By Frank Op de Woerd

What’s better than firing some tournaments on a Wednesday evening? And with the WPT World Online Championships on partypoker, you’re guaranteed great structures. While some events run deep into the night, you won’t hear anyone complaining as big money is guaranteed once you are still playing after midnight. Even the 700-entry $109 Knockout was done by 2:20 am, and those playing at that time already had thousands of dollars in prizes locked up.

Let’s look at last night’s trio of great events, with some big-name players and massive prizes up for grabs.

$5,200 WPT High Roller

It wasn’t the first, and it won’t be the last, but it’s special every time a WPT High Roller is played on partypoker. With a buy-in of $5,200, you’re guaranteed that some of the world’s best players will sign up. Last night’s edition was no exception with some stellar names participating for big money.

Spanish high roller Juan Pardo Dominguez was the first player eliminated, but he bought in. Scott Margereson, Ali Imsirovic, Artur Martiosian, and Rok Gostisa also reentered after busting. The 17-entry field would pay three spots with Enrico Camosci bubbling in fourth.

Juan Pardo Dominguez

Niklas Åstedt finished third. The former number one online player of the world picked up $17,000 for his deep run. The deciding heads-up was between Belgian high roller Bert Geens and the player to bust the event first: Juan Pardo Dominguez. Stevens would have to settle for second, earning $25,500. Dominguez invested $10,400 but walked away with a cash of $42,500 in the end, a profit of $32,100.

Main: $530 WPT 7-Max Knockout ($100K GTD)

Not even too long ago, players huddled up on 9-max tables as the standard. And if things got crowded, 10-handed tables weren’t unheard of in live tournaments either. Online, 8-max was the standard for the longest time, with 6-max being the most popular short-handed format. These days, more and more 7-max events pop up. For some, the perfect equilibrium between full ring and short-handed.

Last night on partypoker, the $100,000 guaranteed 7-Max Knockout event was played out. So, on top of seeing just seven players per table, everyone had a bounty of $250 on their heads. Half of that would be added to one’s bounty upon the elimination of a player. The progressive knockout format proved popular, as 226 entries were collected into the overall prize pool.

The tournament paid out 31 players. Ole Schemion busted in 33rd place, but he did recoup $125 from busting a player before his demise. Uwe Ritter didn’t get a discount on his buy-in as he busted not a single player before bubbling in 32nd place.

Philippe “takechip” D’eateuil was the first player eliminated in the money but made a healthy profit on the event as he not only received $585 from the regular prize pool but also $500 in bounties.

Such familiar names as Daniel Wilson (11th, $1,120 + $343), Paul Höfer (10th, $1,120 + $734), and Jonathan Proudfoot (9th, $1,387 + 437) came close to making the final table but just missed out.

Robert Heidorn

German regular Robert Heidorn did make the final table and went all the way, winning the event for a combined score of $23,369 ($9,597 + $13,772). Because of the bounties involved, Heidorn earned considerably more than runner-up Arnaud Enselme who took home $14,068 ($9,585 + $4,483).

Mini: $109 WPT 7-Max Knockout ($50K GTD)

The $109 buy-in edition of the 7-Max Knockout attracted a field of exactly 700 entries. Big-name players like Daan Mulders and Fabio Sperling busted very early on but had the option to use their single reentry to give it another try. Forking over a second $109 would grant them another 100,000 starting stack.

With 91 players paid, Norbert Papp from Austria must have been sick to his stomach busting in 92nd place. He did get $50 for busting a player before bubbling. Jochum “groengras” Weenink was the first player to bust in the money. He received the min-cash of $121 plus $87.50 in bounties.

Otavio Monteira from Brazil knocked out the event’s final player, a little before 2:30 am this morning. He defeated Iurii Prishliuk heads-up to walk away with $11,381 ($4,877 + $6,504). Prishliuk from Ukraine earned himself $6,155 ($4,870 + $1,285) for his runner-up spot.

Leaderboard

Top two players remain unchanged in the Player of the Championship leaderboard, Lars Kamphues takes third place.

The top two participated in last night’s $5,200 High Roller but failed to score points. A win would have netted 17 points to the leaderboard, but the standings remain unchanged for now.

Kristen Bicknell still leads with 212.35 points, Scott Margereson is slowly getting closer to Kristen, he sits in second with 172.42 points. Lars Kamphues takes third place on the leaderboard with 183.85 points.

Andres Ojeda takes the lead in the Rising Stars leaderboard, after a productive weekend. Taking 30th place in the WPT Mix-Max Micro Championship, a deep run in the WPT Mini Mix-Max Warm-up and 19th in the WPT Mix-Max Second Chance. Only the 10 best results count in this leaderboard, giving everyone still a chance to claim a place in the top 10. There’s $10,000 awaiting the winner of this leaderboard, so you can bet on it that players are going to play their hearts out for some more points. Luckily for them, the WPT World Online Championships lasts for another few weeks, so there’s still plenty of room to earn some points.

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