By Frank Op de Woerd
Some of the biggest names in poker made an appearance last night at partypoker. A $2,100 and $10,000 buy-in event will do that, especially when PLO is the name of the game. The final table of the $10,000, is a sight to behold, with some familiar faces battling it out for the $192,500 first-place prize.
But there was more on tap than big buy-in events alone. Check out all the action from July 23rd.
Main $1,050 Omaha Opener ($75K GTD)
The final day of the $1,050 Omaha Opener got underway with twelve players. The problem was, though, only nine spots got paid.
One of the players finding themselves in the danger zone was Kristen Bicknell, while her partypoker pro colleague Jeff Gross started in the middle of the pack. Both ended up making the money with Lucas Baruc Gomes Silva bubbling. Gross finished eight for a min-cash of $2,727.30. Bicknell laddered up a bit before busting out in fifth for $4,875.
Francesco Romanello
While he wouldn’t make it to the heads-up portion of the event, it was another strong showing for Francesco Romanello. The father of partypoker’s Roberto Romanello finished third for $8,935.23. Hungarian player Ferenc Deák finished second ($16,702.84), leaving the victory and $25,706.18 first-place prize to Richard Gryko from the U.K. Gryko won a $10,000 buy-in PLO event in Las Vegas last year for $102,600 and now has an online accolade to match it.
Mini $109 Omaha Opener ($20K GTD)
From 23 down to 1 in four and a half hours, that’s all it took. Day 2 of the $109 Omaha Opener saw the chips flying with numerous casualties in the early stages.
Ioannis Angelou-Kostas started with the lead but couldn’t hold on to it and ultimately finished eight for $550. Niki Juhani Numisto, who began the day second in chips, did just one better finishing in seventh place for $700.
The top honors went to Stefan Lehner from Austria. He started the day third in chips and rode to victory, winning $4,856.32.
Micro $11 Omaha Opener ($5K GTD)
The micro edition of the Omaha Opener had more players (36) starting than its bigger-sized sister events but only took three and a half hours to finish. With all remaining 36 already in the money, there was a flurry of bust-outs early on.
Joachim Hainzl started with a massive lead but ended up finishing in a disappointing twentieth place worth $40. Aleksandr Malykhin, second in chips to start with only half of what Hainzl started with, did a bit better finishing in fifth for $275.
Stefan Lehner, winner in the Mini edition for just under $5,000, finished third for an additional $530.28 added to his bankroll. Guilherme Sazan Dos Santos beat Ashish Antony heads-up to take down the event for $982.01. Antony received $729.17 for his runner-up finish.
Main $1,050 Omaha Turbo ($50K GTD)
The Day 2’s of the Opener events were a quick affair, but they were nothing compared to the Turbo events on the schedule.
With 65 players signing up for the $1,050 Main Omaha Turbo, all things were settled after just three hours and twenty-one minutes.
Jesper Nordkvist Brodin was the first player to bust, but he bought right back in for another $1,050. Unfortunately for him, he ended up bubbling in tenth place.
Simon Mattsson
Legendary online player Simon “C Darwin2” Mattsson was the first to go out with a cheque in hand, receiving $2,363.66 for his ninth-place finish.
The final table was dominated by Finnish flags with Niki Juhani Nurmisto (7th, $2,588.19), Esko Lahtinen (6th, $3,111.13), Antti Tuomi (4th, $5,850), and Olli Ikonen (2nd, $14,475.79) all hailing from the happiest country alive known for its saunas, the northern lights, and the wife-carrying championship. Yes, wife-carrying as a sport is a thing there.
The Finish had a strong showing, but the title would end up in a country on the other end of the world. Andres Herrada from Chile took down the tournament for $22,278.71.
Mini $109 Omaha Turbo ($15K GTD)
A total of 141 entries were collected in the $109 version of the Omaha Turbo. The action got underway at 9 pm (BST) and was done just before 1 am.
Francesca Romanello wasn’t so lucky this time around, bubbling in 22nd place. Famed British grinder Benny Glaser had gone out just before finishing in 25th place. Francesca’s brother Nicholas Romanello – there’s a total of three poker playing Romanello brothers – finished fourteenth for $247.50.
Herrada, at the time also deep in the $1,050 edition he would end up winning, finished in eleventh, good for $307.50.
A couple of Brits made it to the final table with Roy Milton (5th, $907.50), longtime grinder Tom Hall (4th, $1.230), and Billy Brewin (3rd, $1,686.75) all ultimately missing out on the heads-up. The mano-a-mano fight was between Maksim Shuts and the owner of a shiny wristlet Tyler Bonkowski. Belarusian Shuts had to settle for second place ($2,387.62) while the title went to Bonkowski ($3,654.38).
Micro $11 Omaha Turbo ($5K GTD)
The Micro version of the Omaha Turbo saw 307 entries line up for a shot at the title. With blind levels of six minutes, it wouldn’t take long before players started busting. A single re-entry was allowed, which the majority of early bust outs made use of.
Shannon Alex Mcmillan was the bubble, going out in thirty-seventh place. Things went even quicker after that, with numerous players in the virtual payout line right after.
When the event was down to two, both had the option checked to look at the numbers. Dmitriy Shmakov from Russia and Dung Nguyen playing from Canada chopped up the prize pool; $841.83 for Shmakov and $1,025.57 for Nguyen.
Concludes tonight
Main $2,100 Omaha Knockout ($100K GTD)
There was a time a $2,100 buy-in online tournament was a rare sight. But during the World Poker Tour Online Championships, significant buy-in events are an everyday occasion. And this tournament costing $2,100 to enter, isn’t even the biggest one that was played on July 23rd!
Fifty-nine entries were made into this two-day event. After the dust settled with the end of Level 20, just six remained. By that time, Boris Angelov had already bubbled, and Jeff Gross (9th, $2,160.58 plus $1,750 in bounties), Márk Korom (8th, $2,160.58 plus $3,625), and Jonathan Depa (7th, $2,365.90 plus $4,562.50) were already out as well.
There’s a clear chip leader when Day 2 gets underway; Andriy Lyubovetskiy from Ukraine has almost half the chips in play and is well ahead of Marcello Marigliano, who starts in second place. Gregoire Auzoux and Alexander Holmberg Nordén are still in but have no bounties collected yet.
Andriy Lyubovetskiy
The six remaining players are guaranteed $3,032.89 with the winner and runner-up getting just over $15,200 plus their respective bounties.
Mini $215 Omaha Knockout ($25K GTD)
The Omaha Knockout turns out to be a popular format, with the Mini edition too easily making its guarantee. From the 158 entries into the event, sixteen remain after a hard-fought first day on the virtual green felt.
Like it’s bigger buy-in brother, the Mini edition of the Omaha PKO is already well into the money. German superstar Manig Loeser ended up bubbling, and the $50 he gathered as a bounty wasn’t much of a consolidation prize either.
Javier Zarco (3,440,203) leads before Tobias Lau Frydensberg Andersen (1,472,123). Famous online player Andreas “Skjervoy” Torbergsen sits in third with 1,305,038 in chips.
Micro $22 Omaha Knockout ($7.5K GTD)
With 100,000 in chips to start, 15-minute levels, and a first level of 500 and a 1,000, playing Omaha knockout is a pure pleasure. Getting in for just $22 and gunning for over $660 is even more of a pleasure.
A single re-entry was possible, and 436 entries were made into the popular event. After twenty levels of play, twenty-nine remain. They’re guaranteed $28.16, with some already having collected bounties much bigger than that.
The chips are more evenly distributed with Jannis Heisener (3,755,449), Mihail Vladimirovich Zlygostov (3,613,324), and Roy Milton (3,056,344) all on well over 150 big blinds. The action resumes at 7 pm (BST) tonight!
Main $10,000 Omaha High Roller ($500K GTD)
A $10,000 online PLO event gets the blood flowing for some of the big names in poker. Some even made a comeback online specifically for this event.
Richard “Chufty” Ashby, Ola “Odd_Oddsen” Amundsgaard, Joni “bustoville” Jouhkimainen, and Andreas “Skjervoy” Torbergsen will all ring a bell to followers of high stakes PLO action. All four made an appearance in this event, but all four also busted out early. All four of them bought back in, but all four failed to make the money.
Big names like Isaac Haxton, Jake Schindler, Pascal Lefrancois, and Almedin Imsirovic were all on a single bullet before they said goodbye to the last of their chips. Imsirovic will be especially bitter about it; he bubbled in eight place.
The tournament was paused upon reaching the final table of seven, all guaranteed $23,500 when play resumes tonight at 7 pm (BST). Pedro Zagalo from Portugal (playing from the Netherlands) leads the remaining seven with a stack of 1,051,111. Zagalo’s no stranger to PLO, with his live and online track record dominated by the great game of pot-limit Omaha.
Zagalo is most notorious for winning an online $25,000 PLO event in 2017 for over $419,000. That same year, he finished runner-up in a live $10,000 PLO event in Spain for another $272,000 addition to his bankroll.
The Portuguese wunderkind brings just a few big blinds more than Jens Lakemeier. Lakemeier stars with 1,005,594 in chips. Gavin “gavz101” Cochrane starts in the third position with 1,003,422.
Recent graduate Jens Kyllönen (Master of Science Accounting and Finance at the London School of Economics and Political Science) returned to the online tables for this event as well. He starts with 487,159 in chips.
Aku Joentausta (418,884), Dimitrios Michailidis (397,377), and Joachim Haraldstad (236,453) find themselves at the bottom of the pack.
The action in this gigantic event resumes at 7 pm (BST) with blinds at 6,000 and 12,000 with a 1,500 ante. The payouts are as followed:
1 $192,500
2 $117,500
3 $62,500
4 $45,000
5 $32,500
6 $26,500
7 $23,500
Leaderboards
Kristen Bicknell leads the Player of the Championship leaderboard with 85.76 points. She’s well ahead of Gabriele Lepore with 58.03 points. There’s $50,000 awaiting the player that ends up winning the leaderboard, but the WPT World Online Championships have only just gotten started!
1 Kristen Bicknell 85.76
2 Gabriele Lepore 58.03
3 Artur Martirosian 57.11
4 Aleksejs Ponakovs 56.93
5 Sergio Aido 50.14
Over on the Rising Star leaderboard, which just tracks the players doing well in events with buy-ins under $300, Radjendernath Chigharoe leads. Chigharoe from the Netherlands took down the $109 WPT Opener Mini event for a staggering $78,413, which gave him a ton of points early on.
The winner of the Rising Star leaderboard receives $10,000.
1 Radjendernath Chigharoe 117.91
2 Vasilii Krasnobaev 101.72
3 Alex Mariano Machado 83.37
4 Patrick Glaeser 80.83
5 Karl Jasmen Dick 69.64
Tonight’s schedule
