By Lisa Yiasemides

Monday’s aren’t usually known for being the day to play in the poker world but the WPT and partypoker have changed that since the World Online Championships began. Last night was no exception, with seven fantastic tournaments to choose from, each producing a new WPT winner. On top of that, the three Big Game events played down to a winner, while action in the Mini Main Event Championship really started to heat up as Day 2 also got underway yesterday evening.
 

Yesterday’s winners

 
$5,200 Big Game ($1M GTD)

He began with the second-chip lead at the start of the day, and online superstar Christopher Oliver built on that to become the latest Big Game winner and taking $219,750 in cash for the result. Oliver switched places with Samuel Vousden, who had the starting advantage. Vousden wasn’t able to seal the deal though, losing the heads-up match at the end. All the same, it was still a very nice payday for the Finn, with $157,350 heading straight into his account.

It was a short and sweet final table, with only two hours and 40 minutes of play before all had been decided. Alexandru Papazian (9th) busted first and banked $25,500, which was good news for Manig Loeser who had started at the back of the pack. Loeser took $30,500 for 8th place and Manuel Saavedra Nuñez was next to join him on the sidelines, taking $37,000 for 7th place.

Pascal Lefrancois (6th) scooped $46,000 and his exit cemented the final five. Sven Joakim Andersson (5th), Mustapha Kanit (4th) and Andrii Novak (3rd) all received tidy pay packets for their deep runs, with the latter banking the first of three six-figure sums to be awarded from the $1,000,000 prize pool.

$530 Mini Big Game ($300K GTD)

Another online specialist came out on top last night, and that was Jonathan Proudfoot in the Mini event. Day 1 saw 593 entries whittled down to 12, before play paused ahead of Day 2, and last night there was plenty of shift in the counts – most notably Proudfoot’s ascent. The Brit started with the shortest stack, but he went from zero to hero after turning things around in just four and a half hours.

Proudfoot’s spin up from 12 big blinds came at the expense of others, with Carlos Chadha-Villamarin (12th), Lasse Enojärvi (11th) and Viktor Ustimov all departing before the final table was reached, taking $3,840 each.

Marc-Olivier Grandmaitre may have started in third place, but he was next to go and won $4,620 for his 9th place finish. Javier Gomez Zapatero (8th, $5,475) departed after that, closely followed by Andreas Christoforou, who had started the day with the chip lead but came unstuck in 7th place and taking $6,720 in the process.

Alexander Van Der Swaluw (6th, $9,330) who took the last of the four-figure cashes, finished behind Eduardo Silva (5th), second-chip leader Sebastian Camilo Toro Henao (4th) and Ivan Banić (3rd), before Jans Arends and Proudfoot went head to head. The two players opted to make a deal at this point and the slight chip advantage saw Proudfoot take almost $1,000 more than the Dutchman, as well as his first series title.

$55 Micro Big Game ($100K GTD)

Forty-three of the 1,883 field remained at the start of Day 2, but that didn’t stop the tournament from playing out in lightning speed. The play time was the same for the Micro as it was in the Mini, with 42 eliminations taking place in four and a half hours. The last of those was Vaidas Siriunas, who fell at the last after being defeated by winner Yannick Ansenne heads up.

No deal was struck and Ansenne took $16,575, leaving Siriunas to bag the runner-up prize of $11,779. Not only that, but Ansenne bags his second career WPT title, after the Belgian took down the Opener in Brussels, in November last year.

Claus Grether (3rd), Tautvydas Tukaciauskas (4th) and Everton Becker (5th) all put in great performances that saw them reach the top five. Sergei Istsenko (6th, $2,540), Mate Mecs (7th, $1,750), partypoker’s Luis Martins (8th, $1,370) and Mario Baaziz (9th, $1,120) all featured on the final table too.

$1,050 Mix-Max ($100K GTD)

The largest buy-in of the one-day events yesterday was the Mix-Max Main event and Claas Segebrecht came out on top 99 entries to win $27,012. The German, who was playing from Austria, took the title after dispensing of the last of his opposition – Argentinian pro Ivan Luca who took runner up for $17,117.

In fact it was regulars all round, with Andras Nemeth, Thomas Boivin and Alexandre Reard taking third to fifth spots, while Francois Billard (6th, $4,725) and Artur Martirosian (7th, $3,900) took the last two final table seats.

Alexandru Papazian (8th, $3,200), Kristen Bicknell (9th, $3,200), Scott Margereson (10th, $2,500), Christopher Johnson (12th, $2,500), Alex Foxen (14th, $2,500) and Pim Gieles (15th, $2,500) all made a profit, with Gieles inching into the money with 15 paid and leaving Luigi Andrea Shehadeh out in the cold in 16th place.

$215 Mini Mix-Max ($50K GTD)

When 299 entries were counted in the Mini, the guarantee was easily exceeded and a total of $59,800 were awarded in prizes as a result. Julio Ribeiro took the biggest share, but it could have been more had he not done a deal with Pascal Hartmann, concluding almost nine hours of play. The agreement meant Ribeiro walked away with $12,087, almost $2,000 more than Hartmann’s $10,246.

Michael Sklenička (8th, $1,465) and Josip Simunic (13th, $657) both had deep runs, with 36 places paid. Ludvig Lindström won $431 for min-cashing, while it was Vyacheslav Nikulin who left on the bubble in 37th place.

$22 Micro Mix-Max ($25K GTD)

It was Brazil vs Brazil at the end of the Micro event and Michel Golfe prevailed over countryman Nicole Rose Assis Da Silva to take the title and $3,866 in cash, as Da Silva took the runner up prize of $2,957.

$530 Second Chance PKO ($100K GTD)

Four PKO events were on the menu and French regular Jérémy Saderne rose to the top of 202 entries, to score $8,102 + $12,929 in bounties. Saderne faced Bulgaria’s Boris Angelov heads up, with Angelov winning $8,092 + $2,078 when claiming the runner up spot.

Jeremy Saderne

Vitor Abreu won the second largest amount in bounties, $4,351, before busting in third. Bertil Andreas Samuelsson, and Joshua Mccully both elicited a top-five result, while Santtu Ojala ($2,292 + $1,453), Georgijs Zaripovs ($1,636 + $906), Andreas Berggren ($1,258 + $1,312) and Markus Prinz ($1,046 + $1,656) ensured the rest of the final table line-up was stellar.

$109 Mini Second Chance PKO ($75K GTD)

The Mini event was a popular one, with 802 entries counted by the end of late registration. That meant the guarantee was more than met with a total of $80,200 in the prize pool. Just over 100 places were paid and once the bubble burst, everyone had secured at least $123.

For a privileged few that amount would be significantly more and Cédric Schwaederle ($5,564 + $4,129) banked the largest prize of all, closely followed by Manuel Bueno Fernandez ($5,555 + $3,218) for taking first and second places, respectively.

$215 7-Max Turbo PKO ($50K GTD)

Rounding off the evening were two turbo PKO events. The Main collected $58,200 for the prize pool via the 291 entries and Domenico Gala was the last player standing, $4,634 + $4,927 his prize for going the distance.

Dennys Ramos ($4,628 + $978) was runner up, and Soenke Jahn ($3,161 + $1,529), Josip Simunic ($2,141 + $1,331) and Erik Storgårds ($1,459,525) all had fantastic runs too. Luis Martins didn’t have quite as successful night as partypoker teammate Simunic did, with Martins taking $640 + $337 after busting on the final table bubble.

$22 Mini 7-Max Turbo PKO ($20K GTD)

The Mini event was the joint lowest buy-in event of the night, but it offered players an affordable shot of becoming a WP winner and saw 1,002 registrations as a result. Yet another title went to Brazil after Luiz Pinto took out Markus Mesenboock to scoop a top prize of $1,387 + $1,220 in bounties.

Continues tonight

 
Event #07: $1,050 Mini Main Event Championship ($5M GTD)

The Mini Main Event Championship is really heating up now, with Day 2 now in the books. From the 4,600 starters, 730 had made it through via the two Day 1s and by the end of 16 25-minute levels, that number had been reduced to 51. A total of 600 players would reach the money and Nicolás Pañiagua was the unfortunate bubble boy, which meant Fahredin Mustafov (600th) just made it to the cash, taking $2,600 for doing so.

Chance Kornuth (607th), Rainer Kempe (619th), Artur Martirosian (621st), and partypoker representatives Patrick Leonard (635th), Richard Dubini (640th), Joao Simao (652nd) and Josip Simunic (699th), were just a few of the notables to leave empty-handed.

Plenty of big-name pros had a better evening of it, though Mikita Badziakouski (586th) was the first member of Team partypoker to leave, taking a $2,600 min-cash with him. Also failing to make any ladders were Alexandre Reard (565th), Andrey Kotelnikov (555th), Simon Deadman (551st) and Norbert Szecsi (537th).

Shaun Deeb saw a dramatic change of fortunes after the American started with one of the biggest stacks. He ultimately busted in 472nd place, taking $2,700 for his time, an amount that was matched by Kristen Bicknell (456th), while Mohsin Charania (420th) and Isaac Haxton (418th) were right behind them taking $2,750 for the next pay jump.

Faring significantly better were Ajay Chabra (66th, $8,050) and Niklas Åstedt (64th, $8,900), both of whom made the top 100 but who will no doubt still be disappointed to fall so close to the end of the day. Even Jiří Horák’s (51st, 3,083,219) position is enviable in spite of the fact that he will start at the back with six big blinds when Day 3 commences tonight at 7 pm.

Hristivoje Pavlovic

Two members of Team partypoker are still in contention, and the one best placed to challenge for that enormous $758,312 top prize, is Hristivoje Pavlovic (56,025,473) after he bagged the chip lead. Pavlovic has a huge advantage over Gary Joseph Thompson (33,768,311), Daniel Montagnolli (30,779,454), Liviu-Rodrig Bartha (30,525,570) and Pavel Berka (30,101,232) who make up the remainder of the top-five stacks.

There is plenty of poker talent still in the mix, with Faraz Jaka (8th, 28,505,566), Darren Elias (10th, 27,471,362), Peter Jetten (11th, 26,869,804) and Julien Perouse (25,910,706) all returning chipped up. Meanwhile Roberto Romanello, the other partypoker pro still in, is coming back one of the shorter stacks in 40th position with 9,252,535 in chips, but it is still worth 17 big blinds when play resumes at Level 17 (250K/500K 62.5K). He, along with the rest of the 51 hopefuls have bagged at least $9,850 for making it this far.