By Lisa Yiasemides
The WPT Online Series 2021 is well and truly underway. The Micro Main Event played to a conclusion last night, and the Mini Main Event will follow in its footsteps, with a winner crowned later this evening.
Aside from that, several side events also concluded in the last two days, the biggest cash prize won was the quarter-of-a-million Chris Brewer banked for scooping the $10,300 High Roller on Monday.
With tens of tournaments including sides taking place in the last few days alone, we have compiled some of the biggest highlights to take place since the weekend, which you can read all about right here.
High Roller ($1M GTD)
The first of the High Roller events played to a winner with the second and final day of action taking place on Monday. There were 17 still in contention at the start and the action was fast and furious with just two hours and 38 minutes needed for eventual winner Chris Brewer to claim the title and $249,791 in cash.
Chris Brewer
The American, like many of his compatriots including runner-up Shawn Daniels ($166,429), was playing from Canada, while third-place finisher Michael Addamo logged in from the UK. The Australian pro won the $5,200 High Roller Turbo at the weekend, added a further $116,183 to his series winnings for this result.
With a $10,300 price tag, the event attracted many other notable players, including Mike Watson ($80,047) who came fourth, and Argentinian grinder Ramiro Petrone ($59,059) who rounded out the top five. Sergei Reixach ($37,676) and David Peters were just a couple of the other famous names in the payouts list. Russian player Artur Martirosian exited first that night, taking a $21,277 min-cash, a feat mirrored by partypoker’s Rob Yong who departed right behind him, winning the same amount for reaching 16th place.
Micro Main Event ($150K GTD)
Three days of action came to a close last night. Christos Xanthopoulos took the title after beating 2,390 entries across three days. The Greek collected $22,507, a huge return for an event with a $55 buy-in.
The final day took seven hours and 25 minutes to play out, and Matthieu Rodriguez came closest to toppling Xanthopoulos, but had to settle for runner up and a very healthy addition of $15,280 in cash for his run. Brazilian player Daniel Yamaki took the last of the five-figure scores with $10,421 the prize for third place.
Mini Main Event ($500K GTD)
The Mini Main Event will play to its conclusion this evening when the finalists sit down to play the last leg of the four-day event. Costing $530 to enter, and featuring a guarantee of half a million dollars, it is no surprise that the event attracted huge numbers to the virtual felt. In fact, 1,079 entries meant the total prizepool easily surpassed its guarantee with $539,500 in the pot, a huge portion of which is still up for grabs.
A top prize of $88,701 is earmarked for the winner, with $61,084 and $41,984 the second and third prizes. Naturally some big names took part and one of those was Dutch pro Michiel Brummelhuis, who is sat at the top of the counts with 48,878,449. Brummelhuis, who has $2 million in live tournament winnings, returns with an enormous 163 big blinds when Level 15 (150,000/300,000) kicks off the proceedings at 19:05 (BST) tonight.
There is plenty of tough competition for Brummelhuis to navigate if he is to come first, however. Canada’s Josue Sauvageau (35,098,810) has 117 big blinds, and Fritjof Torstensson (28,145,922) from Sweden returns with 94 big blinds.
Belgian star (but playing from the UK) Kenny Hallaert is also in the running with 21,769,306 chips good for fourth place. Croatian pro Goran Mandic (21,226,892) and New Zealand grinder Joshua Mccully (20,666,025) are both in a similar position with only a few big blinds separating them.
Maxim Mamonov (17,403,173), Jakob Miegel (14,511,725) and Vlad Stefan Lache (8,059,698) have the most work to do, but whatever happens, they have all won at least $7,169 for making it to the final table.
Knockout ($500K GTD)
In the Main, Canada’s Justin Ouimette ($38,050 + $51,484 = $89,534) fought against a total field of 346 to claim the top spot and the lion’s share of the $519,000 prizepool. The $1,575 event took two days to reach a winner and the last hurdle was a heads-up match between Ouimette and Bulgaria’s Dimitar Bashov ($37,998 + $15,854 = $53,852).
There were other big names in contention too, with Dutchman Jans Arends ($16,920 + $8,419 = $25,339) and Amichai Barer ($11,950 + $5,777 = $17,727) coming in fourth and fifth places, just behind bronze finisher Roman Hrabec ($25,604 + $9,536 = $35,140). Meanwhile, WPT Champion Alex Foxen ($3,958 + $7,687 = $11,645) narrowly missed out on a final table seat, placing 10th in the end.
Over in the Mini Knockout, James Rann ($15,043 + $7,939 = $22,982) won after defeating Diego Cuellar ($15,018 + $3,845) in the $162 event that smashed it’s $250,000 guarantee with 1,612 entries meaning total prizes of $241,800 were awarded by the end.
The Micro Knockout was just a few players short of reaching the $50,000 guarantee. The 3,313 field was reduced to one over the course of two days of play and rising to the top was Guilherme Prestes De Souza ($2,916 + $1,597 + $4,513) after the Brazilian picked off the last of the competition, leaving Bradley William Soper ($2,909 + $987 = $3,896) to finish as runner up.
Super High Roller ($1M GTD)
Michael Addamo must strike fear into the hearts of his opponents right now. The Australian continues to build result after result, and tonight he will play his third big final table of the series, with the chance to win a second series title. Playing from the UK, Addamo is sat top of the counts with 1,101,792 in chips worth 92 big blinds.
Michael Addamo
Each of the seven finalists are well-known in their field. Matthias Eibinger (885,101) is the closest rival, while Artur Martirosian (593,295), Duco Ten Haven (578,194), and Pascal Hartmann (460,592) are sat in the middle of the chip counts.
Spaniard Sergei Reixach (262,394) and Bosnian Almedin ‘Ali’ Imsirovic (218,672) have at least two things in common when they sit down to continue their campaigns: they both return as short-stacks; and they will both be playing from Mexico.
Blinds will resume at Level 18 (6,000/12,000) and at least $53,915 is locked up for making it this far. All eyes will be on that mammoth top prize of $363,660 though. Second to fourth places will also lock up a six-figure result, with $223,349 for second, $145,662 for third, and $100,993 the prize for fourth place.
WPT500 Knockout ($1M GTD)
The WPT500 Knockout has also gotten out of the starting blocks, with the first Day 1 flights in the books. There have been 367 entries so far, with the Top 10 overall chip leaders listed below. The Top 4 in particular have maximised their incredible runs by multiplying their 500,000-starting chips into stacks worth around 20 times more.
Day 2 doesn’t take place until next Monday 24 May, and with at least one Day 1 flight taking place per day between now and then, there are still plenty of opportunities to join the fun. For those who do not want to buy in directly to the $530 event, you will find plenty of satellites to spin your way into the competition on partypoker.com.
Super50 Knockout ($400K GTD)
The $55 ‘mini’ event promises to be huge too. As with its big brother, the Super50 Knockout has already had two Day 1 flights conclude, with the current chip leaders listed below.
Super5 Knockout ($50K GTD)
For those looking for a more affordable entry into the WPT Online Series 2021, look no further than the $5.5 Super5, which offers the same level of excitement for a fraction of the price. The bar has already been set with Day 2’s current chip leaders the players for future entrants to try to beat.
Check out all upcoming tournaments on partypoker LIVE.