The poker world is full of distant pinprick stars.
Mikita Badziakouski isn’t one of them.
With more than $28m in live tournament earnings to his name, a few million more playing online tournaments, and a seat in the type of cash games that burn silhouettes into your soul, the light inside ‘Badz’ is ablaze.
Poker record book writers etched another seven-figure score in Badziakouski’s impressive CV, after the partypoker sponsored pro made embers of the 199-entrant field in the $25,500 No-Limit Hold’em event at the World Poker Tour (WPT) World Online Championships on partypoker.
The three-day event ended after Badziakouski cleaned the clock of Jason Koon after the pair agreed upon a heads-up deal that satisfied both parties.
Badziakouski has never made money in a live WPT event.
Here are the final table results.
Final Table Results
Mikita Badziakouski – $1,062,730*
Jason Koon – $810,869*
Alexandros Kolonia – $$548,794
Mark Demirjian – $380,652
Daniel Rezaei – $259,979
Aleksei Barkov – $197,667
Ali Imsirovic – $155,061
*Indicates a heads-up deal
Steve O’Dwyer Wins The Heads-Up
Well before Badziakouski was busy taking down the $25k, Steve O’Dwyer had already locked up the $3,200 WPT Online Championship Heads-Up tournament. The American was the top dog in a field of 166 barking duelists, beating Artem Akhmetvaleyev in the final bracket, earning $135,000.
It’s not the first time that O’Dwyer has won a WPT title.
In 2012, the American won a 289-entrant WPT National in Denmark for €159,227, a few months shy of finishing runner-up to Edoardo Alescio in the Main Event at WPT Venice.
Here are the top eight payouts
Top 8 Payouts
Steve O’Dwyer – $135,000
Artem Akhmetvaleyev – $$75,000
Jorma Nuutinen – $40,000
Allan Berger – $40,000
Joao Vieira – $17,500
Arnaud Enselme – $17,500
Niko Koop – $17,500
Eugenio Peralta – $17,500
For most people who shudder at the thought of someone producing a deck of cards and set of chips, the idea of winning a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet is akin to a chimerical dream. I imagine Lev Gottlieb falls into that category.
You won’t find Gottlieb in the Hendon Mob archives. You won’t find him sitting at the tournament tables in Las Vegas hunting for gold. But a few nights ago, Gottlieb could be found at the GGPoker tables, where he participated and won the first Championship event of the series.
Gottlieb won Event #43: $10,000 Short Deck No Limit Hold’em Championship to collect his first bracelet in his first cash, an amount worth $276,393. Based in Mexico, Gottlieb received the divine help of the Poker Gods when after coming into his heads-up duel with Mikitza Badziakouski facing a 5:1 chip deficit, the Belarusian began having technical issues. We will never know if those gremlins threw Badziakouski off-base, but Gottlieb did manage to overcome.
What’s beautiful about this story, is Gottlieb could have taken full advantage of Badziakouski’s technical challenges, but didn’t. Instead, Gottlieb agreed to sit out while GGPoker fixed the issue, a gesture of incredible goodwill given the heads-up match reportedly lasted more than eight hours!
It’s a defeat that will irk Badziakouski given his sizeable chip lead, personal drive and standing in the world of multi-table tournaments (only 12 people in history have ever won more money). However, there is plenty of time for Badziakouski to rectify the situation.
Here are the final table results.
Event #43: $10,000 Short Deck No Limit Hold’em Championship
Results
Lev “LevMeAlone” Gottlieb – $276,393
Mikita Badziakouski – $210,249
Sergi Reixach – $159,933
Nobuaki “Sasa JHR” Sasaki – $121,659
Dan “oiltrader” Shak – $92,545
Chi Zhang – $70,397
Bjorn “wong1324” Li – $53,550
Carl “Swetomir” Schrader – $40,735
Ami Barer – $30,987
Three more high stakes stars who ignored the humdrum of life to run deep in this thing include George Wolff (11th), Danny Tang (12th) and Jason Koon (15th).
Another beguiling bonanza of a GGPoker report courtesy of having a few moments to spare as the Yerba Mate tea sits heavy in the strainer and Steve O’Dwyer had a better weekend than most.
O’Dwyer has distinguished gluttony when it comes to hogging live tournament wins, and he’s been transferred his jug of luck and skill to the online realm equally successfully in the past 12-months.
The American star picked up two impressive wins at GGPoker over the weekend. Both tournaments were $5k events, and both had field sizes that exceeded the usual intimate get together you typically see in the high stakes games online.
O’Dwyer conquered fields of 111 and 133 entrants to collect a combined haul of $259,226.12.
While the No-Limit Hold’em saw bumper fields, the Short-Deck didn’t. There were two on the weekend at the $10k price point, and Ihor Shkiliaruk won them both (although the fields were 4 and 6 respectively, and 50% of the buy-ins in the field of 6 were Skiliaruk’s)
Outside of the double winners, Wiktor Malinowski took down a $10k, and Joao Vieira and Mikita Badziakouski collected wins in $5k events.
Here are the results in full.
$10k Bryns High Roller
27-entrants
Results
Wiktor Malinowski – $117,735.04
Jonathan Van Fleet – $72,359.90
Oasis – $44,472.37
Elio Fox – $27,332.69
$10k Bryns Short Deck High RToller
4-entrants
Results
Ihor Shkiliaruk – $38,800
$10k Bryns Short Deck High RToller
6-entrants
Results
Ihor Shkiliaruk – $58,200
$5k High Rollers Blade PLO
36-entrants
Results
Joao Vieira – $85,316.76
Onetimeplease22 – $50,409.56
Isaac Baron – $31,730
Sean Winter – $19,972.26
Gr4vyB04t – $12,571.42
$5k High Rollers Blade Mulligan
111-entrants
Results
Steve O’Dwyer – $120,755.41
Kristen Bicknell – $90,925.15
Joao Vieira – $68,463.93
Stephen Chidwick – $51,551.28
Pascal Hartmann – $38,816.56
Timothy Adams – $29,227.68
FuTimReilly – $22,007.57
Mikita Badziakouski – $16,571.04
$5k High Rollers Blade Closer
55-entrants
Results
Mikita Badziakouski – $86,269.92*
Daniel Dvoress – $59,549.32*
David Peters – $39,930.05
Sam Greenwood – $28,825.41
Mustapha Kanit – $20,809
Isaac Baron – $15,021.97
RIVERRAT89 – $10,844.33 *Indicates a heads-up deal
$5k High Rollers Blade Prime
133-entrants
Results
Steve O’Dwyer – $138,470.71
DanBiz – $105,332.75
KeiijoKonvehti – $80,125.23
Viktor Kudinov – $60,950.16
Michael Addamo – $46,364
Xingyun888 – $35,268.45
Sean Winter – $26,828.21
Laurynas Levinskas – $20,407.86
If you have spent the past month knocking back Kingfishers from the carcasses of coconuts while grinding the World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) Online Series at GGPoker, then there will be a funereal gloominess about you, today.
It’s over, for now.
While I am positive that this event will clone itself like a sea anemone, GGPoker continues to melt high roller hearts, WSOP or no WSOP.
The final event of the WSOPC created one of the most substantial prizes on the Internet this week. Of the 9,291-entrants who made the perilous journey through the misty mountains of Day 1 of the $1,000 buy-in, $5m GTD WSOPC Main Event, 1.494 made it through to Day 2, by which time the $9,291,000 prize pool dwarfed the $5m guarantee.
The winner hailed from Germany.
‘schimmelgodx’ collected $1,271,217.69 after beating ‘Biereux’ in heads-up action. Juan Pardo Dominguez went deeper than any other high roller, finishing fourth for $430,022.47, and these stars of the top strata followed him: Artur Martirosian (12th), Alexandros Kolonias (19th), Joao Vieira (31st), and Daniel Dvoress (32nd).
Here are the results
Results
schimmelgodx – $1,271,217.69
Biereux – $885,746.81
Igutu – $617,164.03
Juan Pardo Dominguez – $430,022.47
TepuseenFD – $299,627.33
CoRoNaTi – $208,771.57
MaillouL – $145,466.38
wy77 – $101,356.30
Before, during and after this magnificent moment, GGPoker kept churning out the high roller action like London horizons churn out cumulus.
Isaac Haxton took down the most significant chunk of change, topping a 60-entrant field in a $25,000 No Limit Hold’em event for $456,764.45, after beating Linus Loeliger, heads-up. There were also wins for Matthias Eibinger at the $10,000 level, and victories for Dario Sammartino, Laurynas Levinskas, Alex Foxen, Adrian Mateos, Jake Schindler, Mikita Badziakouski, and Kristen Bicknell at the $5,000 level. Andras Nemeth won the only high buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha event, taking down a $5,000.
Here are the Results:
$25,000 No Limit Hold’em
60-entrants
Results
Isaac Haxton – $456,764.45
Linus Loeliger – $287,450.12
Deepdarkwood – $217,470.47
Sub-Zero – $164,527.25
Alexandros Kolonias – $124,473.13
Ali Imsirovic – $94,170.11
Artur Martirosian – $71,244.43
George Wolff – $53,900.04
$10,000 No Limit Hold’em
84-entrants
Results
Matthias Eibinger – $198,735.16
Dario Sammartino – $151,387.06
pDNA – $115,319.62
Linus Loeliger – $87,845.13
Jake Schindler – $66,916.34
Nator – $50,973.72
Isaac Baron – $38,829.45
Timothy Adams – $29,578.46
George Wolff – $26,767.56
$5,000 Pot Limit Omaha
38-entrants
Results
Andras Nemeth – $76,998.40
Andreas Torbergsen – $45,494.62
coronita – $28,636.32
Magicmaster69 – $18,024.96
20BigWhale20 – $11,345.70
$5,000 No Limit Hold’em
112-entrants
Results
Dario Sammartino – $121,843.29
Samuel Vousden – $91,774.30
Alex Foxen – $69,080.73
Pascal Hartmann – $52,015.71
Matthias Eibinger – $39,166.26
Alexnadros Kolonias – $29,490.99
Timothy Adams – $22,205.83
cliffbooth – $16,720.33
Trashdawg – $14,748.26
$5,000 No Limit Hold’em
58-entrants
Results
Laurynas Levinskas – $95,443.37
Trashdawg – $58,329.65
David Peters – $42,108.05
Jake Schindler – $30,397.70
Kristen Bicknell – $21,944.04
Pascal Hartmann – $15,841.36
Jonathan Van Fleet – $11,435.83
$5,000 No Limit Hold’em
22-entrants
Results
Alex Foxen – $54,601.25
Tonythetiger – $33,029.35
Ali Imsirovic – $16,869.39
$5,000 No Limit Hold’em
67-entrants
Results
Adrian Mateos – $68,710.30*
Nick Petrangelo – $77,308.85*
Luuk Gieles – $45,737.48
Dan Smith – $35,761.27
Sam Greenwood – $27,961.06
HogFish333 – $21,862.21
George Wolff – $17,093.65
Artur Martirosian – $13,365.19
David Peters – $10,449.99
*Indicates a heads-up deal
$5,000 No Limit Hold’em
65-entrants
Results
Jake Schindler – $95,936.10
Adrian Mateos – $60,374.30
Ali Imsirovic – $45,676.19
Dan Smith – $34,556.31
Porsche911sp – $26,143.59
Sergi Reixach – $19,778.92
BigWhale20 – $14,963.75
Sam Greenwood – $11,320.84
$5,000 No Limit Hold’em
66-entrants
Results
Mikita Badziakouski – $97,412.04
Rui Ferreira – $61,303.13
Vamossuerte – $46,378.90
Adrian Mateos – $35,087.95
Alexandros Kolonias – $26,545.80
TheProfessional – $20,083.21
Jake Schindler – $15,193.96
Pascal Hartmann – $11,495.01
$5,000 No Limit Hold’em
44-entrants
Results
TheProfessional – $89,156.02
Jake Schindler – $52,677.99
AndyAtTheBike – $33,157.85
Pascal Hartmann – $20,871.01
Fedor Holz – $13,137.13
$5,000 No Limit Hold’em
122-entrants
Results
Kristen Bicknell – $88,387.40*
Alex Foxen – $99,929.86*
Isaac Baron – $108,820.35*
Ami Barer – $55,909.17
Michael Addamo – $42,529.38
DanBiz – $32,351.51
Dnegking – $24,609.33
Adiemeerci – $18,719.99
Andras Nemeth – $14,240.05
*Indicates a threeway deal
PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker
The final day of the PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) saw Steve ‘Mr. Tim Caum’ O’Dwyer come close to winning his third title of the series.
O’Dwyer finished runner-up to the partypoker pro Joao ‘IneedMassari’ Simão in Event #120: $2,100 No Limit Hold’em Sunday Warm-Up Special Edition.
The event attracted 418-entrants, and the former PocketFives World #1 earned $150,546.78 for his victory. O’Dwyer collected $112,819.20 for his second-place finish.
O’Dwyer won a $25,000 No Limit Hold’em event for $521,598, and a $10,300 event for $241,956 – the first time he has earned SCOOP honours a year after winning a World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) title for the first time.
Mikita Badziakouski is mustard.
The three-time Triton Poker Super High Roller Series champion stepped on the top podium for the 13th time in his career after taking down Event #4: $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) at the partypoker MILLIONS Super High Roller Series at the Casino Sochi in Russia.
The partypoker ambassador has had a quiet start to 2020 on the tournament front with only one score on the board (a runner-up finish to Luc Greenwood in an AUD 50,000 NLHE event at the Australian Poker Open), but you can’t keep a man like Badz down for long.
It took only two hands for the final table experience to feel like a sauna full of kippers for Wiktor Malinowski. The Pole, who made deep runs in £/€100k events in Europe circa 2019, jammed over an Artur Martirosyan open for eight bigs holding KdQh, and the Russian called with the superior AsKh. The deck favoured the best hand, and Malinowski exited in the seventh position.
Sam Greenwood began the final table as the shorty with one move. The Canadian moved all-in without any takers until Mikita Badziakouski looked him up with pocket sevens. It was a race against Greenwood’s QhJh, and running queens on the two latter streets saw him double up.
It was a move worth an additional $45,000, as Cary Katz and not Greenwood hit the rail next.
Greenwood moved all-in for 840,000, and KsJd and Katz called for his tournament life holding pocket sixes. The second race in quick succession for Greenwood and this one went the same way as the last one. Katz’s run ended in sixth place, his second final table appearance of the series.
Greenwood was heading for the attic, and then he ended up in the basement.
Firstly, Greenwood got it in with AsQd versus the pocket kings of Badziakouski. No, luck there. Then the Canadian got it in with pocket nines and lost out to Martirosyan’s Ah7d after the Russian hit a further two aces on the river. Just like that, Greenwood went from the shorty to the chip leader to the fifth-place finisher.
Aaron Van Blarcum’s third final table of the series ended with a fourth-place finish. Badziakouski opened from position holding AcKs, and then called when Van Blarcum jammed with As9h from the big blind. Domination station. The nines did an ostrich, and Van Blarcum went looking for some peach brandy.
We reached heads-up one hand later when Martirosyan chopped down another Greenwood after A9o beat QJo.
The heads-up between Martirosyan and Badziakouski began even in chips. The Belarusian had the experience edge. Badziakouski opened up a lead before the Russian doubled back into contention. Still, the double-up didn’t change anything as Badziakouski put his foot down and accelerated away once more, this time never looking back.
In the final hand, Martirosyan limp-called the button holding Qs6s, and him and Badziakouski (holding Kh9d) saw a flop of 7h6h6c. Badziakouski led for 220,000 with his airball, and Martirosyan, holding trips, raised to 540,000; Badziakouski called. The Th on the turn handed Badziakouski a flush draw. Martirosyan moved all-in with the best hand, and after some deep thinking, Badziakouski called.
“I’m a fish.” Said Badziakouski.
Only a heart would stop Martirosyan from doubling into the chip lead, and that’s what hit the deck as the 5h handed Badziakouski the title with his flush beating trips.
ITM Results
Mikita Badziakouski – $765,000
Artur Martirosyan – $495,000
Luc Greenwood – $337,500
Aaron Van Blarcum – $225,000
Sam Greenwood – $180,000
Cary Katz – $135,000
Wiktor Malinowski – $112,500
Mikita Badziakouski
There
seems to be a rule of thumb materialising in the high stakes scene: increase
the stakes, and Mikita Badziakouski suddenly develops the senses of a
Bloodhound.
The
Belarusian had only cashed once in the British Poker Open (BPO) before Event
#9: £50,000 No-Limit Hold’em strolled into view (fourth in a £25k), but he’s
secured the most significant single payout thus far, defeating 18-entrants to
win the £486,000 first prize.
For
once, a Badziakouski win is not the story. With Sam Greenwood and Stephen
Chidwick failing to make money in Event #9, Sam Soverel won the 2019 BPO title
with the £100,000 to come (not that it will be a dead rubber).
Soverel
picked the locks to five of the nine final tables securing a third, two
seconds, and two wins, to utterly dominate the series. It’s also going to land
him in good stead in his bid to defend his Poker Central High Roller of the
Year trophy. Soverel arrived in London with the lead, and he’s done nothing but
extend it.
Let’s
see how Soverel and Badziakouski faired as the stakes doubled.
Final Table Chip Counts
1.
David Peters – 815,000
2.
Mikita Badziakouski – 525,000
3.
Christoph Vogelsang – 415,000
4.
Stephen Chidwick – 290,000
5.
Charlie Carrel – 190,000
6. Cary
Katz – 63,500
7. Sam
Greenwood – 60,000
8. Ali
Imsirovic – 32,000
The Action
Ali
Imsirovic came into the final table on fumes, and it seems no amount of
meditation was going to produce a divine intervention from the Poker Gods. The
reigning Poker Master stuck it in on a flop of Tc8c2s, holding Js7h, and
Stephen Chidwick, called a won with KdJd to eliminate Imsirovic, who
immediately bought back in, as registration was still open.
Registration
closed.
Sam
Greenwood’s hopes of winning the BPO title remained intact after doubling
through Badziakouski. It was a flip with Greenwood’s pocket sixes beating
QsJs.
Then we
lost Stephen Chidwick, and with it, the man from Deal’s chances of winning the
BPO Championship.
Imsirovic
opened to 12,000 from the cutoff, Chidwick three-bet to 55,000 from the small
blind, the chip leader, David Peters, called in the big blind, and Imsirovic
folded. The flop of Kc8h7d hit the board, Chidwick bet 30,000 and Peters
called. The action checked through the 3d turn, and we had the 9c on the river.
Chidwick checked, Peters moved all-in, and Chidwick called. Peters showed
pocket aces for the win, with Chidwick flashing pocket tens.
Then we
lost Cary Katz.
Imsirovic
opened to 15,000 in early position; Charlie Carrel moved all-in for 225,000 on
the button. Catz called for his last 61,000 in the big blind, and Imsirovic
folded. Carrel’s pocket treys would go on to beat the QsJs of Catz in a
flip.
Matthias
Eibinger doubled through Peters when AcTc beat pocket kings thanks to an ace on
the flop.
Then we
lost Carrel in seventh place.
Peters
opened to 18,000, and both Greenwood and Carrel joined him on a flop of AcJh2s.
Carrel, who held AdJc for the top two-pair hand, bet 18,000. Greenwood folded,
and Peters called. Peters held QsTs, and the Kc on the turn gave him a Broadway
straight. Carrel bet 65,000, and Peters called. The 5h landed on the river, and
Carrel moved all-in. Peters called and extended his lead.
Greenwood
doubled through Vogelsang when KhQh beat pocket treys.
Imsirovic
exited in the sixth place.
The
Bosnian moved all-in for five big blinds holding AhJs, and Peters called and
chopped him up holding Kc9c.
Then we
lost Eibinger.
After
losing AJdd to the AKss of Badziakouski for a chunk, Eibinger moved all-in
holding KhJc, and Greenwood called and felled him with Ad9s to take us to the
bubble.
Greenwood
made it 40,000 to play with AsKs, and Badziakouski joined him with 9c8c. The flop
was QcJc5h. Greenwood had the lead, but the Belarusian was a marginal favourite
with the flush and straight draw. Greenwood moved all-in, and Badziakouski
called and hit his flush on the turn sending Greenwood packing. Greenwood’s
demise meant that come hell or high water; Sam Soverel would be the BPO
Champion with one event remaining.
Peters
was ripe for the win going into three-handed play until this happened.
Vogelsang
jammed for 630,000, holding AcQs, and Peters was in there with pocket deuces.
The board ran out doubled-paired, counterfeiting Peters’ pocket pair, and the
hand and the chip lead went to Vogelsang. Then Peters moved all-in holding
AhJh, and Vogelsang called, and eliminated him, holding two black aces.
Heads-Up
Vogelsang
held the heads-up chip lead for a single hand.
Badziakouski
and Vogelsang both checked on a flop of Kh9s5h with Badziakouski holding Qh9h
for middle pair and the flush draw, but Vogelsang was ahead with Kd6d for top
pair. The 6d on the turn extended Vogelsang’s lead, giving him a two-pair hand.
Badzuakouski bet 100,000 and then called when Vogelsang raised to 310,000.
Badziakouski filled-up when the 8h hit the river – Vogelsang bet 190,000,
Badziakouski moved all-in, and Vogelsang called, shipping another 435,000 over
to his opponent.
Vogelsang
doubled when pocket aces beat QsJc, but Badziakouski still held a big lead.
Then it
ended.
Badziakouski
moved all-in holding Ts9h, and Vogelsang called holding Td8d. The board changed
nothing, and Badziakouski was our winner.
ITM Results
1.
Mikita Badziakouski – £486,000
2.
Christoph Vogelsang – £270,000
3.
David Peters – £144,000
Picture the moment.
Your pocket sixes square up to AK. You stand on tippy-toes reaching over the table, trying to scare the deck into delivering an aceless, kingless flop, turn and river.
As the dealer burns and turns you hear nothing but the delightful sounds of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, as each street produces a playing card that goes according to the movie script you have played over in your mind since the day you fell in love with the game.
And then, just like that, there are no more cards to come.
No more starving children, no need to fight with the rats with whiskers like fencing foils over the mouldy bread.
You’ve won Event #9: €100,000 No-Limit Hold’em King’s Super High Roller at the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) for €2,624,340. The trumpets blow a fanfare, the geese break V formation overhead to spell your name, and the photographer asks you to pose for a photograph your kids will one-day point to and say proudly, “That’s my Dad.”
That’s what happened to Martin Kabrhel this week.
Only, if you look at that winner’s photo, you can be pardoned for thinking he has just realised his Type 1 Diabetes has run amok, and underneath the poker table, someone is amputating both of his legs without anaesthetic.
Cheer up, Martin, it might never happen.
Although it did, didn’t it?
Kabrhel conquered a field of 95-entrants in the most substantial buy-in event at the 2018 WSOPE, 37 fewer than attended the 2017 event, which Dominik Nitsche took down to register his most significant prize to date. And talking of Nitsche, he was one of a handful of players who put in a decent shift.
The German star came close to defending his title, finishing fifth. Last year’s third-place finisher, Mikita Badziakouski finished fourth, and Michael Addamo continued his superb run of form, finishing eighth a few days shy of picking up the win in the €25k High Roller.
There was also a personal best for Julian Thomas (€1,116,308), a young man Nitsche told me is the next big German star in the making. Thomas exited in third at the hands of the man who seemingly has control of the high stakes jukebox, David Peters.
The American entered the heads-up phase with Kabrhel with a 3.5:1 chip lead, but the Czech star evened things up when his flush extracted value from Peters’ top pair, and then the duo got it in with the 66 v AK hand I went a little over the top with at the start of this thing.
According to the scribes at PokerNews, Peters’ runner-up position, and fourth seven-figure score of the year will likely see him replace Alex Foxen at the top of the Global Poker Index (GPI) World Rankings.
Kabrhel is unlikely ever to reach those dizzy heights, but he did overtake Martin Staszko at the top of the Czech All-Time Live Tournament Rankings after his win, and what I love about Kabrhel is his penchant to playing anything.
With most high rollers choosing to join the WSOPE fray at the bitter end. Kabrhel was there at the start of September when the World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) hit town, winning both a €299 and a €550 buy-in event to take his total of WSOPC gold rings up to four.
When Kabrhel sits down to play poker in the King’s Casino, it feels like his front room. This time last year, he was winning his first gold bracelet after overcoming 325-entrants in the €1,100 No-Limit Hold’em Super Turbo Bounty event for €53,557.
Now he has two.
And if that’s not worth smiling about, I don’t know what is.
Final Table Results
Martin Kabrhel – €2,624,340
David Peters – €1,621,960
Julian Thomas – €1,116,308
Mikita Badziakouski – €789,612
Dominik Nitsche – €574,466
Jan Schwippert – €430,217
Adrian Mateos – €331,943
Michael Addamo – €264,110
Three other players were brewing the late night coffee in this one including the 2017 Super High Roller Bowl winner, Christoph Vogelsang (10th), the man who wins everything except this one, Steve O’Dwyer (13th), and the former Poker Masters Champion, Steffen Sontheimer (15th).
As another week sends us hurtling towards our inevitable doom, it’s time to bring you up to speed with the narratives that have spewed forth from the soap opera that is high stakes poker.
We begin with live tournament poker, and there is only one place for high stakes poker players to be this week, and that’s the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) in the King’s Casino, Rozvadov, Czech Republic.
The €25,500 No-Limit High Roller was a resounding success with 133-entrants ensuring Leon Tsoukernik surpassed the €1m Guarantee by three-times as much. The final table housed such luminaries as former Triton Poker Series Main Event winners, Mikita Badziakouski and Manig Loeser, and the former One Drop High Roller winner, Dominik Nitsche. But it was the Australian Michael Addamo who banked the €848,702 first-prize after beating Christian Rudolph, heads-up, for his second World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet of the summer, after winning The Marathon in Las Vegas.
Outside of the WSOP, but within the walls of the King’s Casino, and the owner, Leon Tsoukernik, announced three more high rollers this week.
Here they are:
23 October – €25,000 King’s Short Deck Championship
30 October – €100,000 Leon’s High Roller
31 October – €50,000 King’s Short Deck Championship II
As you can tell, one of those is old news, and it wasn’t anywhere near as successful as the event Addamo won.
Only 15-entrants (nine unique, six re-entries) showed an interest in the €25,000 King’s Short Deck Championship, and Mikita Badziakouski beat Ivan Leow, heads-up, to bank the €213,750 first-prize, with Ivan Leow taking €142,500 for his efforts.
From the past to the future, and Phil Hellmuth, Doug Polk and Ryan Fee will be amongst the high rollers attending World Crypto Con (WCC) at the ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas on the final day of October.
The trio will compete in the world’s first blockchain poker tournament. Hellmuth is acting in an emcee role, and both Polk and Fee are present because Coin Central (an online crypto news channel co-founded by the pair) is partnering with WCC.
Other celebrities/poker players scheduled to compete are the 1998 WSOP Main Event winner, Scotty Nguyen, Litecoin creator Charlie Lee, and former Disney star and crypto entrepreneur Brock Pierce.
Live Cash Games: Bobby’s Room on PokerGo; Baldwin and Co Hit WSOPE
Moving swiftly on to the live cash games, and this week Poker Central announced that Bobby’s Room would be migrating to PokerGo for the week. The Godfather themed Poker After Dark (PAD) show would move away from its traditional No-Limit Hold’em offering by showcasing the $1,500/$3,000 Mixed Game that often takes place in the Bellagio. Bryn Kenney, Gus Hansen, Brian Rast, Scott Seiver and Daniel “Jungleman” Cates were a few of the names scheduled to take part.
Interestingly this week, Dan Smith took to Twitter to list his most ‘fun’ players to compete with when playing live tournaments and the Jungleman was top of that list. I am sure he is just as much of a blast playing live cash games if he can keep awake long enough that is.
The cast of Bobby’s Room may be moving to the ARIA this week, but the man they named the gaff after is not.
Bobby Baldwin is amongst a host of high rollers currently playing in some pretty hefty Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) games in the King’s Casino, Rozvadov during the WSOPE.
The game of choice seems to be €1/2/4k PLO.
As you can see in this snap, joining Baldwin are the likes of Leon Tsoukernik, Ben Lamb, Matt Kirk, Tony G, and Rob Yong.
Listen or Watch: Negreanu on Jon Taffer, and Luckychewy on YouTube
Neither Daniel Negreanu or Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger are at ARIA or King’s Casino, but if you are missing them both you’re in luck.
Negreanu appeared on Jon Taffer’s podcast this week where he talked about his beginning in the game, the need to treat poker as a business, and much more.
And LuckyChewy popped up on his YouTube Channel to share his thoughts on Compassion, Love, Freedom.
Out And About
Michael ‘The Grinder’ Mizrachi is on his way to Australia. The four-time WSOP bracelet winner and two-time World Poker Tour (WPT) Champion is in Queensland with the former WSOP Main Event champion, Joe Hachem.
The pair will light up the Australian Poker Open Grand Final with a Masterclass for the fans, before competing in a Best of Three Heads-Up Exhibition match with $5k on the line.
A post shared by Joe Hachem (@josephhachemofficial) on
And Dan Smith is taking a mini-sabbatical from the high stakes poker tables by taking up a spot of snowboarding in Japan. Smith wants to learn some basic conversational Japanese ahead of his trip, so if you have any tips, send him a tweet to @DanSmithHolla.
Charity: Smith & Loeser Shine
Sticking with Smith for a few sentences longer and the man who once raised $4.3m for effective charities (with a little help from the Daily Fantasy Sports stars the Crowley Brothers), was firing a few more bucks to charity this week. Smith chose to send $2,000 to the Lineage Project, a non-profit introducing mindfulness programs to the incarcerated, homeless and vulnerable youth.
Check them out, here. http://www.lineageproject.org/
And the former Triton Poker Series Montenegro Main Event winner, Manig Loeser, was also in a charitable mood this week. It turns out that the German star donated €3,000 to a man who lives in the middle of nowhere so he can take care of over 450 stray dogs.
The location in Serbia was chosen because it was cheap enough and remote enough that it could house so many dogs but doesn’t possess running water or electricity, and with temperatures dropping to 25 below that’s a problem. Loser’s €3,000 donation helped the dog-carers install a solar panel to power a water pump.
Check out the story, right here.
With the $20m Guarantee Online MILLIONS scheduled to take place in a month’s time, partypoker has drafted in a little help to promote the event prompting speculation of potential sponsorship deals in the offing.
Jason and Natasha Mercier ran a competition on Twitter where players had to guess how many nappies Jason had changed in 2018. The answer was a measly 11, and eight people won an online satellite into the big one, including Ismael Bojang.
The other high roller parading partypoker promotions online is Sorel Mizzi. No nappies, just an ad.
Will the Merciers and Mizzi be joining partypoker?
Finally, if you are out of work, and feel you have what it takes to front a Twitch show, then head to Bill Perkins’ Twitter feed. The high stakes star is currently searching for a host for his Thirst Lounge Twitch Channel, and the gig looks better than this one, that’s for sure. The winner gets a staking deal, use of his private yacht for streaming, use of his house in St.Kitts for the same purpose and housing.
And that’s this week’s Pinnacle.
Like Coldplay preparing to play Yellow to a packed house, the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) is preparing to enter their curtain falling phase of the event, and that means a hive of activity for our high rollers.
Leon Tsoukernik and those that crack the live tournament whip within the corridors of power at the World Series of Poker (WSOP), pencilled two events into the 2018 WSOPE calendar.
1. €25,500 No-Limit Hold’em.
2. €100,000 No-Limit Hold’em.
Once seven events had passed into the ether, the organisers knew there was a thirst for more high stakes action. Bobby Baldwin and the Las Vegas tribe were in town, as were Paul Phua, Richard Yong and the rest of the Short-Deck crew, and rather than have a dance off; they wedged three more big buy-in events between dessert and the wafer-thin mints.
Here are the results for two of those events.
Michael Addamo Wins Event #8: €25,500 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller
Event #8: €25,500 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller attracted 133-entrants, tripling the €1m Guarantee, and the last person with a bum glued to a seat was Michael Addamo.
The Australian star became the second player of 2018 to win a WSOP bracelet on both sides of the pond, joining Hanh Tran and Timur Margolin who achieved the same feat earlier in the series.
Like a top of the range mower, it doesn’t matter the size of the field, Addamo is capable of taking it down as proven by his first WSOP bracelet win in the summer when he defeated 1,637-entrants to win the $2,620 No-Limit Hold’em Marathon for $653,581.
Back to this one, and Addamo defeated the German star Christian Rudolph (otherwise known as Unknown Player on The Hendon Mob), in a long arse grind of a heads-up match that saw both players trade the lead before Addamo got the job done at 6 am when his AQ improved to beat the pocket sevens of the German star.
The victory is Addamo’s seventh live tournament win, and the €848,702 currently flying down an electrical wire is the most significant chunk of electronic cash he has ever won.
Addamo has now won $3.1m playing live tournaments.
Final Table Results
1. Michael Addamo – €848,702
2. Christian Rudolph – €524,532
3. Benjamin Pollak – €370,219
4. Mikita Badziakouski – €266,767
5. Dominik Nitsche – €196,328
6. Winfred Yu – €147,642
7, James Romero – €113,505
8. Manig Loeser – €89,253
20-players finished ITM including the Austrian powerhouse Matthias Eibinger (9th), the Canadian star Timothy Adams (10th) and the 2016 Super High Roller Bowl winner, Rainer Kemper (13th).
Mikita Badziakouski Does it Again.
The first of three non-bracelet high rollers is also in the bag, and the numbers weren’t great.
Mikita Badziakouski conquered a field of 15-entrants (nine unique, six re-entries) to win the €25,500 No-Limit Hold’em Short-Deck event, beating Ivan Leow, heads-up.
Given the shortage of meat, those were the only two people to bank any money in the event. Badziakouski’s 2018 run has been insane, netting $12,964,213 in live tournaments, second only to Justin Bonomo ($25,143,935). Leow is the most in-form high stakes No-Limit Hold’em Short-Deck live tournament player in the world, so it was a nice scalp for the Belarusian.
Here are the results:
ITM Results
1. Mikita Badziakouski – €213,750
2. Ivan Leow – €142,500
Other players competing in the event included Richard Yong, Paul Phua, Winfred Yu, Wai Kin Yong, Wai Leong Chan and Leon Tsoukernik.
Two high rollers remain.
Here they are:
1. €50,000 No-Limit Hold’em, Oct 31
2. €100,000 No-Limit Hold’em: LEON’s High Roller, Oct 30-31
The PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona slapped a €100,000 buy-in Super High Roller on the card for the first time, and when it came down to form, there was one man everyone had to beat.
Justin Bonomo is the hottest player in the world right now. But when Bonomo doesn’t turn up for work, that mantle becomes the responsibility of Mikita Badziakouski.
The Belarusian star came into this event after winning back-to-back Triton Poker Series Main Events in Montenegro and Jeju. Add a fourth-place finish in the Super High Roller Bowl to that collection, as well as a series of other sterling results, and you’re looking at an annual haul of $12,411,966 – only Bonomo has won more ($24,945,435). Badziakouski’s form would have seen him top the live yearly tournament earnings charts in three of the past four years.
Could anyone stop him?
The headline is a bit of a giveaway.
Let’s see how he took it down. Day 1
44 entrants participated in eight levels of 60-minutes, at the end of the day 28 remained with Badziakouski bagging up 402,000 chips, good enough for 80 big blinds.
Top Ten Chip Counts
Ahadpur Khangah – 1,155,000
Pascal LeFrancois – 647,000
David Peters – 638,000
Seth Davies – 622,000
Timothy Adams – 587,000
Jan-Eric Schwippert – 545,000
Patrik Antonius – 517,000
Jean-Hoel Thorel – 496,000
Bryn Kenney – 494,000
Benjamin Pollak – 469,000
Day 2
Ten people took advantage of the late registration, making the final field size, 54. The prize pool was €5,239,080.
Here were the payouts:
Payouts
€1,650,300
€1,191,900
€759,680
€576,300
€445,300
€340,550
€274,050
Level 10, with blinds at 4,000/8,000/8,000, and a critical hand for Badziakouski.
Badziakouski opened to 21,000, Adams three-bet to 69,000 and Badziakouski called. The flop was Ts6h2c; Adams bet 38,000, Badziaouski raised to 100,000, Adams moved all-in, and Badziakouski called for his tournament life. The Belarusian showed ATcc for top pair, and backdoor flush draw, but Adam was ahead with pocket queens. The As landed on the turn to give Badziakouski two pairs, and after a blank river he doubled up to 780,000.
By the time we reached the final three tables, Badziakouski was third in chips.
Top Five Chip Counts
Ahadpur Khangah – 1,819,000
Matthias Eibinger – 1,200,000
Mikita Badziakouski – 960,000
David Peters – 940,000
Daniel Negreanu – 685,000
With blinds at 8,000/16,000/16,000, Badziakouski took care of Pascal LeFrancois. Le Francois opened to 36,000 on the button, Badziakouski three-bet to 140,000 from the small blind, and LeFrancois called. The flop was 8d5h2d, Badziakouski made an 80,000 c-bet, LeFrancois moved all-in, and Badziakouski called.
Badziakouski: KhKd
LeFrancois: Kc5c
Badziakouski was light years ahead, and another king on the turn sealed the deal. Badziakouski moved up to 1,550,000 to solidify his #3 spot behind Matthias Eibinger (the new runaway chip leader), and Khangah.
The next player to feel the power of Badziakouski’s hands was Christoph Vogelsang. The former Super High Roller Bowl winner opened to 44,000 (with blinds at 10k/20k/20k), Badziakouski three-bet to 135,000, and Vogelsang made the call.
Flop: 5h3s2s
Both players checked.
Turn: 7s
Vogelsang bet 120,000; Badziakouski called.
River: 9s
With four spades on the board, Vogelsang checked his option, and Badziakouski put him all-in. The German star made the call and left the building after Badziakouski’s pocket aces (with the ace of spades) beat the pocket tens (ten of spades) of Vogelsang.
At the dinner break, Badziakouski had moved into the second spot.
Top Five Counts
Matthias Eibinger – 2,580,000
Mikita Badziakouski – 2,300,000
Bryn Kenney – 1,200,000
Daniel Negreanu – 1,040,000
Cary Katz – 910,000
Timothy Adams eliminated Daniel Negreanu, Ahadpur Khanga took care of Adrian Mateos and Bryn Kenney, and we had a final table.
Nine players remained.
Only seven would win any money.
Final Table Chip Counts
Matthias Eibinger – 3,040,000
Mikita Badziakouski – 2,570,000
Ahadpur Khangah – 2,105,000
Cary Katz – 1,425,000
Timothy Adams – 1,245,000
Rui Neves Ferreira – 1,020,000
Benjamin Pollak- 765,000
Jean Ferreira – 720,000
Byron Kaverman – 610,000
Day 3
The first player to exit was Cary Katz, and it was a brutal way to go. The Poker Central founder got it in with pocket queens against the KTcc of Matthias Eibinger. The ultra dry flop of Qs6c2h gave Katz an incredible opportunity to double up, only for the Austrian to hit runner-runner clubs to eliminate Katz with a flush.
The elimination of Katz led to the bubble, and the last player to leave with nothing was Byron Kaverman. Once again Eibinger played the role of Albert Pierrepoint, tightening the noose around the American’s neck with 87o>A8dd, and letting the trap door go when a seven hit the turn to give Eibinger the win.
Jean Ferreira earned €275,050 for a seventh-place finish after running AJo into the pocket kings of Khangah all-in, pre-flop. Badziakouski doubled up through the chip leader, Eibinger, when his pocket tens won a flip against the AQ of the Austrian. And Rui Neves Ferreira became the second Ferreira to leave the final table when his pocket queens lost out to the KQ of Khangah after the Iranian flopped the second cowboy.
The former November Niner, Benjamin Pollak, took €445,300 for a fifth-place finish when Eibinger sent him packing 86cc>AJo after flopping an eight and rivering a six in an all-in, pre-flop encounter. Timothy Adams banked €576,300 after losing a flip 88<KQ to Eibinger. And we reached heads-up play after Badziakouski’s AQ found an ace on the flop to eliminate Eibinger who was holding pocket tens.
Khangah finished sixth in the 2016 €50,000 Super High Roller in this very building, and also finished seventh in the €111,111 One Drop High Roller at the 2017 World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE), but he is no match for the silky skills of the Belarusian.
Khangah would need the luck to be on his side, and it stayed in the deck.
Badziakouski won a succession of pots to take a commanding chip lead before busting his opponent after both players flopped top pair. The money went in on the turn after Badziakouski turned his weaker top pair hand into two pairs.
It was an excellent run for the Iranian, but he was up against one of the hottest poker players in the world.
Here are the final table results.
Final Table Results
Mikita Badziakouski – €1,650,300
Ahadpur Khangah – €1,191,900
Matthias Eibinger – €759,680
Timothy Adams – €576,300
Benjamin Pollak – €445,300
Rui Ferreira – €340,550
Jean-Christophe Ferreira – €275,050
“Are you going to be in Manila for Triton in December?” I asked Badziakouski after his win.
“I guess I have to be now,” said a calm as you like Badziakouski.
That’s not good news for anyone else heading that way.
