By Lisa Yiasemides
The inaugural WPT Online Series continued with Day 2 taking place yesterday on partypoker.com… and what a night it was! In addition to the conclusion of the Opener, Mini Opener, Knockout and Mini Knockout, Day 1b of the WPT500 and WPTSuper50 also took place. Not only that but an additional five new two-day tournaments also got underway and every single one smashed its guarantee!
There is so much to get through with a total of 11 tournaments taking place last night so let’s begin with the conclusion of the four tournaments that began on Sunday, May 3.
WPT Opener
The Opener lived up to its name, launching the entire series and yesterday, 19 survivors returned to fight for their share of the $2,173,150 prizepool. Leonardo Fernandez was the player who saw off all the opposition in the $5,200 event, taking home the top prize of $409,638. Zachary Clark finished runner up for $291,636 and Joey Weissman, who started Day 2 with the chip lead, made it as far as third place for $199,929. Sylvain Loosli also had a deep run, taking $51,069 for 7th place, whilst two-time WPT winner Mohsin Charania finished just outside the final table and won $29,772 for his 11th place finish.
Leonardo Fernandez
| Position | Name | Prize |
| 1 | Leonardo Fernandez | $409,638 |
| 2 | Zachary Clark | $291,636 |
| 3 | Joey Weissman | $199,929 |
| 4 | István Birizdó | $139,081 |
| 5 | Stewart Kirby | $98,661 |
WPT Mini Opener
Running in conjunction was the $530 Mini Opener and Evgeny Galakhov was the last player standing of the 1,362-strong field and collected $115,293 for his efforts. Meanwhile, Pavel Veksler, who started the day as chip leader, managed to convert his stack into a second-place finish, which was good for $81,992. The tournament also attracted some well-known players, with Tom Hall (19th) and Jack Salter (20th) both reaching the top twenty.
| Position | Name | Prize |
| 1 | Evgeny Galakhov | $115,293 |
| 2 | Pavel Veksler | $81,992 |
| 3 | Mohamed Mangroe | $53,322 |
| 4 | Ilya Anatski | $35,616 |
| 5 | Adam Hari | $25,333 |
Knockout
Next up was the $2,100 Knockout, which had a total prizepool of $1,002,000. Of the 18 players who made it through to the second and final day, and it was Paul Höfer who went the distance, locking up a total of $155,974 for first place after defeating Niklas Åstedt ($88,608) heads up. Ilya Anatski ($69,483) reached third place for their second top-five result of the night after finishing 4th in the Mini Opener for $35,616! Andrii Novak ($40,456) and Jack Sinclair ($44,003) rounded out the top five as Parker Talbot also made it to the final table, winning $35,774 for coming 8th and accumulating the second biggest bounty in the field. Max Silver (9th) and Team partypoker Jeff Gross (20th) also had deep runs.
Paul Höfer
| Position | Name | Prize (Includes Bounties) |
| 1 | Paul Höfer | $155,974 |
| 2 | Niklas Åstedt | $88,608 |
| 3 | Ilya Anatski | $69,483 |
| 4 | Andrii Novak | $40,456 |
| 5 | Jack Sinclair | $44,003 |
Mini Knockout
The $215 Mini Knockout offered big prizes in exchange for the $215 buy-in as 2548 entries generated a $509,600 prizepool. Vitor Dzivielevski scooped $57,686 for the win, with Jakub Michalak finishing runner up for $37,714 (both numbers include those all-important bounties).
| Position | Name | Prize (Includes Bounties) |
| 1 | Vitor Dzivielevski | $57,686 |
| 2 | Jakub Michalak | $37,714 |
| 3 | Jakob Miegel | $24,877 |
| 4 | Maksym Klopotok | $14,604 |
| 5 | Christopher Oliver | $12,891 |
Upcoming Final Days
With the first four tournaments of the series completed, there were five tournaments that got underway for the first time yesterday.
The $1,575 Superstack started at 6 pm* and 429 entries meant the $500,000 guarantee was smashed with $643,500 to play for. Of those, 56 were paid, which meant the clock paused just inside the money as 54 will return later today to compete for the $122,908 top prize. Bernard Larabi (1,180,450) will start in front but there will be some big names doing their best to challenge him with Gianluca Speranza (953,656), David Peters (741,016), Sylvain Loosli (712,622), Team partypoker players Dzmitry Urbanovich (482,233) and Roberto Romanello (400,970), and Patrik Antonius (326,744) among those still in contention.
David Peters
As with most of the tournaments on offer this series, the Mini Superstack presented the same tournament structure at a reduced price. Another huge hit with players, the 1,646-strong field put $246,900 into the prizepool, eclipsing the $150,000 guarantee. Erik Tamm (2,332,176), Gustavo Silva (1,839,456) and Hugo Silva (1,738,504) built the three biggest stacks and will return tonight to play out until someone wins the $41,652 first-place prize.
The $5,200 PLO High Roller got off the mark at 7 pm and 101 entries generated a prizepool worth $505,000. Day 1 finished with just 7 players left, well inside the money with 15 paid. Dan Shak finished one off the bubble and won’t be joining Bеселйн Kаракйтуков (701,198), Ola Amundsgaard (537,256), Rui Ferreira (445,279), Matthew Wantman (401,231), Sam Trickett (348,564), Mark Demirjian (302,762) and Lauri Varonen (293,710) who return at 7 pm tonight to play down to a winner, with $139,632 up top.
Sam Trickett
Completing the new entries into the series are the PLO Knockout and the Mini PLO Knockout. The former saw 242 players pay the $1,050 buy-in, which created a $242,000 prizepool (well ahead of the $200,000 guarantee) and $21,264 will go to the winner, though that doesn’t take into account the bounties so that number will only increase.
There are 10 players still in when play resumes later tonight and of those, Jesper Hougaard (1,588,293) starts in pole position, with Artsiom Prostak (1,392,777) and Benjamin Vinson (1,001,658) completing the top three stacks and indeed, the only players to reach seven-figures at the end of play. Javier Zarco (636,517) is also still in the running, whilst Dario Sammartino was unable to survive to Day 2, finishing outside the money.
The Mini PLO Knockout didn’t buck the trend, also going over its $50,000 guarantee with $59,000 collected in total via the 590 players who each bought in for $109. Aki Foudilainen (2,567,630) accumulated the most and starts a long way ahead of John Leslie (1,709,560) and Florian Duta (1,235,587) who made up the top three, but all that can change in poker and the $4,140 top prize is still anybody’s with those all-important bounties in addition to that.
WPT500 and WPT Super 50 continue
That leaves us with the WPT500 and WPT Super 50, which each saw their Day 1b flights play out. Ferenc Deak goes through as chip leader of 439 entrants with 444,257 in the bag. His closest rival is Artan Dedusha (409,127), whilst Team partypoker Anatoly Filatov (275,408) also fared well and Marvin Rettenmaier goes through with 97,962 when Day 2 of the WPT500 continues on May 11.
Anatoly Filatov
In the WPT Super 50 Jan Háša (532,655) and Yusuf Heptullabhai (525,159) go through in first and second place in the counts respectively. They are joined by fellow big stack Daniel Wilson (346,729). With nine more Day 1 flights to go, we are still a long way away from knowing what the players in this and the WPT500 will be playing for but what we do know is that it will be big! The WPT500 has a $2 million guarantee and the WPT Super 50 has a $1 million guarantee!
It’s goodbye for now but your next fix of the WPT Online Series will be posted here tomorrow after three new tournaments get underway – the $5,200 High Roller, 6-Max Bounty Hunter and the Mini 6-Max Bounty Hunter. Plus, there will be the conclusion of the Superstack, Mini Superstack, PLO High Roller, PLO Knockout and the Mini PLO Knockout all to look forward to!
*All times stated are GMT