By Lisa Yiasemides
Last night saw six more events take place. Three Warm Up events continued with Day 1b on the menu, while the first starting flights in this week’s WPT World Online Championship – the Mix-Max event – also got underway.
With millions of dollars in prize pools up for grabs, regulars and recreational players alike have joined the throng in the hopes of carving themselves a slice of the action. By the end of the evening, six players had risen to the top of their respective chip counts and below you can read up on who they are, as well as find out who they were up against.
Concludes tonight
$1,050 Mix-Max Warm Up ($500K GTD)
Andras Nemeth (1,269,966) ascended to the top of the counts by the time Day 1b of the Warm Up had concluded. He had a great run throughout the 18 levels of play but wasn’t able to outdo Day 1a chip leader Chun Fai Au, who is currently in the overall lead with 1,690,260.
Andras Nemeth
Nemeth’s stack is good for overall second place though, and the Hungarian pro is closely followed by Ricardo Neto (1,214,026), Jerry Wong (1,152,710), Vladislav Martynenko (1,120,661) and Jonathan Van Fleet (1,112,782), who took second to fifth places last night. They will all start ahead of Barry Hutter, who had the second chip lead at the end of Day 1a.
There will be stiff competition from the likes of Mike Watson (935,909), Pablo Brito Silva (796,894), WPT WOC Knockout Champion Daniel Smyth (782,662), Robert Heidorn (750,519) and online crusher Simon Mattsson (725,539) who all finished up with big stacks, doing enough to land themselves a place in the top 20 after six and a half hours of play.
The field saw 251 entries, adding $251,000 to the prize pool that already had $80,000 in it following yesterday’s flight. Another 38 players progress and they will combine with the 11 survivors from Day 1a. There is still one more starting flight to go, however, the Turbo Day 1c that starts at 4 pm (BST) today.
Only when late registration has closed in the final flight will we know how much is at stake and that information will be confirmed ahead of Day 2, which kicks off at 7 pm this evening. Blinds for the final day will resume at Level 19 (7,000/14,000 1,750 ante) and play won’t stop until we have a winner.
$109 Mini Mix-Max Warm Up ($150K GTD)
It may be the ‘Mini’ event, but the $150,000 guarantee will appeal to a great number of people and that was reflected in the player list, with some well-known names among the 709 entries.
Dat Ngo Tat topped the field at the end of 18 levels of play. The Finn accumulated 2,474,475, finishing ahead of Luis Fabio Fonseca Freitas (2,284,908) and Greek pro Georgios Zisimopoulos (2,176,656) in second and third places.
Michel Dattani (1,997,151), Manig Loeser (1,629,685), Philipp Zukernik (1,253,492) and Christian Rudolph (1,248,961) are also still in contention, securing themselves a spot among the 101 players who progress to Day 2.
Several members of Team partypoker are still in the mix too, with Hristivoje Pavlovic (916,305) faring the best of them. Renato Nomura (645,777) also did well, while Jaime Staples (277,405) and Joao Simao (179,909) will have some work to do when they return to play blinds of 7,000/14,000 (1,750 ante).
$11 Micro Mix-Max Warm Up ($30K GTD)
Poland’s Bartłomiej Odrobina bagged biggest in the Micro event, finishing atop of the 159 players that lasted all 18 levels of Day 1 play. With 1,187 total entries, over 1,000 fell by the wayside along the way and that meant some big stacks were accumulated, including four over 2 million.
Gustavo Melo (2,169,118), Grigory Klimenko (2,086,681) and Vi Hung Phan (2,019,808) all exceeded the two-million mark, with Tulio Dutra (1,907,935) completing the top five stacks. With the final starting flight taking place today, it won’t be long before the total prize pool and the first place payout is confirmed.
Continues tonight
Event #06: $3,200 Mix-Max Championship ($3M GTD)
Starting one hour after the Warm Up events, were this week’s hotly anticipated Championship events. It is Mix-Max week, giving players the unique challenge of playing an 8-Max format before having to adapt their strategy to reflect the adjustment to a 6-Max structure part-way through.
The Main event has a huge $3,000,000 guarantee and that is a sum that will always attract some of the world’s best. Nick Marchington, a player who hit the spotlight following a $1.5 million live cash last year, succeeded in rising to the top. He built a stack of 1,765,644, finishing ahead of Oskar Prehm (1,657,559), Australian pro Kahle Burns (1,503,985), Maciej Gasior (1,502,341) and Kevin Rabichow (1,386,734).
Nick Marchington
German superstar Dominik Nitsche (1,354,941), finished 6th in the counts and other notable survivors are Manig Loeser (893,422), Shawn Buchanan (859,120), Maria Ho (840,422), Lars Kamphues (817,038) and WPT Champion Scott Margereson (789,170) to name a few.
Of the 445 entries, 62 made it through and partypoker’s Louise Butler just managed to make it, taking the last spot in the counts. Her 107,558 chips may only be just above the 100,000 starting stack but at least she is still in the game. Jareth East, Mike Leah, Sosia Jiang and Ludovic Geilich are just some of the pros who will need to re-enter to stay in with a shot.
Tonight is the second opportunity to do so with Day 1b starting at 7 pm. With $1,335,000 already in the prize pool, there is every chance that this tournament will exceed its mammoth guarantee.
Event #06: $320 Mini Mix-Max Championship ($1M GTD)
The ‘Mini’ is nothing short of huge itself – with a seven-figure guarantee of its own, there is plenty to get excited about. Running at the same time as its big brother, the Mini collected $346,200 towards the pot via the 1,154 entries. By the end of Level 18, 180 players were still in and of those, it was Michael Schneider (2,263,836) who bagged biggest.
Second chip leader Craig Swatton (2,035,890) was the only other player to achieve a stack of more than two million, but Dmitriy Sukhorukov (1,974,045), Yin Zhang (1,889,770), and Tharshan Thevaraja (1,874,316) all had a lot to celebrate when their efforts secured them a spot in the top five.
WPTDS Champion Firoz ‘Mohamed’ Mangroe (1,406,838) is still in the running, and Shooting Stars winner Timo Kamphues (1,294,291), WPT Online Champion 2020 Christian Jeppsson (1,131,918) and Dmitry Yurasov (986,336) are all chipped up too.
Renato Noumura, Jeff Gross, David Hu and Aylar Lie all came within touching distance of Day 2 qualification, busting at the end of the day. They can jump straight back in the game tonight though when Day 1b takes place at 7 pm.
Event #06: $33 Micro Mix-Max Championship ($300K GTD)
The final tournament of the night was the Micro event and a huge 4,313 entries were counted in the single re-entry event. The action was fraught with 660 players making it through following almost seven hours of play.
Alex Ferry (2,911,580) has set the standard after the Brit bagged the chip lead at the end. Rodrigo Yamamoto Ono (2,532,275), Wesley O’neill (2,447,068), Maxim Sobolevski (2,417,447) and Athanasios Tavlas (2,246,853) are best placed to challenge as they completed the five biggest stacks of the night.
Tonight’s schedule
Alongside Day 1c followed by the final day in the Warm Up tournaments and Day 1b in each of the three Championship events, the Big Game is back with another $5,000 Main event (and Mini and Micro versions to accompany it). As if that wasn’t enough, there is also a $5,200 High Roller, $10,300 High Roller and $1,050 Knockout Turbo taking place too!