By Lisa Yiasemides
Undoubtedly the biggest day of the series so far took place last night, with ten events reaching their conclusions! Not only that but the first championship event played down to the final table last night and the winner will emerge later this evening. The final day will stream live on the partypoker Twitch channel so you can watch it all and see how some of the best make their decisions with cards-up coverage on the menu for the duration.
$1,050 Opener ($1M GTD)
Kicking off the festival on Saturday, was the two-day Opener event. With three buy-in levels to choose from all three played to a winner last night and the winner of the biggest event was Italian Gabriele Lepore who scored $172,175 for his victory. The six-hour battle culminated in a heads-up match that saw WPT Champions club member Scott Margereson ($123,225) fall at the last.
Gabriele Lepore
Of the 962 entries who started, 124 had made it to the final day and Dayane Kotoviezy ($82,050), partypoker pro Kristen Bicknell ($56,000), Day 2 chip leader Matas Cimbolas ($39,500) and Francisco Pinho Correia ($28,300) made up the remainder of the final tablists.
Jan-Eric Schwippert (9th, $13,600), Ajay Chabra (12th, $10,900) and Team partypoker representatives Matt Staples (16th, $8,200) and Patrick Leonard (19th, $6,100) were some of the big names to also have deep runs.
$109 Mini Opener ($500K GTD)
A total of 3,349 entries were counted in the Mini event and of those, 401 progressed to Day 2 last night, with 376 of those reaching the money.
Radjendernath Chigharoe took the lion’s share of the $500,000 prizepool and bagged $78,414 for their result. It was an epic 7 hours and 12 minutes to play out and Alex Mariano Machado ($55,523) came closest to toppling Chigharoe but ultimately had to settle for second place.
Matheus Cardoso ($35,916) fared the best of three Brazilian took third and Luis Gustavo Fontes Ribeiro ($24,100), Beka Kikava ($16,750) and Petr Koula ($11,450) also reached the final table, denying Vasilii Krasnobaev (7th, $7,875) a place.
$11 Micro Opener ($100K GTD)
Running alongside was the smallest buy-in of the three, and the $11 event may have been low on price, but it wasn’t low on buy-ins with 4,472 registrations collected. A total of 511 had got through to the final and 472 were paid.
It took 6 hours and 39 minutes for the tournament to reach its conclusion and Karl Jasmen Dick ($15,289) went home with the most profit in his pocket after he beat Hernan Creixell ($10,729) heads up, with Zoila Ibarra Moreno ($6,893), Kevin Thomas Berry ($4,560), Gábor Fancsik ($3,150) and Hristo Gavazov ($2,150) all saw a fantastic return on their investment too for reaching the final six.
$10,300 High Roller Opener ($1M GTD)
Russian pro and WPT regular Artur Martirosian took down the first high roller event of the series after converting his Day 1 chip lead into a victory worth $251,250. As is to be expected in premiere events like this one, the field was tough with huge names in the world of poker standing in his way. Undoubtedly this will have served to make the result especially welcome for a player who has had many notable achievements in recent years.
Pascal Hartmann
Nine returned to fight it out of the 95 starters with Canadian Julien Perouse (9th, $35,000) falling first and countryman Jonathan Van Fleet edging his way into a final-table finish (8th, $40,000). Aliaksandr Hirs (7th, $45,000), Sergi Reixach (6th, $52,500), Pablo Brito Silva (5th, $70,000), László Bujtás (4th, $90,000) and Sergio Aido (3rd, $126,500) were all in with a shot but busted before Pascal Hartmann ($179,750), Martirosian’s last remaining obstacle, was eliminated in second place to round off an action-packed two-and-a-half hours of poker.
$5,200 Big Game ($1M GTD)
The huge buy-ins continued with the largest of the Big Game events wrapping up with a heads-up battle between Aleksejs Ponakovs and Kristen Bicknell. The partypoker pro began the day with one of the shortest stacks and climbed through the ranks before coming unstuck at the end. She takes $179,750 for her efforts (and her second big win of the night) with Ponakovs taking the title as well as $219,750 in cash for his first-place finish.
Kristen Bicknell
Nine players came back of the 187 entrants and once again, there were some very recognisable names in the running. Francois Billard ($113,900), Day 2 chip leader Sam Grafton ($83,000), Espen Uhlen Jørstad ($58,000) and Simon Mattsson (6th, $46,000) all had great runs.
Parker Talbot (7th, $37,000) managed to make a couple of ladders too after Jake Schindler ($30,500) was eliminated in 8th place and Fabio Costa ($25,500) was the first to leave in 9th place.
$530 Mini Big Game ($300K GTD)
Twenty-three players were in with a shot when the final day took place last night and it was Ivan Vilchez who emerged as the winner, scoring $51,261 for taking the title. The Argentinian locked up the win after eliminating Mario Frittelli ($46,718) who takes the runner-up position.
Luc Bindel ($27,665) did well to hold on to his chips, having started with the second chip lead. A feat not managed by runaway chip leader at the start of the day, Luke Martinelli (12th, $4,028).
Georgios Zisimopoulos (5th, $13,469), Zachary Korik (9th, $4,846), Julien Stuer (14th, $3,210) and Gianluca Speranza (18th, $2,549) were some of the other big-name finishers.
$55 Micro Big Game ($100K GTD)
There were 2,157 entrants at the start and 76 still had the hope of taking the biggest share of the $106,350 prizepool, when play started at 7pm. By the end, just two players remained and Patrick Glaeser and Vasilii Krasnobaev were the last two left when they opted to do a deal, one that saw Glaeser take the title and just $52 more in prize money than his opponent.
Samuel Gagnon, ($8,003), Vazha Kometiani ($5,371) and Serhii Leonov ($3,770) also made a top-five finish, with Bradley William Soper (6th, $2,595), Lucas Mantovan (7th, $1,782) and Ivan Krastev (8th, $1,327) reaching the final table too.
$530 Omaha Hi-Lo Turbo ($25K GTD)
Stanislav Tukov won his first event of the series, denying Artsiom Prostak his second, when the two players were the last standing of the 50-strong field. Tukov bags $9,625 for that result and Prostak adds another $5,875 to his already healthy winnings after he topped the $1,050 PLO8 Turbo the previous night.
Ruslan Nazarenko ($3,125), Andrey Sorokin ($2,250), Jonathan Depa ($1,625) and Mike Leah ($1,325) made up the rest of the 6-Max final table, with Alexander Stacey ($1,175) the only other player to get a return on his investment, leaving Guy Johnson to leave on the bubble.
$55 Mini Omaha Hi-Lo Turbo ($7.5K GTD)
Dmitriy Shmakov defeated Олексій Єрема in the Mini event to take first place and a $1,597 score. The Russian took $1,525 for placing runner up and Inga Loerbroks ($871), Antti Suominen ($636) and Matthew Gilmartin ($469) all played their way into the top five of the field that attracted 155 entries.
$5.50 Micro Omaha Hi-Lo Turbo ($2.5K GTD)
The last of yesterday’s winners was in the smallest buy-in event and it came down to a Russia vs Ukraine heads-up clash at the end, when just two were left of the 356 runners. Canada and Sweden were also represented in the top five and despite being a turbo event, it still took almost 4 hours to reach a conclusion.
Concludes tonight
The first Championship event will play down to a winner this evening, as will the Mini and Micro PLO Hi-Lo comps.
Event #01 – $3,200 PLO Hi-Lo Championship ($500K GTD)
Over the course of the two starting flights, 145 entries had been reduced to 20 and they returned yesterday to continue their campaign in the Championship event of the week.
French pro Paul Tedeschi converted his overall lead coming into Day 2 into another chip lead by the time the final seven had been reached. He almost doubled his stack in the three hours and 19 minutes of play and will take through 3.6 million. American pro Dan Shak also chipped up and brings 2.63 million through, while Erik Dahlberg (2.61 million), Joao Vieira (1.8 million), Anssi Kinttala (1.7 million), Guilherme Decourt (1.3 million) and Ozenc Demir (831,707) complete the rest of the line-up.
Dan Shak
Just two needed to bust to reach the money bubble and Murilo Figueredo (20th) and Robert Cowen were the unfortunate players to narrowly miss out on the $9,714 cash.
They were joined at the side-lines by notables including Dario Sammartino (17th), Niklas Åstedt (16th), partypoker pro Joao Simao (15th), Simon Trumper (14th) and Day 1a chip leader Koen Andri (13th) before the first pay jump. Jonathan Depa (11th, $11,250) Ajay Chabra (9th, $14,750) and Daniil Shalaev (8th, $14,750) fared a little better but busted before the whistle blew.
The final starts at 7pm (BST) tonight and will be streamed on the partypoker Twitch channel from 8pm, with cards-up coverage and commentary from Matt Savage and WPT Champions Club member James Dempsey. Play will resume with blinds at 25,000-50,000 (6,250 ante) and levels lasting 30 minutes.
Event #01 – $320 Mini PLO Hi-Lo Championship ($150K GTD)
Fifty players made it through to Day 2 and it took four hours and 18 minutes for that number to reach the final seven, which signalled the end of play for the day.
Chip leader Jesper Höög (13.9 million) has the best chance of scoring the $29,459 cash for first place, with Rishi Amin (10.7 million) and Deniss Lebedevs (5.4 million), in second and third places, best placed to challenge. Viachaslau Mikulich (5.3 million), Day 1a chip leader Vincent Varona (3.6 million), Adam Owen (2.6 million) and Iisakki Ullakonoja (2.4 million) complete the finalists with at least $4,650 locked up.
Once again just two players needed to go before the money stages were reached. The two to miss out on a return on their money, were Inga Loerbroks (50th) and Diogo Gomes (49th). Koen Andri (41st, $890), Team partypoker Dzmitry Urbanovich (38th, $890) and Andres Korn (20th, $1,200) and Day 2 chip leader Matthijs Van Den Broek (15th, $1,500) all fell before the end but it was fellow partypoker pro Jeff Gross (7th, $3,375) who was the last player to leave before time was called ahead of the final day tomorrow. Play continues at 7pm with blinds at 60,000-120,000 (15,000 ante).
Event #01 – $33 Micro PLO Hi-Lo Championship ($50K GTD)
With 1,304 entries and last night 142 came back to continue to fight for a place in the final. At the end of 20 levels just six remained and they return tonight at 7pm when they will play to a winner.
With 100,000-chip starting stack, there are a lot of chips in play in the Micro event and Derrick Wall brings back the biggest chunk, with a hefty 55.3 million to play with. He has an almost 3:1 chip lead on second-place stack Matthew Guy Harrison (20.5 million) and Philipp Seluga (19.4 million) in third.
Vyacheslav Nikulin (15.5 million), Stefan Wolfschuetz (11.2 million) and bottom-of-the-pack Oscar Destefano (8.4 million) start with a disadvantage, but this is poker and that could all change. What is certain is that all players will net at least $1,484 for their efforts and can win anything up to $8,142 for first place.
$1,575 Omaha Hi-Lo Second Chance PKO ($75k GTD)
The final three events of the night are another set of PLO8 comps with a top buy-in of $1,575. A total of 55 entries and re-entries were counted, bringing the total prizepool to $82,500. By the time 20 levels had ran their course, less than ten percent were still in and it is Andres Ojeda (2.26 million), Andrey Sorokin (2 million), Bernardo Da Silveira Dias (848,790), $530 PLO8 Hyper winner Maksim Shuts (209,333) and Guilherme Decourt (177,596) who are still in with a shot of winning the $10,646 top prize (plus bounties).
$162 Mini Omaha Hi-Lo Second Chance PKO ($25k GTD)
Over in the Mini event, 16 remain of the 168 registrations and with $2,287 up top, they will return to battle it out later tonight. Starting in pole position is Maksim Kosach (3.3 million) and he is trailed by Maksim Shuts (1.9 million) who is becoming something of a regular feature already this series. Tomaz Kogovsek (1.6 million), Neil Feenan (1.4 million) and Antti Suominen (1 million) round out the remainder of the top-five stacks.
$16.50 Micro Omaha Hi-Lo Second Chance PKO ($7.5k GTD)
The last of the three had the biggest field size, with 488 becoming 41 when the clock was paused. There is $585 earmarked for the winner but that doesn’t include the all-important bounties and the top three stacks in the fight for the title are Pierrick Tallon (4.5 million), Morten Bloch-Thomsen (4 million) and Michael Baagøe (2.3 million).
Tonight’s schedule
Phew! If that wasn’t enough for you, don’t worry there is plenty more on the schedule for tonight!
