By Lisa Yiasemides

The last week of the epic WPT World Online Championship festival is underway and last night the action really started to heat up, with some fantastic tournaments on offer. Day 1b of the three Weekender events took place, while Day 1a of the next Championship event, Event #10: $25,500 High Roller began too.

Tonight, another Championship event will get out of the starting blocks with Event #11: Turbo Championship the penultimate opportunity for players to claim themselves a WPT Championship title!
 

Yesterday’s winners

 
$10,300 High Roller ($500K GTD)

Fifty-one entries meant that the half-a-million-dollar guarantee was surpassed when the 51st player jumped into the highest buy-in competition of the one-day events. These stakes are the regular hunting ground for the world’s best players and that was evident last night, with some of the most accomplished players in the industry vying for a WPT title.

England no. 1 Stephen Chidwick was first out, and he decided not to re-enter. Some members of Team partypoker were also in the mix and Ike Haxton and Mikita Badziakouski both busted early enough to fire a second bullet but fell short of the top nine paid the second time too.

For Kahle Burns, the decision to re-enter was a profitable one. The Australian originally went out in 41st place but his second entry was a lot more fruitful, returning slightly better than a min-cash with $22,440 banked for 7th place. That extra ladder made all the difference and came after he outlasted Michael Addamo (8th) and László Bujtás (7th) who won $20,910. They both took the min-cash after Timothy Adams crashed out on the bubble.

David Peters (6th) won $26,265 and Justin Bonomo took $32,895 for placing fifth. Steve O’Dwyer added another success story to his series’ resume, placing fourth and banking $46,410 to add to the $135,000 he took in the Heads Up Championship event a few days ago. Niklas Åstedt may have just missed out on a heads-up seat and a six-figure cash but he still won a very healthy $72,420 for coming third.

Samuel Vousden

That left two and Artur Martirosian tried his best to stop him, but the Russian couldn’t get past Samuel Vousden. The Finn takes the title and the biggest share of the prize pool, with $158,100 to add to his bankroll, while Martirosian collected $109,650 for his runner up finish.

$215 8-Max ($50K GTD)

Dmitrijs Krupenins had a great night last night, coming out on top of a 250-strong field to take a five-figure sum for his efforts. The guarantee was hit on the nose, and 20 per cent of that went into the hands of Krupenins when he collected $10,032 for first after beating Fabian Schmidt ($7,302) heads up.

They managed to climb further up the payouts list than some big names did, outlasting the likes of Sam Grafton (9th, $1,040), Gary Thompson ($890), Josip Simunic (16th, $740), Joep van den Bijgaart (19th, $625), Andreas Berggren (24th, $625) and Arnaud Enselme who just sneaked into the money, taking a $520 min-cash for 32nd place.

$22 Mini 8-Max ($25K GTD)

Lucas Yamashita takes his first title of the festival after the Brazilian defeated Ukrainian Viktor Merenesku heads up, to round up ten hours of poker. The 1,355 entries meant the guarantee was beaten with a total of $27,100 awarded in prizes.

$215 6-Max Turbo PKO ($40K GTD)

There was some stiff competition, but Andrei Chernokoz was the victor after seeing off the rest of the 227 entries. Once again, the guarantee was surpassed, with $45,400 was up for grabs in prizes. Chernokoz took the biggest share with $3,966 + $3,874 won over the course of the evening.

Renato Ribeiro ($3,961 + $2,186) claimed the runner-up spot, while Luc Mcveigh ($2,748 + $932), Tomas Fara ($2,012 + $2,165) and Daniel Peche ($1,465 + $275) all did extremely well to make the top five too.

Georgios Kapalas (6th, $1,092 + $731), Anton Yakuba ($605 + $350), Duco Ten Haven ($210 + $225) and Mohamed Mangroe ($210 + $250) were some of the other notables to reach the top 30 places paid. Meanwhile, Rising Star Leaderboard contender Andres Ojeda, was the unfortunate bubble boy.

$22 Mini 6-Max Turbo PKO ($20K GTD)

Almost a thousand registrations were logged in the mini event. By the end of five hours and 46 minutes of play, the 939 field had been whittled to just one and that player was Shalva Loria who takes $1,407 + $1,594 back to Georgia. Their win came after taking out the last of their opposition, Kaspars Kalnozols, heads up. The Latvian banked a very respectable $1,404 + $218 for placing second.

Continues tonight

 
$1,050 7-Max Weekender PKO ($500K GTD)

A total of $316,000 were collected towards the half-a-million-guarantee, with one more Day 1 flight to go. That was after 255 players registered (including re-entries) for the largest buy-in event of the three Weekender events. Jakob Miegel (2,341,599, $2,781) finished up with the biggest stack but the German will start behind Day 1a chip leader Ludvig Lindström (2,442,608), who bagged slightly more.

Aleksejs Ponakovs (1,881,435) had a productive night too and has already more returned more than four times his investment after banking $4,687 in bounties for eliminating seven opponents. Samy Ouellani (1,593,040 + $1,312), Jonathan Proudfoot (1,504,097 + $2,187) and Jussi Hietalahti (1,279,392 + $937) finished chipped up too and ensure that there will be some quality competition among the big stacks.

They are not the only ones who will be raising the standard of the competition. Preben Stokkan (1,142,694 + $1,250), Juha Helppi (1,142,353 + $2,000), Mustapha Kanit ($1,023,611 + $2,875), Ole Schemion (1,017,314 + $1,812), Gianluca Speranza (675,970 + $500) and Andrey Kotelnikov (671,500 + $875) will all be in the mix too, along with the rest of the 33 Day 1b survivors.

The last opportunity to get in on the action takes place today, with a turbo Day 1c flight at 4:05 pm, ahead of Day 2 at 7:05 pm this evening. All survivors will combine for the first time and return to play Level 19: levels of 7,000/14,000 1,750 ante and will play down to a winner.

$109 Mini 7-Max Weekender PKO ($200K GTD)

Marius Adrian Nicola (2,003,592 + $100) bagged the biggest stack at the end of the Day and was the only player to exceed 2 million in chips. His closest rivals were Manuel Fritz (1,764,993 + $243), Simon Appleby (1,739,306 + $100), Jerry Ödeen (1,588,802 + $802) and Morten Bloch-Thomsen (1,542,523 + $87), who completed the top-five stacks.

As with its big brother, blinds will resume at Level 19 (7,000/14,000 1,750) but blinds are a little shorter, lasting 15 minutes each compared with the 20 in the main event. The 819 runners yesterday, combined with Day 1a’s entries mean $125,900 has been generated for the prize pool so far.

Some of the other big names to progress were Steven Van Zadelhoff (1,421,180 + $162), Ilya Anatski ($1,145,310 + $0), Patrick Leonard (1,126,639 + $159) and Christian Rudolph (1,104,635 + $168), whose strong performances landed themselves a place each among the top-twenty.

$11 Micro 7-Max Weekender PKO ($50K GTD)

Day 1b saw 1,540 registrations, which combined with the 1,313 from Day 1a mean $28,500 has been put in the pot so far. Thilo Hemme goes through with the biggest stack of this flight, after he accrued a huge 4,184,528. He also won $60 in bounties for eliminating nine players.

Vugar Sharifov (3,310,632 + $28), who is from Azerbaijan, was the second biggest stack. Tan Luan Le (2,904,173 + $26), Antonios Triantafyllakis (2,003,219 + $12) and Denis Likhachev (1,916,726 + $8) round up the top five stacks. Once again, blinds will begin at Level 19: 7,000/14,000 1,750 ante.

Event #10: $25,500 High Roller Championship ($5M GTD)

The final tournament of the night featured the biggest buy-in – $25,500 the buy-in for all those who want a shot at the enormous $5,000,000 prize pool! Almost half of that has been contributed via the 88 registrations, with 11 going through to Day 2 tomorrow. Tonight though, Day 1b will take place at 7:05 pm and is the last chance to qualify.

Back to last night, and Pascal Hartmann once again proved his worth, building the largest stack of the evening. The German turned 100,000 chips into 1,964,082 by the end of 18 25-minute levels. He finished some margin ahead of the rest of the pack, with partypoker’s Mikita Badziakouski coming in second after building up to 1,250,461. Ole Schemion (1,103,933), Kahle Burns (969,133) and Aleksei Barkov (686,962) all did enough to finish in the top five.

Pascal Hartmann

Stephen Chidwick (666,999), Rui Ferreira (952,721), Daniel Dvoress (492,621), Timothy Adams (459,213), Jake Schindler (407,419) and Jans Arends (146,456) all ensure the Day 2 line up will be a star-studded one. Arends will be in the toughest position when they return to play Day 2 tomorrow at 7:05 pm, with just ten big blinds at 7,000/14,000 1,750 ante.

Still, his position is enviable compared with those who didn’t make it. Justin Bonomo (12th) was the last to exit before the whisle blew. Simon Mattsson (13th), Adrian Mateos (17th) and Andras Nemeth (20th) all came close too and time will tell if they decide to fire a second bullet today.
 

Leaderboards

Tonight’s schedule