It was another jam-packed Sunday yesterday, with buy-ins big and small in the World Poker Tour World Online Championships. The highlight of the day was Day 1b of the Mix-Max Championships. The prize pool was confirmed, and the first-place prize of $488,508 was announced, a monster prize for anyone still in contention.
Three high rollers were played last night; a $10,300, $5,200 and a turbo variant. Some of the biggest names in poker signed into their partypoker accounts to battle it out for big bucks and eternal glory. Stephen Chidwick cashed in two out of three, though he didn’t win either.
Yesterday’s winners
Main: $1,050 WPT Mix-Max Warm Up ($500K GTD)
After 11 from 80 qualified on Friday’s Day 1a, 38 from 251 on Saturday’s Day 1b, and 50 from 203 in yesterday’s turbo flight, 99 players started Day 2 yesterday in the Mix-Max Warm Up.
The tournament was fifteen spots from the money, with 84 getting paid. Argentina’s Richard Dubini – the partypoker sponsored pro – was first to fall in 99th place. Kevin Rabichow, Alexandru Papazian, Sylvain Loosli, Maria Ho, Anthony Spinella, Kelly Ann Saxby, and Thomas Muehloecker were just some familiar faces to fall before the money. WPT Champion (and two-time WPT runner-up) Ema Zajmovic bubbled the event in 85th place.
Big-name pros like Stefan Schillhabel (84th, $1,813), Ole Schemion (81st, $1,813), Connor Drinan (78th, $1,869), Faraz Jaka (75th, $1,869), and Gavin Cochrane (74th, $1,869) sneaked into the money but fell early.
Dan Shak
The likes of Dan Shak (27th, $3,097), Firoz Mangroe (25th, $3,097), Simon Mattsson (22nd, $3,631), Jonathan Van Fleet (21st, $3,631), Conor Beresford (18th, $4,699), and Samuel Vousden (16th, $4,699) made deeper runs but couldn’t quite make it to the final table.
The final table read like a who’s who of poker with no shortage of big names. Daniel Smyth did his best to take down another title but fell in fourth place for $37,380. The deciding heads-up took place between Marc Berger (Germany) and Alberto Meran (Dominican Republic), with the latter triumphing for $89,578. Berger settled for $67,417.
Mini: $109 Mix-Max Warm Up ($150K GTD)
Day 2 of the Mini edition of the Mix-Max Warm Up took well over ten and a half hours and got underway with 326 hopefuls left in contention. With just 276 players getting paid, some players were due to go home disappointed. Boris Angelov – currently the frontrunner in the WPT Rising Star leaderboard – was one of the players going home empty-handed, busting in 321st place. Zachary Korik (316th), partypoker pro Joao Simao (315th), Anthony Spinella (312th), Daniel Smyth (309th), and Anton Wigg (307th) all also fell before the payouts hit.
After well over ten hours of play, Thomas Lehner from Germany and Victor Begara from Brazil locked horns to battle for the title. Lehner ultimately busted in second place, good for a score of $18,073. Begara walked away as the winner, taking home $23,780. Johan Guilbert, playing from Malta, earned bronze for $13,774.
Micro: $11 Mix-Max Warm Up ($30K GTD)
An $11 tournament with 20-minute levels. That’s what took place last night – or rather this morning. The 494 players that made Day 2 were in for a long one if they wanted to take down the top prize of $3,647 as the day took almost 11 hours to finish.
The tournament was fifty spots from the money when play got underway at 7 pm (BST). It didn’t take too long before the bubble popped with Carlos Acosta being the unfortunate last player to walk away with no return on his $11 investment.
From there, it took a ton of levels to get to a final table. After several hours, James Mallon busted in 8th place to be the official final table bubble as the tournament was seven-handed.
Vyacheslav Nikulin dominated the latter part of the final table with a massive stack, at times bullying his competition. He forced them all into submission, walking away with $3,647. The Brazilian duo Thiago Felipe and Mateus Bocchi took silver ($2,803) and bronze ($2,158).
Main: $1,050 Knockout Turbo ($150K GTD)
Arnaud Enselme took the lion share of the regular prize pool and bounty prize pool in the Knockout Turbo. The Brit beat a field of 148 entries in a little under five hours to walk away with $34,725 ($13,835 + $20,890). Heads-up, he locked horns with Alberto Meran. Meran, who had already won the Mix-Max Warm Up, had to make do with second place for $22,116 ($13,820 + $8,296) this time.
Arnaud Enselme
WPT champion Ole Schemion finished in thirteenth place for $1,496. He knocked out no players during the tournament and was the last player to leave the stage with no bounty payment.
partypoker pro Jordan “The Undecided” Drummond finished in sixteenth place for $1,209 plus $875.
Mini: $215 Knockout Turbo ($100K GTD)
From 499 entries to a winner in a little over four and a half hours, that’s what happened in the Mini Knockout Turbo last night. Almost 500 entries exchanged $215 for 100,000 starting chips, and when the dust had settled, just Marc Macdonnell was left standing. The prolific Irish poker pro beat Felipe Boianovsky from Brazil heads up to walk away with &7,218 from the main prize pool, and $7,039 from the bounty prize pool. Boianovsky received $7,207 plus $4,440.
Adam Owen (13th, $568 + $1,221) and Jaimy Staples (452 + $712) made deep runs but failed to reach the final table. Keith Johnson was the player to run the deepest without collecting any bounty. “The Silver Pigeon” made it till 24th without busting any player and received $372.
Micro: $22 Knockout Turbo ($30K GTD)
With a buy-in of $22 and 6-minute levels, this one-day event attracted 1,324 entries. Nikolaos Angelou-Konstas from Greece was the first player to bust, but he bought back in and earned $5 in bounties before succumbing again, this time in 574th place.
Mauricio Rodrigues Da Silva Junior Junior – yes, two juniors in there – bubbled the event in 176th. He did walk away with a small profit, though, as he collected $37.50 in bounties.
The title went to ИrоpЪ Bopoнов from Russia who walked away with $4,141 ($2,219 + $1,922). Karl Watkins from the UK finished runner-up for $2,452 ($2,215 + $237). Matehus Rocha from Brazil finished third for $1,572 ($1,383 + $189).
$10,300 WPT High Roller
The $10,300 High Roller attracted a field of fifteen players. Artur Martirosian and Stephen Chidwick reentered after busting for a 17-entry strong tournament. Michael Addamo and Fedor Holz were the first two players to exit, but they opted not to give it another shot.
Kahle Burns
After a little over three hours of play, Benjamin “Bencb789” Rolle bubbled in fourth place. Chidwick, in for two bullets, busted in third place for $34,000. Slovenian poker pro Rok Gostisa finished in second place for $51,000, leaving the trophy to Australia’s Kahle Burns, who took down the event for $85,000.
$5,200 WPT High Roller
Last night’s $5,200 high roller attracted a field of 12 entries. partypoker pro Joni Jouhkimainen was the only player to reenter after busting, but it didn’t do him much good. He busted, bought back in, and busted a second time to appear in the tournament summary as busting in eighth and seventh.
Fernando “JNandez87” Habegger bubbled in third place, leaving the $65,000 prize pool for Sergei Vasilev and Stephen Chidwick. The Russian Vasilev finished in the runner-up spot for $26,000 while Chidwick took home $39,000 and the title.
$5,200 WPT High Roller Turbo
The last High Roller took place at 22:00 BST attracting 29 entries. Norwegian pro Preben Stokkan was the unfortunate bubble boy making his $5,200 a contribution to the top 4 players. Elio Fox and Jonathan Van Fleet took respectively fourth and third place leaving Jake Schindler and Timothy Adams to agree on a deal and share the remaining $105,125. Adams, the chip leader, got $61,506 for his effort while Schindler agreed on the remaining.
Continues Tonight
Event #06 – Main: $3,200 Mix-Max Championship ($3M GTD)
Last night, Day 1b of the three-day Mix-Max Championship event was on the docket. The last of the two starting days attracted 544 entries, making for a combined field of 989 entries.
Alexandru Papazian
After eighteen 25-minute levels of play, Romanian superstar Alexandru Papazian ended Day 1b with the top stack of 1,684,195. Liv Boeree came close to that, collecting 1,634,908.
Samuel Vousden (1,348,214), Timothy Adams (1,251,999), Steve O’Dwyer (1,167,622), and partypoker’s Dayane Kotoviezy (1,092,905) also earned top stacks on Day 1b.
The 84 survivors from Day 1b join Day 1a’s 62 players tonight at 7 pm (BST) for Day 2. The 146 players commence the action with blinds of 7,000 and 14,000 and a 1,800 ante. Andrew Robinson from the UK is the shortest stack going in, he’ll have just two big blinds to start the day with and will be looking to get it in quickly.
The overall leader is still Day 1a’s chip leader Nick Marchington with 1,765,644. Fourteen players will bust with nothing to show for it as 132 get in the money tonight. The min-cash is $6,489. The top 42 get a five-figure score of $10,800. Six figures are reserved for the Top 5 with a monster score of $488,508 awaiting the winner in this three-day event.
Event #06 – Mini: $320 Mix-Max Championship ($1M GTD)
While Day 1a on Saturday attracted 1,154 entries, last night’s Day 1b added 1,853 entries to the count. Like on the first of the starting days, they played eighteen 20-minute levels and received 100,000 chips to start with.
When the day closed at the end of Level 18, 297 players remained. Together with Day 1a’s 180 players, that makes for 476 players on Day 2 as one player qualified for Day 2 twice.
Leonid Orman did better than anyone else, turning 100,000 into a mind-boggling 2,377,363. Orman is ahead of Day 1a’s leader Michael Schneider (2,263,836), to take the overall lead into tonight’s Day 2 at 7 pm (BST).
With 408 players getting paid a min-cash of $800, it will take some time for the bubble to burst. There’s $121,980 reserved for the winner, $93,880 for second, and $72,410 for third, but that won’t be distributed till tomorrow’s Day 3 as Day 2 is slated to play twenty levels.
Event #06 – Micro: $320 Mix-Max Championship ($1M GTD)
Day 1b of the Micro Mix-Max Championship saw 3,943 entries battle it out for a spot on Day 2. That’s slightly smaller than Day 1a’s 4,313 entries but still made for an impressive field.
From those 3,943, 604 players survived. Together with the 660 Day 1a survivors, that makes for 1,259 as five players survived both starting days.
Kisil Vladimir from Ukraine turned 100,000 chips into 2,507,742 on Day 1b of the Micro Mix-Max Championship. Day 1a leader Alex Ferry from the UK (2,911,580) and Rodrigo Yamamoto Ono from Brazil (2,532,275) are ahead of him in the overall standing heading into Day 2.
There’s a min-cash of $129 for the top 732 players. The first-place prize is set at $36,063, with $27,666 for second and $21,228 for third. Action resumes at 7 pm (BST) tonight!
Main: $5,200 WPT Big Game ($1M GTD)
The first day of this week’s WPT Big Game is in the books with nine players remaining from a field of 202. The $5,200 buy-in event attracted some of the biggest names in poker.
Rok Gostita, second in the $10,300 High Roller, was one of the first players to bust. Ryan Riess, partypoker pro Philipp Gruissem, Daniel Dvoress, and Timothy Adams followed not much later. They all had the option to buy back in, and many did exactly that.
Aleksandr Nosov bubbled in 33rd place, letting Fedor Holz sneak into the money in 32nd ($10,683). partypoker’s Kristen Bicknell finished in 28th place for another 11 points for the leaderboards she’s currently leading.
Thomas Boivin (19th), Scott Margereson (18th), and Samuel Vousden (17th) all collected $12,840. Pascal Lefrancois (14th) and Dimitar Danchev (13th) earned $15,202 while Andras Nemeth (12th), Michael Watson (11th), and Florian Duta (10th) received a paycheck of $18,284.
With the bust-out of Duta, the tournament was halted as just nine players remained. They return to action tonight at 7 pm (BST) to battle it out for the top prize of $206,110.
Ludovic Geilich
New Zealand’s high roller Sosia Jiang leads with an impressive stack of 40,708,362. partypoker’s Patrick Leonard is second in chips going in with 33,225,236. His partypoker colleague Ludovic Geilich has 21,595,933, good for sixth place.
The nine remaining players are guaranteed $21,366. The top three earn a six-figure score with $107,035 for third, $150,024 for second, and $206,110 for first. When play resumes, blinds will be 250,000 and 500,000 with a 62,500 ante for everyone at the table.
Mini: $530 WPT Big Game ($300K GTD)
The Big Game’s Mini edition attracted a field of 609 entries. After 28 levels of play, just twelve remain. They return tonight at 7 pm (BST) to play it out for the $54,517-first place prize.
Boris Kolev bubbled the event in 81st place. John Gonzalev was the last player out on Day 1, exiting in 13th place for $3,060. Jans Arends (19th, $2,430), Benjamin Rolle (18th, $2,430), Claas Segebrecht (17th, $2,430), and David Yan (14th, $3,060) got close but won’t be smoking any cigars.
João Otávio Da Silva Santos leads the remaining twelve with a stack of 90,931,920. He has just a few chips more than French pro Alexandre Reard who sits on a pile of 90,773,966. Sam Grafton takes a stack of 81,356,479 into tonight’s Day 2.
Anthony Spinella (36,182,094), Maria Ho (19,151,378), and Preben Stokkan (18,682,194) are just some of the big-name pros left in contention. Aki Virtanen will be the shortest stack resuming play with 16,154,566. Virtanen will have almost 12 big blinds as Day 2 will kick off with Level 29 (700,000/1,400,000 – 175,000 ante).
Positions 12 through 10 will earn $3,840. The top 5 will make five-figure scores leading up to $54,417 for first.
Micro: $55 WPT Big Game ($100K GTD)
The smallest of the Big Game events attracted 2,037 entries. After 6 hours and 20 minutes, just 51 remain, all guaranteed $251.
Zoltan Bukta was the last player to depart on Day 1 before the tournament was halted at the completion of Level 28. Tonight at 7 pm (BST), the competition resumes action with blinds of 700,000/1,400,000 and a running ante of 175,000.
Alexandre Sourdiff from Canada used the 28 levels on Day 1 to amass a stack of 108,625,683, good for almost 78 big blinds. He’s well ahead of Mario Muñoz from Germany, who sits in second place with 76,744,264. Jan Strazisar from Slovenia takes a stack of 73,480,409 into tonight’s proceedings, good for third in the ranking.
The winner can look forward to adding $16,513 to his or her bankroll. The runner-up will get $11,658 while the third-place finisher earns $7,525.
Tonigh’s Schedule
