By Lisa Yiasemides
It was a huge night in the WPT WOC yesterday. One of poker’s biggest names, Dominik Nitsche, took down his first event of the series – one of five new titleholders to emerge last night.
At the same time, the fifth Championship event of the series (and the third Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup event) played Day 2, pausing when the final table had been reached. That means tonight, we play down to a winner and in just a few short hours we will find out who the latest WPT Champion is.
There are big names still in the running, with WPT Champion Ryan Riess in with a shot of winning his second title. Meanwhile, Manig Loeser could win his first, and starts in a great position to do so with the second chip lead, just behind João Maureli in first place.
$5,200 Big Game ($1M GTD)
With $20,800 already locked up, all nine survivors returned in a good position, but with $200,650 on the line for first place, there was still a huge amount at stake. Rui Ferreira, a name regularly spotted in the player lists for WPT events, busted first and that secured everyone else at least $4,200 more in the bank.
Online heavyweight Lucas Reeves took that additional ladder, bringing home $25,000 for 8th place. He was followed by Ireland’s Mark Davis in 7th, who won $32,500 for his efforts. WPT Champion Scott Margereson had started with the chip lead, but couldn’t progress past 6th place, winning $42,000 in the process, which meant the top five were decided.
Dominik Nitsche
Belarussian online pro Aliaksei Boika (5th) was out next and Bernardo Da Silveira Dias (4th), was the last player to miss out on a six-figure score. Daniel Smiljkovic (3rd) and runner up Vyacheslav Buldygin came closer still to toppling German superstar Dominik Nitsche but they too would go the way of the remainder of the 193-strong field, leaving Nitsche to lift the trophy and scoop that huge top prize.
$530 Mini Big Game ($300K GTD)
With 640 entries in the mix, there was a total of $314,400 in the prize pool, and much of that was still up for grabs when the final eight came back to fight it out in the final. Though entitled the ‘Mini Big Game’ the $530 price tag wouldn’t appeal to everyone and so it was no surprise, therefore, to see some well-established players in the mix.
Sweden’s Kristoffer Edberg has notched up some decent online results and now he can add a WPT online title to them. The first-place finish secured the Swede more than a hundred times his buy-in, not bad at all for two day’s work.
Ukraine’s Andrii Novak (who started the day as chip leader) and Austria’s Erik Von Buxhoeveden also fared extremely well, placing second and third respectively, while Granit Shabani and Stefan Huber not only took the last two top-five spots, but also the last two five-figure cashes.
Dániel Koloszár (6th, $9,777), Feizal Satchu (7th, $7,042) and Josephus J Van Den Bijgaart (8th, $5,737) also all featured on the fast-paced final that only took two hours and 41 minutes to reach a conclusion.
$55 Micro Big Game ($100K GTD)
Once again, it was a quick final table, taking Simeon Spasov just two hours and 48 minutes to dust off the last of the 2,079 entries to take the title, trophy and turn $55 into $16,832.
Closest to dethroning him was Petru Prepelita who also locked up a five-figure cash for finishing runner up. Johannes Heldens, Roberto Firmino Santos Filho and Jack Hardcastle all made it to the top five too, with Teppo Marttinen (6th, $2,486), Danilo Baeza (7th, $1,708), Sokratis Kouklamanis (8th, $1,271) and Carla Marins Assis Palma (9th, $1,039) also featured among the final nine.
$1,050 Second Chance PKO ($150K GTD)
The last two trophies were handed out in one-day events. The first of which had a $1K buy-in, naturally attracting some quality poker talent as a result. Timur Khamidullin came through an extremely tough final table, to finish on top of the 146 entries and bagging a very nice $34,689.
One of the pros Khamidullin eliminated was Mike Watson, who took an almost identical sum from the main prize pool but banking only a quarter of the amount in bounties, which made the difference between the two players’ cashes.
Mike Watson finished runner up
Lars Kamphues (3rd) added another strong result to his resume for this series and that should have an impact on tomorrow’s Player of the Championship Leaderboard. Online pro Yuri Dzivielevski made it all the way to fourth having eliminated just one player, while Dmitriy Kurak took the last of the top-five spots.
Oleg Vasylchenko (6th), Dimitar Danchev (7th), Jonathan Van Fleet (8th) and Andrejs Litvinenko (9th) ensured the rest of the final table was star-studded. Kristen Bicknell (13th) and Thomas Boivin (19th) also reached the money stages, with 20 places paid.
$215 Mini Second Chance PKO ($100K GTD)
Rui Miguel Nougueira Da Silva E Sousa took the top spot, and his second title in less than a week, after defeating Oleksandr Turych heads up to round off seven hours and 20 minutes of play. Da Silva E Sousa is certainly having a great series, adding $17,009 to his bankroll just days after he took down the $530 Knockout for $27,896.
Leocir José Carneiro, Hristivoje Pavlovic and Giorgos Meitanis also had great runs, taking third to fifth spots out of a field of 555. The $111,000 prize pool exceeded its guarantee and Alex Kulev (6th), Luis Felipe Martins Balduino E Vasconcelos (7th), Ronnie Sterken (8th) and Flavio Reis (9th) all took a decent chunk of that, having made it as far as the final table.
Thomas Boivin (13th) and Stefan Huber (20th) each managed to notch up their second deep runs of the night too.
Concludes Tonight
Event #05: $3,200 Knockout Championship ($3M GTD)
This event is a particularly special one: Not only is it a Sexton Cup event but the tonight’s winner will also become the first WPT Champion to win a Main Tour event via a progressive knockout tournament!
A total of 1,035 entries were counted and after two days of play, João Maureli will start in front, giving the Brazilian the best chance of winning the biggest proportion of the $3,105,000 prize pool.
Maureli will face some stiff competition though, only holding a three big blind advantage over experienced second-place finisher Manig Loeser. The German, who will be gunning for his first WPT Championship title, has also amassed the biggest bounty so far. Artur Martirosian is a player who has made his presence known in high roller and super high roller events in recent years and with over 50bb to play with himself, there could be some fireworks between the top three.
Manig Loeser
Daniel Smyth and Ryan Riess also have healthy stacks, the latter sitting right in the middle of the chip counts. Matheus Luiz, Pim Gieles and Pedro Marques all have over 20bb in play, with Shyngis Satubayev the only player on a sub-20bb stack. That is a real testament to the fantastic structure of this event. Interestingly, Satubayev reached the final table of the 8-Max Event two weeks ago and also started at the bottom of the counts then too. The Kazakhstani managed to ladder all the way to 5th place, and it will be interesting to see if he is able to recreate a similar feat this time.
Back at the start of the day, and there was plenty of action. It took eight hours for the 137 survivors to reach the final table and Yago Simplicio Dos Santos took over $30,000 for busting in 10th place, which will hopefully be some consolation from coming so close to reaching the final table. Yuri Dzivielevski (12th), Almedin ‘Ali’ Imsirovic (14th) Martin Jacobson (19th) and WPT Champion Mohsin Charania (20th), all came very close too.
Chance Kornuth’s run was hampered in dramatic fashion by a cooler against Loeser that involved Kornuth’s flopped set losing to Loeser’s flopped straight. The American, who had topped the field in Day 1a, couldn’t recover from that pot and hit the rail in 38th place.
The Champion will also take home a goody bag with some incredible extras included, such as a $7,500 Hublot Classic Fusion Titanium watch and entry into the prestigious WPT Tournament of Champions, hosted by Baccarat Crystal, worth another $15,000. With so much riding on this performance, the final table is certainly one not to be missed, and with cards-up coverage, you can sweat along with the finalists over on the partypoker Twitch channel by clicking here. There will be a one-hour delay so you can tune in from 8pm (BST).
Blinds will resume at 150K/300K (37,500 ante) and everyone has locked up at least $19,483 from the main prize pool, with $208,803 going to the winner, plus a huge bounty prize on top of that.
Event #05: $320 Mini Knockout Championship ($1M GTD)
A total of 3,377 entries meant $1,013,100 was collected for the prize pool, exceeding the huge guarantee. By the end of seven and a half hours of play, the 477 Day 1 survivors had been reduced to just 14 and Dániel Koloszár (51,694,883, $6,794) of Hungary will start in pole position, significantly ahead of Peter Patricio (38,385,935, $6,395) in second place.
Marc-André Ladouceur (37,444,159, $6,207), Thomas Reckziegel Nelz (33,653,260, $3,548) and Christopher Johnson (25,468,160, $4,600) are also in the top five, when play resumes at 7pm tonight. Blinds for the final will start at 200K/400K (50K ante).
Jan Arends (20,315,414, $2,062) and Faraz Jaka (13,158,710, $2,531) are just two of the notables still in with a shot of the $60,800 prize that will be awarded to first place. There is plenty more than that at stake, however, with thousands more to be won via the bounty prize pool. All have made at least $2,897 for making it this far.
Leonidas Vogiatzoglou was the last player to leave before the clock was paused at the end of Level 20. He took $2,897 plus $1,776 in bounties for finishing in 15th place. Stefan Schillhabel (27th), Simon Deadman (49th) and Pascal Hartmann (65th) were a few of the other big names to fall along the way.
Event #05: $33 Micro Knockout Championship ($300K GTD)
The third buy-in level for the Knockout Championship was the Micro and it was three for three, with this event also exceeding the guarantee after 1,330 registrations put $303,660 in the pot.
Ludmil Ivanov (48,435,701, $682) has the biggest stack going into the final, but Mauricio Farias (46,711,206, $733) and Pavel Fedorov (45,042,145, $923) are hot on his heels, with the latter holding the biggest bounty accrued so far in the tournament.
The 50 returnees will return to play blind levels of 200K/400K (50K ante) and all have won at least $232 for their efforts, with potential gains of up to $17,946 (plus bounties) for whoever comes first.
Leaderboards
Player of the Championship
Kristen Bicknell has extended her lead over Lars Kamphues who sits in second place. Roberto Romanello has climbed up into third place, the result of numerous FTs so far this series. That puts 6-Max Champion Nick Petrangelo down into fourth and 8-Max Champion Gavin Cochrane into fifth place.
Rising Star
Boris Angelov remains ahead of the pack, while Andres Odeja and Vojtech Susta have pulled up into second and third spots on the leaderboard. Those changes see Mats Ullereng pushed down into fourth, as former leader Radjendernath Chigharoe takes the last of the top-five positions.
The winner of the Rising Star leaderboard receives $10,000 – for the Player of the Championship, it is $50,000! – and you can read more about both by clicking here.
Tonight’s schedule
