The World Poker Tour sees contrasting numbers either side of the Atlantic Ocean as hardly anyone turns up in Prague and they can’t keep them out of the Bellagio.
It’s that time of the year again. Santa has to stop Rudolph and the gang shagging long enough to get the reins over their necks, and the poker community dons their hats and mittens and flocks to Prague. Only this year the opening salvo has drawn a bit of a blank.
The World Poker Tour (WPT) was the first tournament operator to step up to the freezing cold plate, and not many people joined them. The festival began on Nov 29 with a €750 Deepstack event and satellites into the Main Event, ending on Dec 6 with the final of the €3,300 Main Event and a one day €1,100 Pot-Limit Omaha event.
The Main Event only attracted the interest of 167 (144 unique and 23 rebuys) players, and Oleg Vasylchenko beat the lot to take the €132,200 first prize and book a place in the season-ending WPT Tournament of Champions (TOC). It was the Ukrainians largest score by a short walk down the Las Vegas Strip. His previous best score was a 10th place finish in a €1,100 France Poker Series (FPS) Main Event where he finished 10th for €16,200.
The familiar face on the final table was the cash game player Martin Kabrhel. Romain Lewis eliminated the Czech star in fifth place before being shown the door himself one place later.
Tonio Roder was making his second appearance at a WPT final table. His last was a National Main Event, finishing third, and he was unable to breach that barrier in this one after Vasylchenko sent him packing to set up a heads-up encounter with the Russian Anton Petrov that lasted only eight hands.
Final Table Results
1. Oleg Vasylchenko – €132,200*
2. Anton Petrov – €82,000
3. Tonio Roder – €52,500
4. Romain Lewis – €39,120
5. Martin Kabrhel – €29,410
6. Preben Stokkan – €23,520
*Also wins a WPT TOC Seat
Erik Cajelais finished in tenth place a fortnight after finishing runner-up to Troy Quenneville at the partypoker Million.
WPT Five Diamond Classic Sets a New Record
They may not have turned up to pay homage to the WPT brand in Prague, but they do have a loyal following in the States.
What a difference an ocean makes.
Do you remember the days when you would tune into the TV to watch someone winning gazillions on a WPT Main Event Final Table – well they are back.
The $10,400 buy-in WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic attracted 791 entrants, making it the largest field for a $10,000+ event in the tour’s 14-year history. Even the first winner of a Five Diamond title, Gus Hansen, turned up for a spot of nostalgia.
All that means there is $7,672,700 in the kitty, and the winner will walk away with $1,938,118 and a seat in the season-ending WPT TOC, making it the 17th largest single prize of 2016.
Here’s how that top prize stacks up against the other ridiculous sums of cash:
1. Elton Tsang – $12,248,912 for winning the $1m WSOP One Drop
2. Qui Nguyen – $8,005,310 for winning the $10,000 WSOP Main Event
3. Anatoly Gurtovy – $5,983,597 for finishing second in the WSOP One Drop
4. Rainer Kempe – $5,000,000 for winning the Super High Roller Bowl
5. Fedor Holz – $4,981.775 for winning the $111,111 WSOP One Drop High Roller
6. Gordon Vayo – $4,661,228 for finishing runner-up in the WSOP Main Event
7. Fedor Holz – $3,500,000 for finishing runner-up in the Super High Roller Bowl
8. Fedor Holz – $3,463,500 for winning the $200,000 WPT Super High Roller in the Philippines
9. Cliff Josephy – $3,453,035 for finishing third in the WSOP Main Event
10. Rick Salomon – $3,307,206 for finishing third in the WSOP One Drop
11. Dan Smith – $3,078.974 runner-up in the $111,111 WSOP One Drop
12. Michael Ruane – $2,567,003 for finishing fourth in the WSOP Main Event
13. Erik Seidel – $2,400,000 for finishing third in the Super High Roller Bowl
14. James Bord – $2,315,044 for finishing fourth in the WSOP One Drop
15. David Peters – $2,309,000 for finishing runner-up in the WPT Super High Roller in the Philippines
16. Koray Aldemir – $2,154.265 for third in the $111,111 WSOP One Drop
17. $1,938,118 – the winner of the $10,000 WPT Five Diamond Classic.
It’s quite remarkable that (a) there are so many individual scores of such magnitude and (b) Fedor Holz won’t be adding his name to the list for the fourth time this year.
On the date of writing, there were 277 players going into Day 3 and Jennifer Tilly was sitting in second spot with her beau Phil Laak also in the hat.
