By Lisa Yiasemides
The final weekend in the WPT Online Series has been nothing short of epic. Two further titles were won after the one-day Super High Roller and High Roller Turbo events played to a winner last night. The Main Event continued with Day 1b now in the books, ahead of the final starting flight this afternoon and Day 2 on tonight’s schedule.
Not only that, but Day 1 in the $10,300 High Roller took place, while the WPT500, Super50, and Super5 all continued… and these are just a selection of the best highlights, with several other side events also taking place. First up though, let’s take a look at who was crowned champion in one of the biggest buy-in events of the series – the $25,500 Super High Roller.
Super High Roller ($1M GTD)
Another Sunday, another Super High Roller, and this time it was Wiktor Malinowski’s time to shine. After finishing runner-up to Simon Mattsson in the $10,300 High Roller a week ago, the Russian online star added another $354,791 to his winnings, bringing his total haul to more than half a million dollars across the two events.
Wiktor Malinowski
Malinowski busted early and put his second bullet to great use, a feat also produced by Sven Joakim Andersson ($142,110) who converted his second chance into a third-place finish. The Swede, who logged on to play from Malta, was outlasted by Joao Vieira though. The Portuguese pro, who was playing from the Netherlands, was the player to advance the furthest on only one bullet. He collected $217,902 for placing runner-up.
The field was one player short of reaching the guarantee, with 39 entries registered. Seven places were paid, and Juan Pardo Dominguez ($98,530) and Chi Zhang ($72,950) completed the top-five line-up, with Christoph Vogelsang ($61,117) and Mark Radoja ($52,600) the last two players to see a return. Sam Greenwood had the raw end of the deal, leaving on the bubble in 8th place.
High Roller Turbo ($250K GTD)
Another big buy-in event and another host of famous names in the lobby of the $5,200 High Roller Turbo. This time Russia faced off against Brazil in the finale, with the trophy, title, and top prize of $85,939 heading to South America after Bruno Volkmann triumphed over Artur Martirosian ($52,720).
The two players had to navigate their way through a 53-strong field that put a total of $265,000 in the pot, easily surpassing the guarantee. Diego Zeiter ($34,382) and Timothy Adams ($23,838) placed third and fourth, while Benjamin “bencb789” Rolle continued to impress this series, adding yet another cash to his resume with $17,649 won for reaching fifth place.
Nine of the field were paid with Elio Fox ($14,787) reaching 6th and Teun Mulder ($12,726) coming 7th. Joao Vieira had his second cash of the night, picking up a $11,527 min-cash for 8th, the same amount won by Steve O’Dwyer for inching into the money in 9th. Guy Laliberte was the unfortunate bubble boy this time, leaving empty-handed after being eliminated in 10th place.
Main Event ($3M GTD)
The jewel in the crown of the series continued last night, with Day 1b of the Main Event running at 19:05 (BST) last night. The $3,000,000 guarantee has almost been reached with 394 entries for the second flight putting $1,182,000 in the prizepool, which when added to the 521 runners in Day 1a brings the running total to $2,745,000.
A Turbo flight that gets underway at 16:05 is the last chance for hopefuls to get involved in the action, before Day 2 resumes later this evening at 20:05. Any survivors will join the 136 already through (78 from Day 1a and 58 from Day 1b).
Connor Drinan finished top of the counts for Day 1b, but the American pro has been displaced from the top spot after Stoyan Obreshkov accumulated an enormous 4,555,237 (152 big blinds) chips by the end of play…almost 23 times the 200,000-starting stack.
Stoyan Obreshkov
Brazilian star Yuri Dzivielevski (3,779,407) took second place last night and is currently sat in fourth place overall. Johannes Straver (3,448,555) was the only other player to advance from Day 1b with a stack worthy of a top-ten spot heading into Day 2.
Other notable survivors include partypoker’s Joao Simao (2,076,678), Fabiano Kovalski (1,933,234), Jonathan Van Fleet (1,821,978), and Daniel Colpoys (1,770,041), all of whom did enough to finish in the top 20.
WPTDeepStacks Champion Ioannis Angelou Konstas (1,457,080), Christoph Vogelsang (1,166,842), Duco Ten Haven (1,127,731), and David Peters (1,016,337) are just a few of the other big names still in contention.
Blind levels will start at 15,000/30,000 (3.75K ante) for Day 2. The live stream will be available for the Final Table (on Wednesday) over on the WPT Twitch channel, and live updates will be posted on WPT.com too. Prizepool and payouts will be confirmed once the final starting flight has concluded.
High Roller ($1M GTD)
It is déjà vu in the two-day High Roller, with online crusher Simon Mattsson (1,978,804) once again leading the $10,300 event as players prepare themselves for the second half tonight. The Swedish powerhouse led the equivalent event last week, going on to win it for $249,791.
Simon Mattsson
This week there were 101 starters, and of those 17 remain. Playing a stack at least double the size of everyone in third place and undernputs Mattsson in a strong position to go for back-to-back wins and once again take home the biggest share of the $1,010,000 prizepool. With a slightly bigger field this week the first-place prize is worth $252,288.
All 17 players have reached the money stages after Almedin “Ali” Imsirovic exited on the bubble in 18th place, simultaneously pausing the clock for Day 1. At least $21,489 is in the bag, and the top three prizes are all six-figure cashes with $168,093 and $117,344 the payouts for second and third places.
WPT Champion Alex Foxen (1,580,548), Elio Fox (929,005), Shawn Daniels (780,342) and Rok Gostisa (671,166) make up the rest of the top five positions. At the other end of the table sits Enricco Camosci, whose 99,998 chips put him bottom of the leaderboard. He will have to navigate some tough competition if he is to improve on a min-cash, with Niklas Åstedt (280,416), partypoker’s Kristen Bicknell (379,665), Joao Vieira (420,469) and Sam Greenwood (569,619) also still in the mix.
WPT500 ($1M GTD)
The third flagship event of the festival is really hotting up with five more starting flights taking place over the weekend:
Day 1g: 122
Day 1h : 162
Day 1i: 399
Day 1j: 277
Day 1 Turbo: 72
That means 1,820 entries have already been registered putting $910,000 in the prizepool so far. There is still time for the $1,000,000 guarantee to be reached as Day 1k (15:05) and a final Day 1 Turbo (17:05) are both on the schedule before Day 2 of this three-day event continues tonight at 20:05. There are currently 271 still in with a shot, and play will only pause when the final 9 remain.
Hungarian star Andras Nemeth is the leading the way with 12,874,614 in play. He will return with a huge 257-big blind stack with blinds at 25,000/50,000 (6.25K ante) and 16 minutes on the clock.
Andras Nemeth
Simon Mattsson’s (10,128,362) impressive performance this series continues and he comes back with 203 big blinds, which is good for fifth place. Mattsson’s compatriot Christian Jeppsson is also in a great position, with 9,333,694. The reining WPT Online Series Main Event Champion has also done enough to secure a top-ten spot – his 187 big blinds put him in 9th place.
The live stream will be available to watch from Day 2 (tomorrow) over on the WPT Twitch channel.
Super50 ($300K GTD)
It was a mammoth weekend in the $55 Super50 with seven Day 1s running over Saturday and Sunday:
Day 1f: 359
Day 1g: 329
Day 1 Turbo: 89
Day 1h: 540
Day 1i: 885
Day 1j: 649
Day 1 Turbo: 219
There are still two more starting flights – Day 1k (15:05) and a final Day 1 Turbo (17:05), before Day 2 recommences at 20:05 with blinds of 25,000/50,000 (6.25K ante) and a 16-minute clock.
Octavian Dima (15,527,876) leads the pack, with Valdevino Clemente Dos Anjos (13,187,592) and Aidas Židulis (11,498,776) in second and third places. Overall, 5,552 entries have been counted, which means a running total of $277,600 in the pot. So far 821 players are through to Day 2.
Super5 ($50K GTD)
Seven more starting flights in the Micro event and the total number of entries stands at 5,994. If you thought the stacks in the previous events were big, Thomas Doherty (19,065,466) in the Super5 knocked everyone out of the park when he virtually bagged 381 big blinds after smashing through the competition in Day 1j.
At the moment runner-up Anders Sandberg (15,143,325) is the only other player who will return with over 300 big blinds, although Maximiliano Vidal (14,068,394) comes close – his 281-big blind stack is enough to place him third in chips.
Day 1f: 492
Day 1g: 384
Day 1h Turbo: 93
Day 1i: 584
Day 1j: 604
Day 1k: 582
Day 1 Turbo: 159
There are four more chances to get in on the action as Day 1l (13:05), Day 1m (15:05), Day 1 Turbo (17:05), and Day 1 Hyper (18:30) all take place today. All survivors will join the 870 who have already advanced to Day 2, which starts at 20:05 this evening. Blinds will once again be 25,000/50,000 (6.25K ante) but blinds will be slightly faster with 14 minutes on the clock until Level 24 when they will increase to 18 minutes.
There is the potential for a lot of value for players who take part today, with $29,970 in the prizepool, some $20,000 under the guarantee.
Today’s schedule
