By Frank Op de Woerd

On any given Sunday, anything can happen. And you don’t have to be an American football player to stride for glory. Just log on to partypoker for the World Poker Tour World Online Championships for a chance at riches, and you don’t run the risk of leaving on a stretcher.

Thousands upon thousands of players did exactly that last night for another night of Sunday poker. With buy-ins big and small, there was no shortage of great action on the virtual green felt. The WPT Big Game events played out, the Micro Main Event Championship saw its Day 1B, and the Mini Main Event Championship got underway.

Check out our recap of all the action.

Championship Events

Event #07 – $109 Micro Main Event Championship Day 1B ($1M GTD)

Sergei Ponkratyev set the bar on Day 1A of the Micro Main Event Championship, but Felipe Theodoro Da Costa more than met that on Day 1B last night. The Brazilian player turned 200,000 into 6,985,879 – more than anyone else in the entire event by a mile. The number two in chips, Brazilian player Alexandre Andrade, ended the day with 4,919,371 – good for fourth position overall going into Day 2.

Martin Erdmann (Germany, 4,579,517), Kim Heidemann (Denmark, 3,981,918), and Remco Schrijvers (the Netherlands, 3,774,220) complete the Top 5 heading into Day 2.

A total of 4,368 players signed up for Day 1B, with 683 surviving. Jerry Wong (2,882,315), Mark Roovers (2,679,924), Jans Arends (2,371,493), Adam Owen (2,101,428), Patrick Leonard (1,936,124), and Poorya Nazari (1,749,036) are amongst those to survive and return to action tonight at 7 pm (BST) for Day 2 of the 3-day event. The final is scheduled for tomorrow at 7 pm (BST).

When the action resumes tonight, the blinds will be 15,000 and 30,000 with a 3,800-ante. The levels will be 20 minutes long, with twenty levels on tap.

Event #07 – $1,050 Mini Main Event Championship Day 1A ($5M GTD)

Last night, Day 1A of the Mini Main Event Championship was played out. Over 2,500 players entered the first starting day of the $1,050 buy-in event, making it on par to meet its $5 million guarantee.

After eighteen levels of 25 minutes each, 407 players remain. Martin Gaudreault Remillard from Canada was the last player to bust before the event went on hiatus for a week. Konstantin Fetzer from the United Kingdom did best; he turned his 200,000-starting stack into a whopping 4,423,490. When play resumes on September 7th, he’ll have over 147 big blinds to play around with.

Preben Stokkan

Stephen Chidwick (5th, 3,624,171), Preben Stokkan (6th, 3,609,940), Philippe D’eauteuil (33rd, 2,372,115), Roberto Romanello (42nd, 2,182,119), Chance Kornuth (43rd, 2,176,632), Sergi Reixach (51st, 2,077,674), Thomas Boivin (52nd, 2,069,986), Pascal Hartmann (68th, 1,837,326), Patrick Leonard (69th, 1,825,141), Joao Vieira (74th, 1,784,414), Hristivoje Pavlovic (86th, 1,702,793), and Kahle Bruns (92nd, 1,653,995) are just some of the familiar names in the Top 100.

Day 1B of this 3-day event takes place Sunday, September 6th, at 7 pm (BST). You can register right now for $1,050, or try to satellite in via one of many qualifiers available.

Just today alone, sixteen sats are on offer where you can try and get into the event for as little as $5.50! There are freerolls available and seats added to regular tournaments. The easiest way to find a satellite is to go to the partypoker lobby, find the entry for Day 1B of the Mini Main Event Championship (#280945871 under Poker > WPT > Championship Events) and click the ‘Satellites’ tab. There you’ll find all the tournaments you can play to get into the $1,050 Day 1B of the Mini Main Event Championship!

Day 2 of the event plays out on Monday, September 7th at 7 pm (BST), the final day is scheduled for Tuesday, September 8th at 7 pm (BST).

Concludes tonight

Main: $5,200 WPT Big Game ($1M GTD)

Matthias Eibinger was the first from 196 entries to bust the $5,200 WPT Big Game. He bought back in but busted once more soon after. He wouldn’t be the only one to go broke twice in this Big Game event, with many of the world’s biggest names in poker fighting for a spot on the final table.

Italian player Ivan Gabrieli bubbled the event in 33rd place, letting Justin Bonomo sneak into the money in 32nd place ($10,400). partypoker-sponsored pro Patrick Leonard followed Bonomo to the rail in 31st place for $10,400 as well.

Elio Fox

Brit Conor Beresford (11th) and Tomi Brouk from Finland (10th) came close to the final table but bowed out right before, having to settle for $17,800 each.
Daniel Dvoress starts tonight’s final table ninth in chips. The 5,660,072 in chips he brings makes him the shortest stack going in. Elio Fox, on the other hand, leads with an impressive 45,500,540. With blinds starting at 250,000 and 500,000, that gives Dvoress 11 big blinds while Fox will have 91.

Position Player Chip Count Big Blinds
1 Elio Fox 45,500,540 91
2 Christian Rudolph 39,137,395 78
3 William Arruda 21,958,716 44
4 Teun Mulder 21,583,171 43
5 Roberto Romanello 21,355,908 43
6 Daniel Colpoys 17,105,682 34
7 Darren Elias 14,667,432 29
8 Bernhard Wladkowski 8,923,084 18
9 Daniel Dvoress 5,660,072 11

Day 1 of the event took eight and a half hours to complete. The remaining nine continue their battle tonight at 8 pm (BST). They’re all guaranteed $20,800 with $200,650 waiting for he who wins.

Mini: $530 WPT Big Game ($300K GTD)

Well over 600 entries – 623 to be precise – signed up for the Big Game Mini at partypoker last night. The event guaranteed $300,000 to lure people in, and they did so en masse.

Jaimy Staples came close to cashing but went under in ninetieth place where eighty were getting paid. Javier Gomez Zapatero bubbled in 81st place. Nick Marchington was the first to cash, earning $1,200 for his eightieth place.

Some of poker’s biggest names were still in contention when the cheques were getting handed out but missed out on the final table. Kenny Hallaert (71st, $1,260), Chance Kornuth (62nd, $1,320), Peter Jetten (45th, 1,440), Andras Nemeth (43rd, $1,440), Joni Jouhkimainen (35th, $1,530), Luke Reeves (34th, $1,530), Shaun Deeb (21st, $2,430), and Joep van den Bijgaart (19th, $2,430) are just some of the many big-name pros to bust before the day came to an end.

The final day resumes tonight at 8 pm (BST) with ten players remaining. Ben Warrington leads with 97,278,389 in chips, over ten million more to his closes competitor Christopher Williams (87,117,012). When play gets back underway, the blinds will be 700,000 and 1.4 million with a 175,000 ante.

Position Player Chip Count Big Blinds
1 Ben Warrington 97,278,389 69
2 Christopher Williams 87,117,012 62
3 Pedro Marques 84,762,219 60
4 Alexandros Theologis 69,545,630 50
5 Mathias Siljander 66,846,945 47
6 João Ferreira Caetano 58,985,318 42
7 Michel Dattani 43,819,531 31
8 David Lopez Llacer 39,268,918 28
9 Andrew Wool 27,830,414 20
10 Alena Yasyukovich 23,445,624 17

The remaining ten are guaranteed $3,840 with $54,517 for first. The runner-up receives $38,884 while he or she who takes bronze gets $26,373.

Micro: $55 WPT Big Game ($100K GTD)

The Main and Mini edition of this weekend’s Big Game events played down to 9 and 10 players remaining, but the Micro edition did not even come close. After six hours and seventeen minutes, fifty players remained from a field of 2,117 entries.

The event rewarded 280 places, with Jan Černý from the Czech Republic bubbling in 281st. Nicolas Fierro (277th, $106), Lui Martins (230th, $109), Johan van Til (195th, $119), Thomas de Rooij (98th, $181), and Jaimy Staples (75th, $202) were amongst those to cash.

The action resumes tonight at 8 pm (BST) with blinds of 700,000 and 1.4 million (175,000 ante). Leading the fifty remaining players is Thodoris Konstantakopoulos from Greece, with 141,852,714 in chips (101 big blind). Fernando Olímpio from Brazil (118,902,673, 85 big blinds) and George Maolis from Cyprus (93,304,250, 67 big blinds) round out the top three.

The remaining players have $259 locked up right now. The third-place finisher gets $7,773, second gets $12,041, and there’s $17,058 for first.

Concluded Yesterday

Main: $215 WPT Warm Up PKO ($200K GTD)

The $200,000 guarantee on this event was crushed as 351 entries were collected into the $215 event on Day 1A, 572 on Day 1B, and 664 in yesterday’s turbo flight. With a combined field of 1,587 entries, that made for a prize pool of $317,400. As is usual with Progressive Knock Out events, half of that went on people’s heads as a bounty while the other half would be distributed to the top 248.

Day 2 got underway at 7 pm (BST) last night, with 273 players left in contention. That meant twenty-five players would still go home empty-handed with Espen Uhlen Jørstad being one of them.

Vladislav Donchev bubbled in 249th. Aliaksei Boika (247th, $181), Richard Dubini (210th, $188 + $200), Josip Simunic (194th, $196 + $300), Dan Shak (173rd, $212 + $418), Pieter Aerts (163rd, $228), James Collopy (150th, $244 + $337), Marc-André Ladouceur ($244 + $50), Joao Simao (139th, $244 + 200), Anthony Spinella (114th, $276 + $250), Dimitar Danchev (111th, $276 + $162), Robin Ylitalo (101st, $292 + $475), Shaun Deeb (84th, $308 + $450), Jeff Gross (68th, $347 + $250), David Lappin (37th, $490 + $250), Firoz Mangroep ($743 + $443), and Bryan Paris (13th, $1,013 + $1,265) were some of the players finishing in the money.

Jaime Staples made the final table but finished in fifth. The partypoker pro earned $6,458 plus $2,682 in bounties.

Yuri Martins

Big money was to be made up top with a Brazilian one-two dividing the biggest prizes. Brazilian superstar Yuri Dzivielevski had to settle for second place this time, earning $20,719 plus $3,658 for a combined $24,377. The title went to Dennys Ramos, who earned $20,752 plus $16,772 in bounties for a $37,524 haul.

Mini: $22 WPT Warm Up PKO ($50K GTD)

The Mini WPT Warm Up PKO attracted 1,163 entries on Day 1A, 1,496 on Day 1B, and 1,382 in last evening’s turbo flight for a combined group of 4,041 entries. From that field, 726 survived their starting day and came back to Day 2 last night, with 600 getting paid.

The levels were 15 minutes long, so it took a bit before the money stage hit. partypoker pro Dayane Kotoviezy was one of the unlucky players to bust before the money; her 672nd place earned her nothing but a $5 bounty. Her partypoker colleague Monika Żukowicz did a little better, busting in 650th place, but it resulted in the same $0 score from the regular prize pool, though she did get $15 back in bounties. partypoker’s Louise Butler busted before the money as well; she earned $7.50 in bounties for her 617th place.

Matt Staples

Their teammate Matt Staples was the only partypoker pro to finish in the money. He will hardly be writing a thank you speech for his 48th place, which netted him $21 plus $7.50.

Lawend Mardini Himmo from Sweden was the last man standing, earning $7,139 ($4,829 + $2,310 in bounties). He bested Karel Kratochvíl heads up, who took home $5,708 ($4,824 + $884).

Tonight’s Schedule