb (10th, 2,744,492), Dan Smith (11th, 2,735,368), Niklas Åstedt (14th, 2,522,280) and Christian Rudolph are some of the big names who fared the best over the two Day 1s and will all start in the top 20.

At the other end of the spectrum are players such as WPT Champions Ryan Riess (144th, 400,344) and Christian Jeppsson (301,392), and one of the world’s best online grinders Jonathan Van Fleet (152nd, 254,606). Each of them will be looking to spin up their short stacks when they return to play blind levels of 15,000/30,000 3,750 ante.

Tonight’s schedule

 
Plenty more treats are instore for players this evening, with seven one-day events to get your teeth stuck into. They will run alongside the finales of the Big Game events and Day 2 of the Main Event Championship!