By Lisa Yiasemides
The first Champion of the series was crowned last night in this historic series, a moment that has been highly anticipated since the festival was announced earlier this summer. Every moment was captured on the live stream and broadcast use cutting-edge technology in order to bring the online rail to life by recreating the experience of watching a live game in a casino or poker room.
Although this event isn’t one of the five tournaments that grants the winner’s name etched onto the (newly renamed) Mike Sexton WPT Champion’s Cup, there was still a huge amount at stake. As well as a large cash prize, the winner would also secure themselves the title and the right to call themselves a WPT Champion!
As if all that wasn’t enough of a treat, the Championship was one of nine titles claimed throughout the evening, with more than $850,000 awarded in prizes. With so much to cover, we’d better get right to it and there seems like no better place to start than with the Championship event itself.
Event #01 – $3,200 PLO Hi-Lo Championship ($500K GTD)
The $500,000 guaranteed event kicked off at 7pm BST (featuring an hour delay on the stream), with seven hopefuls still in with a shot out of the 145 field.
It took almost half an hour to lose the first player, with Ozenc Demir the first to go. Beginning the final table with the shortest stack, he was the first to feel the blind pressure and made a move, which was called by eventual winner Paul Tedeschi. Demir had got it in good but the board favoured his opponent, leaving him to take $18,500 for reaching 7th place.
It took a little longer for the next elimination to occur and once again Tedeschi was at the centre of it, in a hand against Erik Dahlberg. The hand played itself, with Tedeschi holding nut low and nut flush draws and Dalhberg holding a set when all the money went in. Tedeschi binked the gin card on the river with the 
completing both draws for him and sending Dalhberg to the rail. He won $23,000 for 6th place.
Paul Tedeschi
Guilherme Decourt busted just five minutes later. Down to fumes, he was a long way behind Anssi Kinttala who had a pair of aces in his hand and the board did nothing to change that. Decourt scored $31,500 for his fifth-place finish, which left four still in.
Joao Vieira was next to fall after a valiant effort to build up his short stack. Ultimately it came down to a hand in which the two players were blind-on-blind. Both hit top pair kings and Vieira had a flush draw to back it up but Tedeschi had the top kicker and was looking good to win the low hand too. Once again Tedeschi was the eliminator and Vieira bagged $42,500 for his result.
By this point, the final three, who were all fairly even in chips and deepstacked, began talking about a deal. Dan Shak had played a very strong game in the early part the night, in which he won a lot of small and medium-sized pots, largely without showdown. Though he’d taken the lead at one point, it wasn’t enough by the end, with Tedeschi’s string of eliminations sending him to the top of the counts.
Tedeschi takes the Championship title, the first of the series, and a very nice $92,105 in prize money, with Dan Shak taking the runner up position and $87,720, and Anssi Kinttala bagging themselves a third-place finish worth $86,628.
Tedeschi is no stranger to WPT events, having reached numerous final tables over the years, including placing runner up in the £5,000 Devilfish Cup for £150,000 in 2016, yet this there is no doubt this result will feel particularly special as he can now call himself a WPT Champion!
Event #01 – $320 Mini PLO Hi-Lo Championship ($150K GTD)
Of the 438 entries, the field had been reduced over the previous two days of play and once again, just seven players returned to battle it out in the final of the Mini event. The majority of the $150,000 prizepool was still up for grabs when they returned at 7pm.
Iisakki Ullakonoja came into the final at the bottom of the chip counts and was the first to leave, scoring $4,650. With one ladder under their belts, the players settled in once more and it was Adam Owen who hit the rail next. He bagged $6,300 for making it as far as 6th place.
The last player to leave without a five-figure score was Vincent Varona, who won $8,250 for reaching fifth. He was followed by Deniss Lebedevs ($11,475) and Rishi Amin ($15,908) in fourth and third places before all that remained was for the final two to go head-to-head.
Jesper Höög
Jesper Höög ($21,875) began the day as chip leader and had done well to convert his stack into a top-two result but he fell at the last, leaving Viachaslau Mikulich to take the title and top prize of $29,459.
Event #01 – $33 Micro PLO Hi-Lo Championship ($50K GTD)
The Micro edition saw just six of the original 1,304 field survive to the final day and it was all over in a flash, taking exactly the same amount of time to play out as the Main did – one hour and 34 minutes.
Stefan Wolfschuetz went the distance, taking $8,142 for his result after defeating Matthew Guy Harrison ($6,110) heads up. In the biggest surprise of the night, Derrick Wall ($4,532) busted in third place despite starting with an almost 3:1 chip lead on the second-biggest stack.
Oscar Destefano ($3,175) started at the bottom of the pack but managed to ladder a couple of spots and Vyacheslav Nikulin took the last of the top-five places, which denied Philipp Seluga ($1,484) who was first to hit the rail.
$1,575 Omaha Hi-Lo Second Chance PKO ($75K GTD)
The top five had already been decided when play resumed, what was left to determine was who would finish where. With a large portion of the $82,500 prizepool still to be distributed, the five got ready to fight it out. It was just over two hours for the tournament to wrap and Andrey Sorokin was the victor by the end, bagging $29,114 including a whopping $18,469 in bounties – more than double the rest of the finalists put together!
Andres Ojeda ($16,169), did well to take the runner up spot, outlasting both Bernardo Da Silveira Dias ($6,689) and Maksim Shuts ($6,129), denying the latter a chance to score an early double victory of the series following his win in the $530 PLO Hi-Lo Hyper PKO ($25K GTD) on Saturday. Guilherme Decourt ($3,169) also made a second final table appearance after his FT result in the Championship event. Both players will certainly be ones to keep an eye on as the series progresses.
$162 Mini Omaha Hi-Lo Second Chance PKO ($25K GTD)
Sixteen players returned of the 168 entries and it took just under four hours to reach a conclusion, with Ozenc Demir ($6,753) putting the seventh-place finish in the Championship event behind him and taking down the biggest share of the $25,200 prizepool, following his heads-up victory against Mircea Rus ($2,458).
$16.50 Micro Omaha Hi-Lo Second Chance PKO ($7.5K GTD)
The last of the three Second Chance comps had the biggest field size, with 488 becoming 41 at the end of Day 1 and those remaining playing down to a winner last night.
$530 Omaha Hi-Lo Turbo PKO ($25K GTD)
The only one-day events of the night also followed a PLO8 theme in accordance with this week’s Championship event. There were 61 entries and some big names were among them, all trying to win the biggest share they could muster of the $30,500 prizepool.
Over the course of a little over three hours, familiar names such as Artsiom Prostak (40th), Yuri Dzivielevski (30th) and Koen Andri (27th) fell outside of the money, with Second Chance winner Andrey Sorokin pure bubbling the event in 10th place.
Eventual winner Jens Lakemeier ($9,634) made excellent use of the single re-entry converting it into a win after he beat Rishi Amin ($6,146) heads up at the end. Also worthy of mention is Bernardo Da Silveira Dias’s second FT of the night. He netted $1,445 for coming in fifth.
$55 Mini Omaha Hi-Lo Turbo PKO ($7.5K GTD)
A total of $8,150 was collected through the 163 registrations in the Mini event that saw Simon Ahlén ($1,803) prevail over Niko Müller ($974) with the rest of the top five listed below.
$5.50 Micro Omaha Hi-Lo Turbo PKO ($2K GTD)
The last of last night’s nine winners was Murilo Figueredo ($348) who came out on top after besting runner-up finisher Carey Hollick ($248) and the remainder of the 349-strong field.
Concludes tonight
$1,050 Omaha Hi-Lo Closer ($50K GTD)
This 7-Max event got off the mark at 7pm, with three buy-in options available to choose from. In the Main, 50 entries were logged, collecting no more and no less than the $50,000 guarantee attached to it.
By the end, only five were still in play and Deniss Lebedevs (1.89 million) goes through with the chip lead, with Andreas Paliogiannis (1.56 million) his closest rival. Andrey Sorokin seemed to be playing everything on offer last night and he begins third in chips with 1 million in play, while Daniil Shalaev (303,873) and partypoker’s Roberto Romanello (237,439) return very much the short stacks with blinds at 10,000-20,000 (2,500 ante) when it starts up again tonight.
Roberto Romanello
Simon Mattsson (6th, $2,650) and Maksim Shuts (7th, $2,350) eked their way into the money with Alex Foxen (9th) and Niklas Åstedt (10th) narrowly missing out. All players have locked up at least $3,250 and could win up to $19,250 for first place.
$109 Mini Omaha Hi-Lo Closer ($20K GTD)
Richie Allen (2.67 million) is ahead of the pack when the 15 remaining players (of 156 registrations) return in the Mini. Dwayne Sluis (1.68 million) is best placed to challenge for the $4,872 top prize. Anton Bolotov (1.65 million), Stanislav Tukov (1.47 million) and Yuri Rusakov (1.24 million) make up the remainder of the top stacks and all are guaranteed a cash of at least $330.
$11 Micro Omaha Hi-Lo Closer ($5K GTD)
There are 38 left of 4,540 runners and when play resumes at 7pm in the Micro and Yuri Kharin (2.67 million) starts in front with Nikita Krasikov (2.4 million), Stephen Ralph (2.27 million), Chantha Mölzer (2.27 million) and Matthew Gregory (2.1 million) all in very close contention. $27.50 is secure but there is $935 up top for the winner.
Tonight’s schedule
