admin, Author at Paul Phua Poker

What does a grassy knoll and Coronavirus (COVID-19) have in common?

For the first time, since Americans wept en masse due to the assassination of J.F.Kennedy, every Las Vegas casino went dark, and unlike the last closure on November 25, 1963 (one day), we don’t know when the lights will go back on.

Nevada State Gov. Steve Sisolak shut down the gambling mecca of the West after COVID-19 cases rose to 50, with one death, and followed similar moves from at least ten more governors.

That’s terrible news for the land-based casino industry, mitigated somewhat if you have an online gambling arm hidden underneath your sleeve.

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) has thrown a sufficient number of punches in their bid to help resuscitate an ailing online poker market, repeatedly kicked in the kidneys thanks to Black Friday.

And it looks like a reward is nigh.

With the World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) sidelined due to a spear from the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, organisers of one the most iconic poker brands switched the action to their online premises.

What followed was an 18 gold ring series, taking place over 18-days, dubbed the WSOP.com Online Super Circuit. The series began on March 14 and will run until March 31. It’s an unparalleled success for the fledgeling online poker arm, surpassing the $1m guarantee in the first six events.

High Roller Interest

The World Poker Tour (WPT) Champions Club member, James Carroll, won that sixth event (Event #6: $320, $50k GTD NLHE). Carroll took out a field of 726-entrants (461 unique) to win the $53,361 first prize. You don’t find Carroll flicking it in $25,000+ events, but $10,000 events have become a staple.

Other high rollers that have made final tables in the first six events include Matt “berkey11_s4y” Berkey, Lauren’ sycamore22′ Roberts, and Joseph “biueberry’ Cheong.

The WSOP has also promised a free seat into the 2019/2020 Global Casino Championship to the winner of the Main Event and the Online Circuit Casino Championship winner (the player who amasses the most points during the series). Currently Matt “RubberFist” Stout sits on top of that leaderboard, which is more comfortable than sitting on top of his rubber fist. Roberts and Carroll also feature in the list.

That Pesky Adelson

The WSOP put the kibosh on the WSOPC in the early rounds of the fight against COVID-19. Still, the WSOP is keeping its powder dry on the fate on every poker player’s Christmas Day.

If the event does go the way of the WSOPC (and the chances are high that it will), then you assume Seth Palansky, Jack Effel and co. will introduce an online WSOP bracelet schedule that must be sitting on a WSOP employee’s Google Drive.

If that does happen, as with the WSOPC, it’s sad that the whole world won’t get to take part, and worse than that, 47 American states will also have to read about the headlines on PokerNews.

One of the men you can thank for keeping the tourniquet tight around online poker’s neck is the Las Vegas Sands owner, Sheldon Adelson. How ironic then, that the market wiped 40% of the stock price of Las Vegas Sands, as it closes, along with the rest of Sin City on a UFN basis, and he doesn’t have an online option to fall back on.

Not that it will wipe the gentility from any sentence that mentions him, as the 40% uppercut means his net worth drizzles from $34 billion to $28 billion.

Here are the remaining highlights of the series for interested high rollers.

Online Super Circuit Schedule

29 March – $525 (3x re-entry) $200k GTD Main Event

31 March – $1,000 (2x re-entry) $75k GTD High Roller

When the proverbials hit the fan, it’s natural for humanity to veer towards pessimism, cynicism, and doom-mongering. Still, amongst these sceptics exist those that seek opportunity – people, capable of pivoting at a moment’s notice, turning woes into wins.

As European mortuary slabs became the epicentre of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, it left most of us in a rabbit in the headlight state of inertia over our wellbeing and economic fate. Then there were the others.

Live Tournaments Forced to Cancel Events

Live tournaments around the globe had no choice, but to suspend operations pending something, anything. While costs might need slashing, and the lifespan of jobs connected to these tours start to dwindle. In essence, the brands need to endure, so they can once again return to the top deck of their double-decker when the microscopes are no longer required, and so, into the arms of online poker rooms, they will run.

The latest to receive a ladder of support is Poker Central, and once again standing at the bottom is partypoker. The couple have worked together before, cross-pollinating content created by Poker Central’s Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB), and the partypoker LIVE MILLIONS tour, and they’re at it again.

The Poker Masters Online Series

partypoker.com will host The Poker Masters Online Series April 12-26. There will be 30 high roller events with buy-ins ranging between $10,300 and $51,000, with $15.25m in guarantees parcelled and ready for the best in the business to tear off a corner.

As with the live version, players earn leaderboard points dependant on finishing positions, and the player sitting on the highest perch at the end of the 30-event marathon will collect an additional $50,000 and a coveted Poker Masters Purple Jacket.

You can find the full schedule below.

As with Black Friday, when the world of online poker went from being the meat to the pie crust, people suffered, while others took the opportunity to pivot in the most fantastic ways, the Coronavirus presents a similar opportunity.

Online poker operators can do the quickstep, and they should, not through morbidity, but because it makes good business sense, and self-quarantined people need an outlet other than Season #3 of Ozarks on Netflix.

At the moment, there is a clear leader.

partypoker is leveraging their live tournament relationships to outstanding effect, and when it comes to the fruit, it will bear you’re looking at pineapples and melons, not berries and grapes.

There was a time when people scoffed at the idea that partypoker could be bigger than PokerStars, but watching the speed, flexibility and efficiency of partypoker at work, real-time, it does make you wonder.

A terrible time for most.

An opportune time for some.

Poker Masters Online Full Schedule (GMT)

Sun 12 Apr – 18:00 Event #1 $10,300, $500k GTD NLHE
Sun 12 Apr – 21:00 Event #2 $10,300, $250k GTD NLHE
Mon 13 Apr – 18:00 Event #3 $10,300, $500k GTD NLHE
Mon 13 Apr – 21:00 Event #4 $10,300, $250k GTD NLHE
Tue 14 Apr – 18:00 Event #5 $10,300, $500k GTD PLO
Tue 14 Apr – 21:00 Event #6 $10,300, $250k GTD NLHE
Wed 15 Apr – 18:00 Event #7 $10,300, $500k GTD NLHE
Wed 15 Apr – 21:00 Event #8 $10,300, $250k GTD NLHE
Thu 16 Apr – 18:00 Event #9 $10,300, $500k GTD NLHE
Thu 16 Apr – 21:00 Event #10 $10,300, $250k GTD NLHE
Fri 17 Apr – 18:00 Event #11 $10,300, $500k GTD PLO
Fri 17 Apr – 21:00 Event #12 $10,300, $250k GTD NLHE
Sat 18 Apr – 18:00 Event #13 $10,300 $500k GTD NLHE
Sat 18 Apr – 21:00 Event #14 $10,300, $250k GTD NLHE
Sun 19 Apr – 18:00 Event #15 $10,300, $500k GTD NLHE
Sun 19 Apr – 21:00 Event #16 $10,300, $250k GTD NLHE
Mon 20 Apr – 18:00 Event #17 $10,300, $500k GTD PLO
Mon 20 Apr – 21:00 Event #18 $10,300, $250k GTD NLHE
Tue 21 Apr – 18:00 Event #19 $25,500, $1m GTD NLHE
Tue 21 Apr – 21:00 Event #20 $10,300, $250k GTD NLHE
Wed 22 Apr – 18:00 Event #21 $25,500, $1m GTD NLHE
Wed 22 Apr – 21:00 Event #22 $10,300, $250k GTD NLHE
Thu 23 Apr – 18:00 Event #23 $25,500, $1m GTD PLO
Thu 23 Apr – 21:00 Event #24 $10,300, $250k GTD NLHE
Fri 24 Apr – 18:00 Event #25 $25,500, $1m GTD NLHE
Fri 24 Apr – 21:00 Event #26 $10,300, $250k GTD NLHE
Sat 25 Apr – 18:00 Event #27 $25,500, $1m GTD NLHE
Sat 25 Apr – 21:00 Event #28 $10,300, $250k GTD NLHE
Sun 26 Apr – 18:00 Event #29 $51,000, $2m GTD NLHE Main Event
Sun 26 Apr – 21:00 Event #30 $103,00, $250k GTD NLHE

“If you spend your days doing what you love, it is impossible to fail. So I go about my days trying to bring something into the world that wasn’t in the world before. And then everyone gets furious about it. And then I sit back and say, ‘I did that!'”

Doug Polk?

Nah, Ricky Gervais, but it’s very Polkesque and very apt.

Polk earned his stripes competing in high stakes online cash games, winning more than $2m competing under the moniker “WCGRider.” Later in his career, Polk made a successful hobbyist transition to the live tournament realm winning close to $10m gross, and three World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets, including $3.7m for taking down the 2017 $111,111 One Drop High Roller.

Still, it’s Polk’s acerbic YouTube style that elevated his status to a broader audience. ‘Doug Polk Poker’ curried favour with 286k subscribers spitting a myriad of poker their way including poker strategy, ‘Polker News’, and applying a tourniquet to Daniel Negreanu’s throat whenever the opportunity arose. That site is about to become a graveyard after Polk announced plans to shut it down, two-years after retiring from the playing side of the game.

Why turn your back on a channel that not only has a large following but is the main artery to his online training site, Upswing Poker?

Well, Polk isn’t doing it to become a phlebotomist.

He’s fallen out of love with poker.

Worse than that.

He likes cholera more than he likes poker.

During the recording of “This Is My Final Poker Video,” Polk said that during his last WSOP Main Event, he deliberately punted his stack off, because, ‘he wanted to lose so badly, so [he} could leave.’

“You should never play poker like that,” Polk said.

Not one for the Upswing Poker lab, that’s for sure.

Polk told his fans that ‘he is done’ with poker, and is not interested in it in ‘any way,’ pointing to the rise in popularity of solvers as one of the primary reasons he would rather shag a hedgehog than remain in the game that set him up for life.

“Software has killed the fun and spirit of the game for me.” Said Polk.

Polk, who also has a Cryptocurrency YouTube channel with 178k subscribers, is not getting out of the YouTube content business altogether, in fact, for the moment that’s where his future lies.

Instead of grinding out poker videos purely for the sake of promoting new Upswing Poker courses, Polk is leaving the pursuit of money behind, and instead focusing on what he loves.

The eponymous ‘Doug Polk’ YouTube channel will focus on current affairs and entertainment. The format remains the same, but conversations on how to play pocket jacks, or Daniel Negreanu’s views on rake are as dead as playing the game of pass the handkerchief.

If anybody wants to step up and replace Polk in his niche, the master had a word of warning. Polk told his masses that it’s harder than ever to make money producing poker content, poking a finger at YouTube’s crackdown on gambling-related content as one of the primary blockages.

In a twist of irony, the show built on a solid foundation of the stuff ends with people tuning into Polk’s “This Is My Final Poker Video”, only for YouTube to force you to watch an advert for Daniel Negreanu’s Masterclass.

“I want to be remembered for my time here,” said Polk. “I always tried to do the right thing, and I wanted to help people.”

And with that, one of the most successful poker YouTube channels turned out the lights for the last time.

When I became lost in the maze of professional poker dreams, Bluefire Poker, showed me the way out.

For that reason, I am a Phil Galfond fan.

When he threw down the high stakes heads-up gauntlet, I didn’t care who picked it up. In the 90s, when someone squared up to Hulk Hogan, you knew they were going to be on the end of a leg drop. I had the same faith in Galfond.

It didn’t matter how out of touch he was.

The quality of his opponents didn’t matter.

Phil Galfond would win, and win as only Phil Galfond can.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the recipe for a big dollop of confirmation bias.

Confirmation bias is your brain’s tendency to interpret new evidence that favours your beliefs. After the first 15 sessions, and 9,927 hands of a 25,000-hand, €100k/€200k Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) war, ‘VeniVidi1993’ had Galfond at the point of a knife with close to €900k in losses.

There is always a badass villain, whom, you later find out, wasn’t as badass as you thought. Another villain with a badder-arse lurked in the shadows. While we all thought VeniVidi1993 was badass, it transpires that Galfond’s mind is the biggest baddest ass of all.

Unable to curtail the beast, Galfond pressed pause, and either bought a Run It Once Elite subscription, flew to Thailand for a meditation retreat or dived straight into the karmic habit of cleaning shitty nappies.

Either way, he left the poker world on a Netflix show cliffhanger, and the sound of kazoos was deafening when Galfond picked up the megaphone and announced to the world that he would rather be dead than give up on this challenge.

There wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

10-Sessions In

10-sessions in and the belief that Galfond is a ‘nice guy, has-been’ feels like a bad joke. The former surgeon of high stakes online cash games has taken VeniVidi1993 apart, winning 8 of their previous ten sessions, winning €405,638.93, through 15,864 hands.

I knew I did not need to worry.

I knew he still had the scent of dried blood under his fingernails from the days of million-dollar swings against introverted Swedes with a penchant for J.R.R. Tolkien.

My bets were safe.

Galfond is the best poker player in the world; the best boss, the best leader, the best father, the best husband, the best beard wearer, and the best improv star.

Then he went onto Twitter and burst my bubble.

“To you, it looks like I was outmatched, but I stepped back, regrouped, studied, shook off some rust, and now I’ve figured Veni out and am crushing him,” Galfond wrote before continuing. “To me, it looked like I was right – that I was a favourite, the whole time and was experiencing an extremely improbably run of bad luck, and that lately, I’m running just slightly good.”

Then the gem.

“That is what our minds do to us – we are drawn to the story that we most want to believe.”

With VeniVidi 1993 currently ahead €494,601.24, and 9,136 hands left to claw it back, what story does Galfond now believe?

“The evidence suggests that I’m likely the underdog,” Galfond tweeted. “This is something I need to keep reminding myself of. “One important thing to keep an eye on is that my motivation I feel to study and improve right now is naturally at a lower level than it was while I was getting crushed. I need to stay on top of this.

“I’ll try to keep as much focus as I can on continuing to improve and as little focus as I can on hoping or expecting any result. You can all root for the most improbably come back in poker history without me!

“I hope you’re enjoying the show.”

He’ll do it.

Of course, he will do it.

Galfond is the best, and will always be the best.

The Facts

Day 16

574 hands played

Galfond +€183,481.38

Day 17

582 hands played.

VeniVidi1993 +€21,571.51

Day 18

555 hands played

Galfond +€27,198.94

Day 19

638 hands played

Galfond +€26,018.41

Day 20

566 hands played

Galfond +€92,803.89

Day 21

576 hands played

Galfond +€3,766.94

Day 22

556 hands played

VeniVidi1993 +€88,465.60

Day 23

598 hands played

Galfond +€23,821.05

Day 24

628 hands played

Galfond +€19,099.65

Day 25

664 hands played

Galfond +€139,485.78

Overall

Ten sessions, +€405,638.93 to Galfond.

Galfond wins 8 of 10 sessions.

VeniVidi1993 currently ahead €494,601.24

15,864 hands played.

9,136 hands left.

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic marches on, ruthless, and unabating, with the global number of cases edging towards 170,000, and more than 6,500 pronounced dead.

One casualty you won’t see in those numbers is the live poker scene, and this week, we saw a deluge of events falling through the cellar door, including those affecting high rollers.

The biggest story is the cancellation of the US Poker Open. Scheduled to run March 19-31, most of the high roller fraternity would have planned to travel to Las Vegas post partypoker’s inaugural MILLIONS Super High Roller Series in Sochi, Russia. As it transpires, that’s the last experience of live poker they may have in some time.

Poker Central’s US Poker Open consisted of 12 events culminating in a $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) Main Event. PokerGO would have streamed the whole shebang live, and now the over-the-top (OTT) media service is left with no new programming to show.

The ARIA is an MGM Resorts International Property, and over the weekend the casino giant decided to close all of its Las Vegas properties for two-weeks, beginning Sunday, March 15. The Wynn and Encore are following suit.

Caesars Entertainment Corporation cancelled all live performance throughout March, but there is still no news of casino closures or the anything related to the World Series of Poker (WSOP).

WSOP officials did issue an email declaring World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) cancellations and postponements, and the announcement of an impromptu WSOPC Online Super Circuit Series on WSOP.com, but still no word on the WSOP due to commence at the end of May.

Another event that’s gone the way of an earthworm disco discovered by a hungry hedgehog is the European Poker Tour (EPT) Monte Carlo. PokerStars have suspended the event due to run April 23 – May 2. EPT Monte Carlo had five €25,000 buy-in events, a €50,000 event and a €100,000 event in the schedule.

The World Poker Tour (WPT) is also putting their show on ice. Adam Pliska and the crew have postponed WPT Venetian March 13-17, and WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown April 16 to May 5. Both events joined WPT Barcelona in a coffin.

We will bring you more news as we receive it.

People have to earn a crust, Coronavirus or no Coronavirus. Still, you can guarantee that for the 50 or so people who descended on the Sochi Casino in Russia for the inaugural partypoker MILLIONS Super High Roller Series it will be a relief to go home finally.

Before the madness hits Russia, and casino doors close indefinitely, Timothy Adams leaves with $3,600,000 reasons to be happy after winning the $250,000 buy-in Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB) Russia.

In doing so, Adams becomes the second player to win two SHRB titles, and the only player to do so back-to-back after conquering a 16-entrant field to win the $1.4m first prize in Australia barely a spit ago.

The win sees Adams all-time live tournament winnings rise to $24.3m. He moves seven places up the All-Time Money List surpassing luminaries such as Rainer Kempe, Brian Rast, Sam Trickett, Sam Greenwood, Phil Hellmuth, and Scott Seiver.

One person, Adams, did not overtake was his heads-up opponent, Christoph Vogelsang. The German star came mighty close to winning his second SHRB title before settling for the role of bridesmaid and a $2,400,000 payday that sees him leap one space ahead of Adams in the All-Time Money list at 19th & 20th place respectively.

Let’s see how the whole thing went down.

The Nutshell Action

Day 1 ended with Jason Koon leading 23 of the 34 entrants on that day, and by the end of Day 2, we had a seven-seater final table with more than $142m in live tournament winnings between them.

Ben Heath led going into the bubble period.

Final Table Seat Draw

Seat 1: Ivan Leow – 720,000
Seat 2: Mikitza Badziakouski – 960,000
Seat 3: Ben Heath – 2,500,000
Seat 4: Adrian Mateos – 2,060,000
Seat 5: Stephen Chidwick – 430,000
Seat 6: Timothy Adams – 1,380,000
Seat 7: Christoph Vogelsang – 1,950,000

Ivan Leow made the first bold move, jamming ace-jack over the top of Timothy Adam’s ace-three-suited, and Adams folded. The next three hands all involved post-flop agression and zero flop play, and when we did see a flop, Stephen Chidwick ended up wishing he hadn’t.

Chidwick opened on the button, and Christoph Vogelsang called from the small blind. The pair looked down at a Kh5s2d flop with Chidwick holding Ah6c and AdJh for Vogelsang. The German check-called a 40,000 Chidwick bet, and soon the pair were staring at the As on the turn, which gave them both top pair. Vogelsang checked, Chidwick bet 90,000, and Vogelsang called. The 7h was the final card to decamp from the deck, and Vogelsang check-called a 200,000 Chidwick bet, leaving the man from the UK with a mere six big blinds.

Then came the one-two.

Vogelsang opened for 70,000, and Chidwick called from the big blind holding Jh9s. Vogelsang’s Ah3h stayed ahead on the Qh8d4c flop, and the German called after Chidwick moved all-in for 140,000. The 6s and Ac were the final pieces of wood in this plank, and Chidwick duly walked off the edge, and the partypoker MILLIONS Super High Roller Series never saw him again.

Vogelsang hadn’t finished.

The German opened to 60,000 holding Qd7d, and Ivan Leow called on the button with Ah7c. The blinds were as interested in this hand as a bowler hat at a rodeo, and the pair saw a Qh7h3d flop. Vogelsang had flopped two-pairs and Leow middle pair. The couple got it in, and the best hand held confirming Leow as the sixth-place finisher.

Then Adrian Mateos took the chip lead.

The action folded to the Spaniard in the small blind, and he got sneaky with a limp holding pocket queens. The big blind seat contained Timothy Adams and looking down at KdTd he raised to 120,000. Mateos then check-raised to 41,000, and Adams made the call. Within no time the pair were staring at a highly flammable 8d5d3s flop. Mateos led for 275,000, and Adams moved all-in. Mateos called and faded the diamonds and kings to double into the chip lead.

Adams then exacted revenge when he three-bet Mateos with pocket jacks and called when the Winamax Pro set him all-in holding ace-king. The board ran out as low as an Olympic limbo pole, and Adams also took the chip lead.

By this time Mikita Badziakouski had done nothing except admire his clobber in the reflection of other people’s sunglasses. Then he found pocket tens and got it in against Ben Heath’s AdQd. Heath took the lead on an ace-high flop, but Badziakouski won the hand, and doubled-up, after turning a set.

Then we lost Mateos, showing how quickly poker can put you on a pedestal, before pushing you under a plough. When the end came, it was a blind on blind battle with Heath holding AhQs and pocket deuces for Mateos. Heath flopped trips, and Mateos was drawing dead on the turn.

Chip Counts

Ben Heath – 3,600,000
Timothy Adams – 3,200,000
Christoph Vogelsang – 1,700,000
Mikita Badziakouski – 1,400,000

Badziakouski began the hustle and bustle when four-handed, taking the chip lead from Heath, and then Vogelsang became the chip leader, with Heath once again at the wrong end of a thumping.

The run of the play dictated that Heath would fall next, and that’s what happened. The UK pro moved all-in for 1,200,000 from the small blind holding Qs6s, and Adams called and won with As2d. Heath picked up a million bucks for his fourth-place finish, his third seven-figure score in less than 12-months.

Adams would face Vogelsang heads-up for the title after the German despatched Badziakouski to the rail in third place. Vogelsang moved all-in from the small blind holding Jh3s, and Badziakouski called and fell holding the superior AcQh after Vogelsang flopped a pair and turned a flush.

Heads-Up

Timothy Adams: 5,200,000
Christoph Vogelsang: 4,600,000

Adams began with the chips, and the experience with 11 wins and six losses in heads-up contests, including winning his last three. Vogelsang had only reached this stage five times, losing three and winning two. Both had won SHRB heads-up confrontations with Adams winning in Australia only last month.

Adams had the better of the early exchanges, and the following hands produced a 3:1 chip lead.

Vogelsang opened the button to 235,000 with QdJs and then called when Adams three-bet to 900,000 holding KdJd. The 7s4h2s flop produced a 1,100,000 c-bet from Adams, and Vogelsang folded. Then Adams got a four-bet through holding AsTc versus Qc6d.

Vogelsang came back into contention doubling with As9c versus KcQh, but Adams always had control and secured his second SHRB victory when his Ah9s beat the Ac6d of Vogelsang in the final hand of the tournament.

ITM Results

Timothy Adams – $3,600,000
Christoph Vogelsang – $2,400,000
Mikita Badziakouski – $1,600,000
Ben Heath – $1,000,000
Adrian Mateos – $800,000
Ivan Leow – $600,000

Once Triton cancelled its Super High Roller Series in Jeju, tour operators in that region had no option but to do the same. The pandemic has since spread across the globe, with Europe the epicentre, and those spores found beneath the microscope are now forcing live tour operators to fold away their tables and ditch their filthy chips.

The Coronavirus is highly adaptable, making the leap from Pangolins and bats to humans. It will continue to evolve, and we place our hope in the brightest scientific minds in the world, that we develop at a faster rate.

Companies that rely on live tournaments for EBITDA will also have to evolve, and right now, the best possible solution is to shift their flagship events online. The law makes the switch more challenging than a decade ago, but it’s more than a viable move for online poker operators; it’s a valuable opportunity.

Not only can the likes of PokerStars and partypoker pivot by creating online alternatives of their beloved live brands, but live tour operators with no ability to offer an online product will be keen to partner with the best in the business.

It’s also a long term positive for the online poker community as the live tour operators have to include in their risk assessment mitigation for future pandemics of this nature, and that could lead to a more competitive online poker landscape.

partypoker: The Role Models

partypoker is currently leading the way when it comes to creating a virtual world that we can call home, and is an inviting prospect for live tour operators.

The online poker operator excels when it comes to creating value-laden partnerships thanks to its sterling work with partypoker LIVE, putting them in a fantastic spot to leverage those relationships post COVID-19.

One of those partnerships is with the World Poker Tour (WPT), and for the first time, that partnership is moving into the virtual realm in a big way. The pair have coupled-up to host online satellites to live events in the past, but the forthcoming WPT Online Championships is the first sense that Adam Pliska and the gang are prepared to put a whole leg into the virtual waters, and not merely dab a toe.

The series runs on partypoker, May 10-26, with $30m in GTD prize money. The $3,200 buy-in, $5m GTD WPT Online Championship is the blaze in this fire, but there are plenty of other hot coals.

The WPT500 brand hits the online market for the first time when between May 10-18, players invest $530 per bullet throughout ten Day 1’s in this $1m, GTD feast of fun. The WPTDeepStacks brand also moves online for the first time with a $1,600 buy-in, $1m GTD event scheduled for May 25-26.

As you would expect, high rollers get to have some fun with a $25,000 buy-in, $3m GTD WPT Super High Roller Challenge on May 21, a $10,300, $2m GTD High Roller, May 24-25, and a wide variety of $5k buy-ins to boot.

The series also traverses the live world with the winner of the WPT Online Championships Main Event earning a seat into the $15,000 Tournament of Champions should the event go ahead as planned.

Here is the full schedule – https://partypokerlive.com/en/event/wpt-online/overview#wpt-high-roller-schedule-7125

Another partypoker alliance involves the Irish Poker Open. The oldest event outside of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) celebrates its 40th year on the partypoker platform with a €1m GTD Main Event. The schedule will follow shortly.

Then Future

If the WPT Online Championships is a success, then why not allow it to breathe once COVID-19 is in the rearview mirror? While it doesn’t make sense to do this for the Irish Open. It does make sense for the WPT to have an online leg, with the winner securing a seat to the TOC, and there’s no reason why a coveted WPT Champions Club spot shouldn’t also be in the goodie bag.

partypoker recently held their first MILLIONS Super High Roller Series in Sochi, Russia. If we have seen the end of live tournament poker this side of 2021, then Rob Yong’s already indicated his willingness to replicate that event online, and that’s in addition to the MILLIONS Online leg that is currently in situ.

PokerStars are keeping their powder dry for now. But, what would stop them adding themed online European Poker Tour (EPT) stops to their online offerings, or expand the World Championships and Spring Championships of Poker idea to fill in the blanks.

Elon Musk wants to terraform Mars, knowing that at some point, human beings will make Earth uninhabitable. Maybe, we don’t have to venture that far. Perhaps, the movie ‘Ready Player One’ has the answer, and humanities future exists in a virtual world. If that’s the case, then online poker isn’t dying; it’s preparing for all-out domination.

If you’ve been following the coverage of the partypoker MILLIONS Super High Roller Series in Sochi, Russia, you may have noticed the name of ‘Jason Koon’ has been sorely lacking in the headlines.

Knowing Koon’s love for the game, one doubts he’s flown to Sochi to spend most of his time on the piste. So, the other alternative is that, so far, Koon’s Sochi experience has been as pleasant as sepsis.

All that can change if Lady Luck walks you through the minefields of an $8.5m (and rising) prizepool.

Nobody knows that more than Koon – the big man, for the big occasion.

The $250,000 buy-in Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB) Russia, the cherry on top of the partypoker MILLIONS Super High Roller Series in Sochi, attracted 34 entrants on Day 1.

Even without late registration remaining open for another full level on Day 2, SHRB Russia has dwarfed the field sizes of SHRB London (12) and SHRB Australia (16), held in 2019 & 2020 respectively. Of the other non-American SHRB events, SHRB Bahamas (51) in 2019 and SHRB China (75) in 2018 remain out of reach unless the crazy get a whole lot crazier.

Three former SHRB winners remain in the field, and two of them amongst the brands most recent Cheshire cats. Cary Katz took down the 2019 SHRB London for $2.6m, and Timothy Adams won SHRB Australia for $1.4m in February. Christoph Vogelsang is the third former winner. The German star won the 2017 SHRB in Aria for $6m.

Here are the main highlights.

The Main Highlights

Nick Petrangelo fell into a $500,000 hole when his pocket kings failed to hold when all-in versus the AK of Timothy Adams. An ace on the river making an exit, even more, excruciating for Petrangelo.

Adrian Mateos joined Petrangelo in the cash desk’s ‘re-entry’ column when his AhJh felt like a mussel against the oyster-like pocket aces of Alexey Rybin.

Kahle Burns became the third player to lose his stack. Artur Martirosyan played the role of vanquisher holding pocket sevens on 6h5s4c9d, with Burns holding Kd6s. The Russian put the Australian all-in on the turn, and the call came. The Qd on the river confirmed Burns’ fate. If he wanted to win this thing, it would cost him another $250,000.

Then a cooler sent the leader of the All-Time Money list to his hotel room knowing he would have to dip back into his bank account to find another $250,000. Bryn Kenney got it all-in pre-flop with pocket aces versus the pocket queens of Paul Phua. The board ran out Jh8d7d9cTd to hand Phua a straight – good enough for second in chips.

Chip Counts

Jason Koon – 745,000
Paul Phua – 690,000
Adrian Mateos – 550,000
Stephen Chidwick – 550,000
Ben Heath – 545,000
Mikita Badziakouski – 465,000
Timothy Adams – 420,000
Phil Ivey – 390,000
Artur Martirosyan – 386,000
Ivan Leow – 380,000

The world is facing unprecedented decisions and quandaries, but for a segment of the high stakes stratum, life motors on as usual with one man, in particular, finding Sochi is as sweet as figgy pudding.

Phil Ivey conquered a 55-entrant field in Event #7: $50,000 Short-Deck at the partypoker MILLIONS Super High Roller Series, a hop, skip and a jump away from finishing runner-up to Wai Kin Yong in the previous $50,000 Short-Deck event.

It’s the first tick in Ivey’s win column since beating Daniel “Jungleman” Cates, heads-up, in an HKD 250,000 Short-Deck event at the 2018 Triton Poker Super High Roller Series in Montenegro. It’s not that Ivey’s been in stealth mode for no reason. He’s had his reasons.

Appearances at the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE), partypoker MILLIONS World, and now Sochi, prove that Ivey’s tool cupboard door is wide open. Let’s hope he doesn’t shut it for the foreseeable future.

Ivey’s win sees him move above the $30m mark in live tournament earnings, replacing Daniel Colman in the 11th spot, a blob of spit away from Steve O’Dwyer in tenth.

Here is how Ivey took this one down.

The Nutshell Action

Final Table Seat Draw

Seat 1: Sam Greenwood – 950,000
Seat 2: Phil Ivey – 3,515,000
Seat 3: Sergi Reixach – 2,915,000
Seat 4: Michael Soyza – 5,120,000
Seat 5: Lee Wai Kiat – 2,540,000
Seat 6: Seth Davies – 855,000

The day began with Event #6’s bubble boy leading the final six players. Michael Soyza did participate in the first big hand of the final, but his role was minor. The main cast members were Seth Davies and Sergi Reixach.

Soyza limped from under the gun, holding KdJh, and Seth Davies raised to 450,000 holding AdQc. The action then fell to Sergi Reixach who moved all-in holding AcKc. Davies called, and Soyza folded leaving a showdown with Davies at risk, and a queen on the river saved him.

The chip leader may have played a supporting role in the first big hand, but he was all over the second one.

Sam Greenwood moved all-in for 1,050,000 from under the gun holding KdQs, and Soyza called with pocket jacks. Greenwood did flop a second king, but it arrived alongside a third jack for Soyza, and the Canadian, making his third final table, became the first player to leave this one.

Then we lost Reixach.

Phil Ivey opened to the hijack for 300,000 with AhTh and then called when Reixach moved all-in for 1,260,000 holding the superior AdQh. After some math, Ivey made the call, and the man many youngsters thought was a fable, flopped and rivered a few more tens to send the Spaniard to the rail.

Soyza took his second scalp when eliminating Seth Davies in fourth. Davies made it 800,000 to play from the cutoff holding As7s, and then called after Soyza moved all-in holding AdQc. No sevens, spades or liferafts arrived to rescue Davies, and he fell out of the loop.

Lee Wai Kiat doubled through the chip leader when Ah8h bettered the pocket tens of Soyza. A flopped ace taking the role of the hammer to the head.

After that double-up, Kiat went on to take the chip lead from Soyza before losing it to Ivey. The compelling three-handed play ended when Soyza called from the hijack holding queens and called again when Kiat moved all-in holding JsTs. Soyza needed the third ten on the flop, after Kiat turned a jack, and he would take a 9.6m>6.3m chip lead into the heads-up phase against Ivey.

Heads-Up

The pair traded blows until Ivey landed one that took the puff out of Soyza’s guts.

With the action at 150,000/300,000, Soyza limped into the pot holding 9c8d and called when Ivey raised to 1,000,000 holding KhQh. The dealer placed a receding hairline producing flop of Jh9h7d onto the flop, and Ivey put Soyza all-in. The call came, and Ivey rivered the nut flush to take a commanding chip lead.

Then, down to ten button antes, Soyza flung them across the line after Ivey had set him in holding Ah6h. Soyza called with Kd7s, and although he flopped the lead with a second king, Ivey caught up by the river, securing a flush for his first title in yonks.

ITM Results

Phil Ivey – $856,050
Michael Soyza – $561,780
Wai Kiat Lee – $374,520
Seth Davies – $267,520
Sergi Reixach – $214,010
Sam Greenwood – $160,510
Dmitriy Kuzmin – $133,760
Thai Ha – $107,000

When Paul Phua won the Global Poker Award (GPA) for Industry Person of the Year, it was his first piece of silverware since winning a 13-entrant €100,000 No-Limit Hold ’em (NLHE) event at the 2016 Monte-Carlo One-Drop Extravaganza.

Four years is a long wait for a man who leads the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series in the money finish (ITM) leaderboard with 16, proving that he doesn’t merely mingle with the supremely talented, he is one.

The wait is other.

Phua came into the final day of Event #6: $100,000 NLHE as the shortest stack of the nine remaining players, but breezed through Day 2, overcoming Matthias Eibinger, heads-up, for the title.

Let’s get to the nitty-gritty.

Nutshell Action

As the 42-entrant field boiled down to the final seven combatants, only six would receive a check. The first person to dangle from that precipice was Michael Soyza, and he fell.

The action folded to Matthias Eibinger on the button, and he applied maximum pressure on the players in the blinds by moving all-in holding Ad2d. Soyza woke up with AcKc and made the call.

Soyza had Eibinger dominated, and the situation worsened when a second king arrived on the flop to increase Soyza’s lead. Then, the light at the end of the tunnel for Eibinger, as the 3d hit the turn to give the Austrian a wheel draw that connected when the 5c hit the river.

It was an exit that stank of intestines and curse words, but Soyza took it like the champion he is.

Paul Phua then doubled through Kahle Burns. The Australian opened with AhKc from under the gun, and Phua called with pocket deuces. The two shortest stacks didn’t need surgical instruments after the nuclear flop of Kh7d2c put the writing on the wall. Phua checked, Burns bet 60,000, and Phua called. The 4h hit the turn, and Burns bet 130,000, Phua raised all-in for 180,000 more, Burns made the call and mucked when he saw how dead he was.

Burns fell to a mere four big blinds after that hand. He did double-up through Eibinger when As5s beat Kh9s but then fell to Adrian Mateos when Ac3s hit the dam like AsJd.

Michael Addamo followed his compatriot out of the poker room door next. The action folded to Addamo in the cutoff, and he moved all-in for 1,140,000 holding Ks8s, and Chin Wei Lim isolated with a jam holding two red aces. The deck had placed a ligature around Addamo’s neck, and it cut off all oxygen after five blank community cards.

Then we lost Adrian Mateos.

The Spaniard moved all-in from the small blind holding 4c5c, and Phua made the call from the big holding Ks7c. A second seven landed on the flop, leaving three in the hunt for the title.

Chip Counts

Matthias Eibinger – 4,450,000
Chin Wei Lim – 2,400,000
Paul Phua – 1,500,000

From the bottom of the pack to the top, Phua took the lead after doubling through Eibinger when AhQc beat AsJd when all-in pre-flop. Eibinger would have the chance for retribution after Phua then eliminated Lim to face the Austrian heads-up.

Phua opened the button to 250,000 and Ac5d, and Lim called with 7c5c in the big blind. The dealer dropped 4h3d3s onto the flop like a cloud dropping rainwater into a gutter, and Lim check-raised jammed after Phua had bet 175,000. However, Phua would not be fooled and made the call with ace-high. The turn and river bricked and Lim was out.

Both Phua and Eibinger battled hard during the heads-up phase, but the Austrian’s chip stack never reached the heights of the Triton founder. The final hand saw Phua open to 400,000 with As8s, and Eibinger call holding Th8h. The dealer dealt a mustard flop of Ah9d8c, and Eibinger check-called for 250,000 and 500,000 when the Kd hit the turn. Finally, the 6c hit the river to give Phua a lock on the hand, and he moved all-in.

“I don’t believe you,” said Eibinger.

The call arrived, and Phua, not Eibinger ended up with the trophy.

ITM Results

Paul Phua – $1,512,000
Matthias Eibinger – $1,008,000
Chin Wei Lim – $672,000
Adrian Mateos – $420,000
Michael Addamo – $336,000
Kahle Burns – $252,000