By Lisa Yiasemides
It was a mammoth evening of poker with 12 players nabbing themselves a WPT title in tournaments that ranged from $11 all the way up to $25,500! Not only that but this week’s Big Game events started with Day 1 taking place in each of the three.
Meanwhile, the jewel in the crown of the entire festival – The $10,300 WPT Main Event Championship – got underway with the first starting flight kicking things off last night.
It may have been Day 1a in the Main, but the Mini continued after a week’s break since last weekend. Yesterday, it was time to continue with Day 1b in the $1,050 event. It is a bumper edition of the blog for sure, so we had better get started by looking at each of the latest WPT title-holders.
Yesterday’s winners
$25,500 Super High Roller ($500K GTD)
There were plenty of huge buy-in tournaments to choose from for those with the bankrolls to play, but the largest of the night was the $25,500 Super High Roller. Twenty-three players wanted in, surpassing the guarantee, with $575,000 collected by the time late registration was over.
Artur Martirosian was the first player out. He bought back in but busted again shortly after in 20th place. Other notable eliminations included Sam Greenwood (22nd), Dan Smith (13th), Stephen Chidwick (11th), Timothy Adams (8th), Sergi Reixach (6th), partypoker’s Jason Koon (5th) and Christian Rudolph who bubbled in fourth place.
David Peters
That meant the remaining three players had locked up at least $115,000 and Germany’s Christoph Vogelsang took the ‘min’-cash, a term that hardly seems appropriate when referring to a six-figure sum of money. Once Vogelsang had gone, the remaining two agreed on a deal. Team partypoker Isaac Haxton took runner up, while David Peters (who sits in 7th place on the all-time money list) took a quarter of a million dollars and the trophy for placing first.
$10,300 High Roller ($300K GTD)
It may have been smaller, but $10K is still a huge buy-in and it was only inevitable that the player list would overlap with some of those that played the SHR. Thirty players (including re-entries) were in, hitting the guarantee on the nose.
It took precisely five hours and seven minutes for Vyacheslav Buldygin ($133,500) to take the top spot, the Russian denying Finn Pauli Äyräs ($84,000) the honour. Koray Aldemir ($52,500) took third place, while Dan Smith took a $30,000) min-cash for reaching fourth.
That meant Sam Greenwood (5th) bubbled, while Roberto Romanello (7th), Almedin ‘Ali’ Imsirovic (8th), Daniel Dvoress (11th) and Mikita ‘Nikita’ Badziakouski (13th) were just a handful of the other big names that took part but couldn’t find a return on their investment.
$5,200 High Roller Turbo ($150K)
Once again 30 players took part in this faster-speed event, and once again that meant the prize pool guarantee was met exactly for the second time last night. Andras Nemeth (24th), online crusher Jonathan Van Fleet (23rd), Rob Yong (16th), Arnaud Enselme (11th) and Fedor Holz (8th) all popped in for a quick game, one that was to last just two and a half hours.
Michael Addamo
Chris Hunichen bubbled in 5th place, allowing Kristen Bicknell into profit as she took the first of two cashes of the evening. Juan Pardo Dominguez and Corné Scheel went even further, but neither player could stop Michael Addamo, who made a fantastic return of $66,750 for his victory.
$1,050 Superstack ($200K GTD)
Kicking off the bumper schedule yesterday were three Superstack tournaments that took place at 3 pm (BST). The first, the Main, was won by Alexey Romanov ($40,130). The Russian saw off all of the 198 field, including the player who came closest to challenging for the crown – partypoker’s Kristen Bicknell. The team partypoker representative adds another big cash to her series resume with another $29,210 added to her bankroll.
Romanov may have taken the title, but Bicknell won some very valuable Player of the Championship Leaderboard points (she is currently sat in second place, behind Scott Margereson) and it will be interesting to see how this result affects the standings tomorrow.
Jakob Miegel ($20,840), Fabian Gumz ($15,600) and Michiel Brummelhuis ($11,000) all did well to reach the top five and all nabbed themselves five-figure scores for their respective results. They outlasted some very tough opponents to do so that included Luc Greenwood (7th, $6,500), partypoker’s Josip Simunic (12th, $3,560) and Rainer Kempe (22nd, $2,500).
Ben Heath was also in the running and the Brit picked up a $2,080 min-cash for placing 30th, with 32 places paid. Francesco Romanello was the player to leave on the bubble, in 33rd place.
$215 Mini Superstack ($100K GTD)
Over in the Mini and 543 players sat down to play, creating a $108,600 pot. It took a mammoth 11 hours and 24 minutes for a conclusion to be reached, with the UK’s David Hudson taking the title and $19,990 after beating Russia’s Aleksandr Volkov, who took the runner up prize of $14,238.
Luiz De Melo was also in contention near the end. The Micro Main Event Champion took $4,778 for fifth place, finishing just behind Ludvig Lindström ($6,787) in fourth and Emil Hansson ($9,705) in third places.
Bertil Andreas Samuelsson (10th, $1,433), Ole Schemion (12th, $1,433), Ben Jones (34th, $597) and partypoker’s Renato Nomura (39th, $597) were among the 72 players paid. Przemysław Piotrowski managed to sneak into the money, collecting a $488 min-cash and denying Jose Abreu (73rd) who left on the bubble.
$22 Micro Superstack ($25K GTD)
Lawend Mardini Himmo took down the last of the three Superstack events, winning an impressive $6,745 after seeing off a field of 2,042. The Swede took the trophy after defeating runner up Istvan Habenicius, who hails from Hungary.
$1,050 7-Max Weekender PKO ($500K GTD)
The two-day Weekender events began with the Turbo 1c flights taking place at 4:05 pm. In the Main, 204 entries were counted, bringing the final total to 562 across the three starting flights, which meant all those who survived to Day 2 were playing for a share of $562,000.
There were 91 players still in with a shot at the start of Day 2 and all of them made the money. Matias Federico Gabrenja took a $979 + $750 min-cash for placing 91st, setting into motion a slew of eliminations that included the likes of Adrian Mateos (82nd, $979), Scott Margereson (78th, $979 + $1,125), Patrick Leonard (58th, $1,168 + $250), Pablo Brito Silva (51st, $1,168, $1,125) and Claas Segebrecht (33rd, $1,646 + $1,843).
Even more of poker’s biggest names made it into the top 20, with Manig Loeser (20th, $2,425 + $1,937), Sergio Aido (13th, $3,057 + $3,109), Alex Foxen (11th, $3,889 + $3,171) and Dominik Nitsche (9th, $5,020 + $3,593) all coming extremely close, particular Nitsche who bubbled a final table seat.
Viktor Ustimov (8th, $5,020 + $3,890), Zoltan Schmidt (7th, $6,617 + $6,640) and Alexandru Baron (6th $8,730 + $8,109) were next to leave, before Jakob Miegel took his second final-table result of the night (after placing 4th in the $1,050 Superstack). Daniel Colpoys was out next in fourth place, before WPT Mix-Max Champion Andrey Kotelnikov hit the rail in third.
That left Andrii Novak and Simone Speranza to duel for the title and the bigger cash prize, with the latter managing to go the distance for a cash worth $81,740, including almost four times as many bounties as Colpoys who had the second-largest amount collected via knockouts.
$109 Mini 7-Max Weekender PKO ($200K GTD)
A further 885 players (including re-entries) took part in the turbo Day 1c flight, which meant another guarantee smashed, with $242,500 collected in total. The 2,425 entries had been reduced to 430 by the time Day 2 got underway and with 427 places paid, just three would unfortunately leave with nothing. Danton Gomes (428th) exited on the pure bubble and didn’t collect any bounties to offset some of the buy-in cost.
It would take eight hours to reach the very end and it was Robert-Andrei Burlacu who took the title, coming out on top of a heads-up match against Volodymyr Panchenko. Jason Guiley, American star Chance Kornuth and Mark Wells took third to fifth spots, with Vadim Stoyanov (6th, $2,937 + $765), Matthew Wilkins (7th, $2,177 + $2,211) and Paulo Brombim (8th, $1,606 + $1,238) taking the rest of the final tables seats.
Other notable finishers were Georgios Zapalas (14th, $875 + $168), Fabio Sperling (32nd, $395 + $621) and partypoker’s Jaime (360th, $91 + $87) and Matt Staples (395th, $89 + $200), the latter making more than his brother after collecting more than double the cash value in bounties.
$11 Micro 7-Max Weekender PKO ($50K GTD)
The only event of the three not to reach its guarantee, but it gave it a good shot all the same, with 4,778 entries generating $47,780 towards the prize pool. By the time Day 2 had got out of the starting blocks, 748 players were still in and 707 of those would be paid.
It would take over nine hours, but in the end, it would be Tomasz Podyma who would cut himself the biggest slice of the prize pool. He did it after beating runaway Day 1 chip leader Thiago Felipe, who did well to convert his advantage into a runner-up result.
$2,100 7-Max Turbo PKO ($200K GTD)
The last three winners of the night were all in 7-Max turbo PKO comps and Arnaud Enselme bagged himself the biggest prize of all, with winnings totalling $58,932, including a huge $36,937 in bounties. Partypoker’s Josip Simunic had a great run but couldn’t defeat Enselme. Simunic takes $23,223 including $1,250 in bounties for finishing runner up.
Arnaud Enselme
Once again, there were a ton of big names in the field, both in and outside of the top five. Founder of Dusk Till Dawn cardroom and poker Ambassador Rob Yong made his first final table of the night (5th, $11,149 including $3,875 bounties). Sergei Denisov (14th, $2,657) sneaked into the money and joining him with a min-cash were Kahle Burns (13th) and Manig Loeser (12th). Incidentally, all three collected $1,250 for two bounties apiece.
Another player to take $1,250 for two eliminations was Charlotte ‘Charlie’ Godwin (15th), who technically finished on the bubble, though it was Igor Yaroshevskyy (17th) who was the player to reach the highest position only to leave empty-handed.
$215 Mini 7-Max Turbo PKO ($100K GTD)
Viktor Ustimov ($17,789, including $10,370 bounties) has featured regularly in the cashes during this series but last night saw the Russian bag his first win, after taking down the Mini event. Mateusz Dziewonski ($8,262, including $853 bounties) was his last opponent, and the Pole had to settle for second place, his departure bringing to an end five and a half hours of play.
The tournament saw 515 entries put $103,000 into the prize pool and 77 of those reached the money stages of the competition, with $211 the min-cash.
$22 Micro 7-Max Turbo PKO ($30K GTD)
Diogo Gomes was the 12th player to win themselves a WPT title after besting Damian Siewert heads up to take $3,991 (including $1,925 bounties) from a total prize pool worth $31,820. It may have been a turbo, but with a field of 1,591, it still took 6 hours to play to a winner.
Concludes tonight
$5,200 Big Game ($1M GTD)
Samuel Vousden (37,040,517) leads the final table in the Big Game. Nine players survived eight hours and 40 minutes of battle and they will return tonight to fight it out for the $219,750 top prize with at least $25,500 locked up for making it this far.
The player most likely to catch Vousden is second-chip leader Christopher Oliver (29,204,872) but with the likes of Pascal Lefrancois (25,823,218), Mustapha Kanit (20,308,248), Alexandru Papazian (16,890,901) and Manig Loeser (5,481,448) all still in the mix, things could easily change.
A total of 191 players signed up at the start and 24 made it to the money. Among them were David Peters (23rd, $12,500), Sam Greenwood (17th, $12,500), Mikita Badziakouski (15th, $16,500), Alex Foxen (13th, $16,500) and partypoker’s Ludovic Geilich (12th, $21,000) who made the last ladder of the night.
The second and final day takes place tonight at 7:05 pm, where blinds resume at Level 24 – 300,000/600,000 75,000 ante.
$530 Mini Big Game ($300K GTD)
The Mini version was still large by online standards, with 593 registrations paid before late reg closed. At the end of Day 1, Andreas Christoforou leads with 112,440,129, which is worth 94 big blinds when Day 2 recommences at 7:05 pm tonight, with Level 29 and blinds of 600,000/1,200,000 150,000 ante.
Christoforou is trailed by Sebastian Camilo Toro Henao (84,417,316), Marc-Olivier Grandmaitre (77,171,872), Dutch pro Jans Arends (65,416,755), and Viktor Ustimov (54,964,212) who completes the top five.
Other big names are still in contention of the $54,517 top prize, such as Javier Gomez Zapatero (33,598,348) and Jonathan Proudfoot, who returns bottom of the counts with 14,427,044. It may look like an uphill battle with just 12 big blinds to play with, but at least Proudfoot comes back knowing he has won at least $3,840 for making it this far.
Josip Simunic (15th) and Robert Heidorn (16th) both banked $3,060 leaving shortly before the whistle blew. They each made one more ladder than Maria Ho did (17th, $2,430) for her deep run, with all three pros ranking among the top 20 with a total of 80 places paid.
$55 Micro Big Game ($100K GTD)
The Micro edition saw the largest field, and the largest number of survivors make it through. Forty-three of 1,883 entries will sit down again tonight, and Gustavo Silva begins in pole position with 101,933,483. The Brazilian was the only player to exceed one hundred million chips, though Vaidas Siriunas (92,016,080) and Véronique Fournier (90,118,210) start by no means short, both doing enough to take second and third spots in the counts.
They all come back to play Level 29, with blinds of 600,000/1,200,000 150,000 ante and have secured a minimum of $280, but they could win anything up to $16,575 and the title should they take first place.
To be continued
Event #08: $10,300 Main Event Championship ($10M GTD)
Finally, after what has felt like a long time coming, the highly anticipated Main Event kicked off last night at 7:05 pm. There were 18 levels on the clock, each one 25-minutes long. By the end, Blaž Žerjav had acquired the most chips, turning 200,000 into 4,400,082. He is trailed by two big names in the poker world, Dominik Panka (2,834,144) and Shaun Deeb (2,744,492) who finished in second and third places respectively.
Shaun Deeb
More than $5 million was collected over the course of Day 1a as 521 early birds wanted in as soon as possible. Artur Martirosian (6th, 2,397,438), Dylan Linde (11th, 1,953,957), Ajay Chabra (14th, 1,872,971), Jan-Eric Schwippert (15th, 1,858,525), Kenny Hallaert (17th, 1,730,548) and Sami Kelopuro (18th, 1,728,723) were just a few examples of the poker talent in the mix yesterday and all made it into the top 20 by the end.
Plenty of other big names graced the impressive player list. Stephen O’Dwyer (47th, 1,095,392), Kahle Burns (51st, 947,872) and Scott Margereson (59th, 809,335) are all still in. Team partypoker had several representatives who made it through to the second stage of the competition too, with Philipp Gruissem (34th, 1,280,141) and Dzmitry Urbanovich (62nd 755,512) finding a bag each.
Teammate Joni Jouhkimainen (84th) came close but departed just before the end, with 80 making it through. He, along with Yuri Dzivielevski (86th), Darren Elias (93rd) and Dan Shak (131st), who also fell before the end, will have to re-enter next Sunday, September 13, when Day 1b gets underway if they hope to stay in the competition.
Event #07: $1,050 Mini Main Event ($5M GTD)
After a week-long hiatus Yacine Ou-Halima has come out on top of a 2,090-strong field in the Mini Main Event.
Yesterday, we said something really special would need to happen in order for someone to knock the Day 1 chip leader off of the top spot. Well, it did. Ou-Halima bagged 5,497,376, an incredible amount considering the stack sizes of Tristan Bain (3,896,357) in second, Ronni Ravnholt Borg (3,856,096) in third, Michael Mandl (3,782,667) in fourth and online titan Niklas Åstedt (3,652,959) in fifth places. In fact, Ou-Halima’s chips were worth 220 big blinds by the time the clock was paused. They start ahead of Konstantin Fetzer (4,423,980), who dominated during Day 1a.
Once again, the competition was stellar, with Yuri Dzivielevski (6th, 3,570,253) faring much better in this event than in the Main. Jeffrey Reardon (11th, 3,286,857), Michael Tureniec (16th, 3,137,938), Boris Kolev (20th, 2,854,975) and Elio Fox (23rd, 2,683,180) were among the success stories, all finishing high in the counts by the time 18 levels had expired.
They are joined by the rest of the 324 players from Day 1b who progress to Day 2, which takes place tonight, at 7:05 pm. Combined with the Day 1a survivors, there are 730 of the 4,600 starters still in with a shot of the $758,312 top prize. Whoever wins this, will become the richest WPT Champion of the series!