By Lisa Yiasemides
Monday nights aren’t generally considered a staple in the online poker calendar, but last night was most definitely an exception as two more trophies were handed out in the $530 and $55 6-Max Turbo events.
Not only that, but the final starting flights of the WPT500 played out at the same time and after 10 days of anticipation, the wait is almost over with the final taking place tonight!
The live stream of the final table kicks off at 8 pm* and James Dempsey will be your host! The WPT Champions Club member will provide commentary and analytics from start to finish. It promises to be a fantastic evening and you can watch it all by clicking here.
6-Max Turbo – $530
Last night saw two more hugely successful turbo outings and both far exceeded their guarantees. The $530 ($100,000 guaranteed) event drew 370 players to the virtual felt raising $185,000 for the pot. With around four-and-a-half-hours of play, Andrey Kotelnikov went the distance, eliminating his last opponent, Ashley Cleaver, to secure the top prize.
Andrey Kotelnikov
Ambrose Carr, who is currently sat in 9th place on the series’ Leaderboard, added another final table result to his resume. Mohsin Charania went deep too, taking 9th place for $4,533, as did Joey Weissman (18th) and Georgios Zisimopoulos (20th).
Chance Kornuth (26th), Ioannis Angelou-Konstas (29th), Team partypoker Dzmitry Urbanovich (30th), Dimitar Danchev (44th) and Team partypoker Jamie Staples (46th) also made it to the money stages, with 48 paid.
Mini 6-Max Turbo
The Mini version was anything but, with 1,206 entries creating a $60,300 prizepool. After nearly six hours of battle across the felt, it was João Manana who lifts the trophy, with WPT’s very own Joaquim Tirach coming closest to dethroning him.
Christoph Moritz, Santtu Kalevi Leinonen, Gytis Lazauninkas and Antoine Goutard were the other final tablists.
Continues Tonight
WPT500
Yesterday saw the final two starting flights get underway, one at 2 pm and the turbo instalment at 5pm, ahead of Day 2 that began at 8 pm. There were 298 registrations in the first and 408 in the second, which combined with the previous flights meant a total of 4,828 players created themselves a very tasty prizepool of $2,414,000!
With another guarantee smashed, 681 players settled down to play 18 levels, with the option to late register until the end of the first level and join all those who had survived Day 1.
With a minimum of $17,961 in the bag, there is still so much more to play for. Walter Treccarichi starts in front but there is a difference of just two big blinds between him, Fabio Sperling in second and Philipp Dietrich in third. Christopher Pütz and Markus Prinz sit in the middle of the standings, with a big gap between them and Арутюн Саакян, Fabrizio Gonzalez, Giuseppe Vassallo and Daan Mulders.
Walter Treccarichi
Anything can happen though, so watch this space to find out who walks away with the $371,322 top prize, the trophy and the first flagship event title of the series!
PLO High Roller – $10,300
There were 120 players in the PLO High Roller and by the end, just six players remain in contention of the $302,288 top prize, with at least $49,800 in the bag. They are chip leader Marcello Marigliano (859,944), Веселин Каракитуков (682,052), Andrew Pantling (629,153), Jens Kyllönen (621,225), Andras Nemeth (518,523) and Gavin Cochrane (289,103).
Marcello Marigliano
Jake Schindler was unable to find a second win, after taking down the $3,200 PLO event the day before. He was the last player to bust before time was called and took $37,800 for finishing in 7th place. Jonathan Depa (8th), Joni Jouhkimainen (11th), Dan Shak (12th), Almedin Imsirovic (17th) and Niklas Åstedt (18th) were some of the notables that made a return on their investment, which came at the expense of Norbert Szecsi who unfortunately bubbled the $22,019 min-cash.
PLO – $2,100
A total of 168 entries were logged, but by the end of Level 12 only 10 were still standing. Kristoffer Edberg (1,018,550) was the only player to bag over a million in chips. Saku Näsman (768,909) is best placed to challenge, with Carlo Van Ravenswoud (652,327) in third, Farid De Jesus Jattin Jaraba (504,095) in fourth and Patrik Antonius (477,033) taking the last top-five spot.
Arvi Vainionkulma (465,580), Joao Vieira (390,305), Benjamin Juhasz (312,947), Matthew Wood (307,385) and Maksim Shuts (142,899) also made it through and all have banked a minimum of $6,720 for getting this far.
Leo Fermandez (13th), Mike Watson (14th), Niklas Åstedt (15th), Team partypoker Patrick Leonard (19th) and Chance Kornuth (23rd) also reached the money stages.
Mini PLO – $215
That wasn’t the end of the PLO action as the Mini got started at the same time. The event attracted 361 players and Joao Studart had the most productive day, accumulating a huge 3,059,534 chips by the end of play! Alexander Harty (1,978,422) is best placed to challenge, followed by Arvi Vainionkulma (1,090,518).
The final 15 have all won at least a $722 share of the $72,200 prizepool but will all be aiming for the $14,441 prize for first place. Day 2 gets underway at 7pm, (which is the same for all the PLO events this evening) and will play down to a winner.
WPT Super 50 continues
A further $38,800 has been deposited into the WPT Super 50 prizepool, with 776 registrations logged in last night’s flight. Lucio Bernardo (463,054), Madalin Cornel Petraru (433,769), James Roe (426,850), Roberto Carvallo (424,115) and Paul Johnston (400,012) take the biggest stacks through.
The huge numbers that have played this tournament are proof of the incredible value it offers players of more modest buy-in events. That doesn’t mean that the event hasn’t appealed to high stakes players too though, with Shawn Buchanan and Viktor Ustimov a couple of the latest big names to bag themselves a seat into Day 2.
Coming up tonight
As well as the exciting finale to the WPT500, there will also be a $5,200 High Roller, a $2,650 Bounty Hunter and $265 Mini Bounty Hunter all getting underway tonight as WPT and partypoker.com continue to deliver on their promise to provide great structured games across varying stake levels.
Leaderboard
Please note this takes into account results up to and including May 10
Rui Ferreira’s lead is now 126 points clear of Paul Höfer in second place, following his victory in the $320 Mini PLO event two days ago. The rest of the top five remains unchanged.
*All times referred to are BST.