Smyth defeats Loeser, wins WPT Knockout Championship for $413,391!

By Frank Op de Woerd

It’s not every day you can win over $400,000 in an online poker tournament, but today was such a day. The hugely popular Knockout Championships crowned their champions with Daniel Smyth triumphing as the biggest winner. The Irish qualified for the $3,200 buy-in event through a $33 satellite and now finds his name etched on the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup, the first-ever for winning a Progressive Knockout WPT title. Read up on all the action that led to this mammoth of an accomplishment.

Event #5 – Main: $3,200 WPT Knockout Championship ($3M GTD)

João Maureli opened the action from early position holding ace-king, which saw Matheus Resende push his final twelve big blinds in with pocket queens from the small blind. Maureli called to put his countryman at risk in a battle of the Brazilians. Resende saw a king-high flop, and no queen appeared on the flop, turn, or river, and that was it; Resende out in ninth place.

Shyngis Satubayev started the final table with fifteen big blinds but couldn’t get anything going. He made some disciplined laydowns, but ultimately – down to just a few big blinds – he pushed the cutoff with king-eight. His neighbor Pedro Marques called from the button holding ace-six suited and collected the Kazach’s bounty when he flopped an ace. Satubayev received $23,504 from the regular prize pool and just $750 from the bounty prize pool, which meant the players busting in positions nine through twelve made more in this event than he did.

While Ryan Riess doubled with a flush against two-pair to get back to forty big blinds, he was still the next player to go. Riess first lost back some chips flopping a pair and open-ended with eight-seven only to get rivered by Artur Martirosian. Not much later, Daniel Smyth pushed the button for eleven big blinds with jack-ten suited, and Riess called from the big for nine big blinds with pocket sevens. Smyth flopped a flush, and while the board paired on the turn, Riess couldn’t river his opponent and was eliminated in seventh place.

Ryan Riess – 7th $48,262

While Artur Martirosian had gotten lucky against Riess a little while back, he was the next with his head on the chopping block. Down to twelve big blinds, he pushed under the gun with ace-ten offsuit. With a nice-looking $10,000 bounty on his head, he found a caller in Pedro Marques on the button with pocket eights. The board bricked out, and Martirosian hit the rail in sixth place.

Down to just five players, Pedro Marques was the chip leader at one point but was still the next to go out. He first lost half his stack pushing with ace-five from the small blind to pressure Manig Loeser in the big blind. The German high roller called for almost twenty big blinds with king-jack off and was lucky enough to spike a jack on the turn to double. Loeser finished the job not much later, taking the remainder of Marques’ chips with ace-queen all in preflop against ace-jack. A queen on the turn paired Loeser while Marques picked up an inside straight draw, but the latter missed with a nine on the river, and that was it for Marques; out in fifth place.

Loeser was on fire after that, collecting more chips in a small pot against Gieles where he called with king-high. The next hand, Loeser and Gieles clashed again. Gieles, down to eighteen big blinds, shoved over Loeser’s small blind raise with ace-seven. Loeser called with ace-ten and stayed ahead on the board as both paired their ace, but no other significant cards appeared.

Loeser dominated from that moment on, but it would be a clash between the other two players that would get the tournament to heads-up. Start-of-day chip leader João Maureli committed the last of his chips with ace-four suited only to run into the pocket queens of Daniel Smyth. The board came no higher than a ten, and Maureli exited in third place, collected a gigantic $142,061 plus $32,449. Maureli qualified for the event in a $22 tournament and turned that into $174,510.

Loeser was in pole position for the trophy, starting with a lead of 95 big blinds against 53 big blinds. An exciting hand changed all that, though, swapping the positions. Smyth limped in holding pocket deuces, and Loeser checked his option in the big blind with queen-nine. The flop came deuce-king-jack, giving Loeser a gutshot to Broadway and a backdoor flush draw while Smyth flopped bottom set. Loeser bet out and called Smyth’s raise to grow the pot to twelve big blinds. An offsuit queen paired Loeser, and he check-called a bet of 5.3 million. The river came an inconsequential five, and Loeser checked once more. Smyth pushed 38 big blinds into the 27-big-blind-pot, and Loeser went deep into the tank. Ultimately, Loeser called with second pair only to be shown the set.

Fortunes changed again not much later, as Loeser flopped a straight with seven-five against Smyth’s flopped flush draw. The two got it in, and blanks on the turn and river saw Loeser double back into the lead.

Manig Loeser – 2nd $279,359

Loeser lost some chips back with both players getting to about even in chips after Smyth found an excellent value bet with pocket sixes against Loeser’s five-four for a pair of fives.

From there on out, Smyth dominated the action. Loeser kept bleeding chips, not winning many pots if any. Down to fourteen big blinds, Loeser shoved his button with eight-seven suited. Daniel Smyth called with king-nine to put Loeser at risk. The flop came ace-ten-four, not hitting either player. The nine on the turn paired Smyth, but Loeser picked up an open-ended to keep some hope of a double-up. A meaningless four completed the board, and Loeser was out in second place. Loeser, a staple on the high roller circuit, collected $208,492 plus $70,866 in bounties.

Daniel Smyth from Ireland, meanwhile, was crowned the champion. He collected $208,803 from the regular prize pool plus $204,588 in bounties for a combined score of $413,391. Smyth also gets a Hublot watch, Baccarat Crystal tumblers, and a $15,000-worth seat to next season’s Tournament of Champions tournament, donated by partypoker. Smyth qualified for the event through a $33 satellite and now is the first-ever to have his name on the Mike Sexton Cup after winning a World Poker Tour event in the progressive bounty format!

(Re-)Watch the action here!

Event #5 – Mini: $320 WPT Knockout Championship ($1M GTD)

The final day of the Mini edition of the WPT Knockout Championship got underway, with fourteen players remaining. Not before long, enough players had exited to see the remaining nine players take their virtual seats on the final table.

Faraz Jaka

Faraz Jaka, playing from Poland again, exited in ninth place for $4,695 plus a bounty payout of $2,531. Marc-Andre Ladouceur, another well-known player making it to the final table, busted in seventh for $7,552 plus $8,582.

Peter Patricio from Brazil fell next, receiving $12,528 plus a bounty of $8,031. Patricio earned more for his sixth-place finish than fifth-place finisher Milaim Tafaj who collected $18,141 plus $2,160.

Jans Arends, the longtime online grinder from the Netherlands, busted in fourth place. Arends, known as “graftekkel” online on sites that don’t display real names, earned $26,529 plus $6,100.

Julian Stuer, the German high roller playing from Austria, was next to go as he found himself eliminated in third place for $40,373 plus $11,193.

The deciding heads-up was between start-of-day chip leader Dániel Koloszár and Thomas Reckziegel Nelz. The former would dominate and take down the title for $60,800 plus $47,784 in bounties. Nelz had to settle for second-place and $60,696 plus $3,548.

Event #5 – Micro: $33 WPT Knockout Championship ($300K GTD)

Fifty players returned for the final day of the micro Knockout Championship. Vinícius Miranda went out in 48th place and was the only player to get no bounty payment.

Ludmil Ivanov from Bulgary started in the lead but couldn’t leverage his sizable stack into a final table position. Ivanov busted in nineteenth place for $536 plus $914 in bounties.

Mauricio Farias had started the day second in chips but had departed long before Ivanov, going out in 44th place ($259 + $733). Third-place starter Pavel Fedorov had not much luck on the final day either, exiting in 33rd place for $300 plus $1,518 in bounties.

While the start-of-day big stacks couldn’t do it, Gabriel Merenda from Brazil could. He outright won the tournament for a score of $17,946 plus $9,271 in bounties. Nodor Nakdidze from Georgia finished runner-up for $17,916 plus $1,367. Robert Champagne from Canada uncorked a bottle for his third-place finish earning himself $11,958 plus $955.

Main: $530 WPT 8-Max Knockout ($100K GTD)

After some multi-day events, it was nice to see a one-and-done event in the WPT 8-Max Knockout. With $100,000 guaranteed and its promise just taking a single day, 214 entries were collected. After a little over seven hours, just one player was still standing.

Preben Stokkan was the first player to find himself eliminated, and he opted not to buy back in.

Enrico Camosci bubbled the event in 33rd place, guaranteeing the remaining 32 a payout of at least $624. That was the amount Kristen Bicknell and Scott Margereson took home. Bicknell’s partner Alex Foxen did a bit better but ultimately fell in twelfth place for $1,068 plus $1,343 in bounties.

Joseph Cheong, playing from Mexico, made it to the final table but bowed out in seventh place for $1,952 plus a small bounty of $375.

The title went to Andrey Kotelnikov from Russia, who collected $9,666 plus $16,093 in bounties. Kotelnikov had a successful series at the start of the year at the WPT in Sochi and proved he knows his way around online as well.

Andrey Kotelnikov

Mini: $109 WPT 8-Max Knockout ($50K GTD)

Almost 700 entries were collected in the WPT Mini Knockout, easily surpassing the $50,000 guarantee put on the event.

Swedish regular Robin Ylitalo busted in 92nd place and was the last player to go home entirely empty-handed. Tom Mannifield from the United Kingdom bubbled in 89th place, though he did walk away with $87.50 in bounties.

Andrey Kotelnikov, who outright won the $530 buy-in edition of this event, made it to the final table in this $109 event as well. He ultimately fell in fifth place to add $1,630 plus $225 to his bankroll.

After eight hours and 51 seconds of play, Julian Selinger from Germany triumphed. He beat Venezuelan poker player Agustin Sirit heads-up to walk away with $4,960 plus $6,026 in bounties. Sirit had to do with $4,953 plus $991.

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