by Christian Zetzsche
The 2021 World Poker Tour Online Series on partypoker is in full swing as the first full week of poker action is nearing an end. It all kicked off on May 14 and the second weekend of the festival showcases several feature events. Among them are the three editions of the Weekender, the $530 WPT500 Knockout and the first starting day of the $3,200 WPT Online Main Event.
Lets have a closer look at how these events have done so far and what their remaining schedule is.
WPT Event #18 $1,050 Weekender ($500k GTD)
There may be plenty of value up for grabs in the highest tier of the Event #18 Weekender as the first two starting days only attracted 176 entries combined. The tournament features a guarantee of $500,000 and the far busiest last flight still remains on May 23 at 16:05 BST, four hours ahead of the final day.
Day 1a on Friday, May 21, attracted a field of 60 entries. Once the final nine players concluded the action for the night, it was Gediminas Uselis who coasted to a big lead. The Lithuanian warned $1,500 in bounties and a stack of 2,048,777, more than two times of second-placed Aramis Salvadori (828,598). Hannes Speiser bagged the third-biggest stack worth 742,445 ahead of Mohammed Sadiq (650,429) and UK-based Spanish poker pro David Loper Llacer (471,541).
Also among the survivors were Arnaud Enselme and Yvonne Stiedl.
One day later on May 22, the field size for Day 1b nearly doubled thanks to 116 entries. Plenty of notables took part and it was Russian poker pro Dmitry Yurasov who soared to a big stack of 1,520,393. Another three players earned more than 1 million in chips including Jens Kerper (1,307,008), Markus Prinz (1,291,181), and Pascal Dircks (1,291,181).
Michiel Brummelhuis finished a solid day of poker with bagging and tagging in this event, too, as he is one of 26 players who will return for Day 2. Others were not as fortunate. Tobias Schwecht was the last to bust, big names such as Alex Foxen, Pablo Brito Silva, Joseph Cheong, Artur Martirosian, Ami Barer and Anatoly Filatov will all have to jump into Day 1c to give it another shot.
Day 1a: 60 entries, 9 survivors
Day 1b: 116 entries, 17 survivors
Day 1c: Sunday May 23 at 16:05 BST
Day 2: Sunday May 23 at 20:05 BST
WPT Event #18 $109 Mini Weekender ($200k GTD)
The first of three starting days for the $109 Mini Weekender drew a total of 502 entries. Only 75 of them made the cut the Ukraine’s Ihor Machalov earned the top spot thanks to accumulating 2,244,773 chips. He also earned $187.50 in bounty prizes, which is fewer than his nearest followers have already locked up.
Ronnie Marland finished in second place with 2,205,178 and was the only player to earn more than two million in chips. Netherlands based Portuguese pro Jose Costa earned the final spot on the podium on Day 1a with 1,747,047 in chips.
Day 1b drew a bigger field of 562 entries and 84 players advanced. Brazil’s Vitor Adiron took over the overall lead with a stack of 2,535,701 and established a solid margin over Petar Leshtov (2,017,386) in the flight. Michiel Brummelhuis showcased his skills in the lower buy-in tier as well and earned the fifth-biggest stack of 1,517,668.
The event features a guaranteed prize pool of $200,000 and one further starting day awaits on Sunday, May 23 at 16:05 BST. Four hours later, all Day 1 survivors continue their path to crowning a champion as the event plays down to a winner.
Day 1a: 502 entries, 75 survivors
Day 1b: 562 entries, 84 survivors
Day 1c: Sunday May 23 at 16:05 BST
Day 2: Sunday May 23 at 20:05 BST
WPT Event #18 $11 Micro Weekender ($40k GTD)
The bargain tournament of Event #18 Weekender comes with a buy-in of just $11 and massive $40,000 guarantee. Two of the three starting flights have already wrapped up with more than 2,400 in total entries recorded.
Day 1a was the bigger of the two flights and attracted a field of 1,319 entries, which was whittled down to the top 197 survivors that all made the cut for the final day. The top three were separated by only a few big blinds as Leandro Martins took the lead with a stack of 2,793,756, followed by Gheorghe Raru (2,739,070) and Jacob Roikjer Kristensen (2,736,311). Only two other players finished with more than 2 million in chips including Anthony Clancy (2,077,057) and Andrea Laini (2,008,532).
Out of 1,090 entries on Day 1b, only 163 made the cut to avoid another entry on the final starting day. Siarhei Aliakseyeu may have missed out on the overall lead but his stack of 2,217,564 is the fourth-biggest overall. The Belorussian also earned $33.11 in bounties, only Cormac Farrell (2,095,787) had that beat with $36.64 worth of bounty prizes. Other big stacks belonged to Enrico Rocci Dias (2,009,546), Calvin Swannenberg (1,929,239) and Rakesh Patel (1,790,270).
One further chance awaits for all those that fancy knockout action, as Day 1c is slated to kick off at 16:05 BST. As usual, $5 of each entry will go towards the progressive knockout pool while the remaining $5 will go to the regular cash prize pool.
Day 1a: 1,319 entries, 197 survivors
Day 1b: 1,090 entries, 163 survivors
Day 1c: Sunday May 23 at 16:05 BST
Day 2: Sunday May 23 at 20:05 BST
$530 WPT500 Knockout ($1M GTD)
The WPT500 Knockout is more than half-way through all flights and Mexico-based Markus Altkirch remains atop the leaderboard. He turned his starting stack of 500,000 into 13,840,700 on Day 1c, which is more than 2.5 million ahead of the next contender. Altkirch also racked up more than $2,100 in bounties already, which is the most by any Day 2 qualifier so far.
Daniel Rezaei
Day 1d saw 164 entries of which 25 players reached the top 15 percent. Austria’s Daniel Rezaei (pictured above) accumulated the most chips and finished the night with 6,801,291, ahead of Dutchman Yuri Steketee (6,257,654) and the always dangerous Andras Nemeth (5,522,346). Dat Ngo Tat (5,461,155) and Andrey Pateychuk (5,133,654) completed the top five.
The lowest turnout of all flights thus far emerged on Day 1e, which attracted 117 entries. Only 18 players qualified for Day 2 and Portuguese poker pro Rui Bouquet bagged and tagged 5,968,739. That was narrowly ahead of Lithuania’s Gediminas Uselis, who finished the night with 5,937,744. Other big stacks of the flight belonged to Srikant Vedutla (5,662,063), Marcus Farthing (5,304,761), and John Mooney (4,959,065).
On Day 1f, 182 entries boosted the overall field size further. Charles La Boissoniere finished at the top of the leaderboard with a stack of 8,896,542. The French-Canadian was the only player to earn a four-digit bounty prize and locked up $1,406,25 for the efforts already while joining the overall top 10 for Day 2. He was followed by Alexey Savenkov (7,558,201), Daniel Smiljkovic (6,308,720), Steven Van Zadelhoff (6,209,965) and Vitalii Pankov (5,995,394) who all earned spots inside the top 20 overall.
The starting days so far at a glance:
Day 1a: 208 entries, 31 survivors
Day 1b: 159 entries, 23 survivors
Day 1c: 137 entries, 21 survivors
Day 1d: 164 entries, 25 survivors
Day 1e: 117 entries, 18 survivors
Day 1f: 182 entries, 27 survivors
With six starting days now concluded, 145 players have qualified for Day 2. The event has another three starting days scheduled, two of which will take place today. Furthermore, the final flight will be a turbo edition and kicks off at 16:05 BST on Monday, May 24. Soon after, Day 2 will see all Day 1 survivors return to their seats at 19:05 BST to play down to the nine-handed final table.
$3,200 WPT Online Main Event ($3M GTD)
All eyes are set on the start of the highly anticipated WPT Online Main Event, which comes with a price tag of $3,200. Those who don’t have the bankroll to buy in directly still have plenty of satellites at their disposal to earn their shot for a fraction of the expense.
For example, the phase Mega Satellite will guarantee at least 50 seats and so far, 210 players have qualified. Further satellites such as a 20 and 10 seat guaranteed feeders with a buy-in of $320 are available as well.
Day 1a of the Season 19 WPT Online Main Event will then get underway at 19:05 BST. Thanks to the slow structure with levels of 25 minutes each, there will be plenty of time to navigate for players to navigate their stacks. The late registration will be possible until the end of level 9 and one single re-entry is allowed for the first of two starting days.
Similar to all other major events of the ongoing festival, Day 1a will conclude when 15% of the field remains. All players receive 200,000 in chips and the first level features blinds of 500/1,000 with a running ante of 125.
A quick look at the registered players reveals such big names as Steven van Zadelhoff, Aneris Adomkevicius, Fabio Sperling, Scott Wellenbach, Pablo Brito, Harry Lodge, partypoker Team Online’s Matthew Staples, Patrice Brandt, and Charles La Boissoniere.
The second and final starting day of the 2021 WPT Online Main Event on partypoker is scheduled to take place exactly one week later on Sunday, May 30 at 19:05 BST. Until then, plenty of phase satellites provide hopefuls of all bankrolls a chance at a life-changing score.
In Season 18, the WPT Online Main Event attracted a field of 2,130 entries and total prize pool of $6.39 million. Swedish poker pro Christian Jeppsson joined the WPT Champions Club after cutting a deal with Viktor Ustimov. Jeppsson walked away with $923,786 for his efforts while Ustimov had to settle for $865,542. Among the finalists were also well-known poker pros Pascal Hartmann (6th place for $151,443) and Sam Greenwood (7th place for $103,838).
Christian Jeppsson
Today’s Schedule:
