A round-up of the best bits from partypoker’s latest MILLIONS spectacle including the Main Event win for Ioannis Angelou-Konstas, and utter domination in the High Rollers by Steve O’Dwyer.
There is a playground.
It’s not in Montreal.
It’s everywhere.
PokerStars whispers in your ear that partypoker has smelly armpits. partypoker whispers in the other ear that underneath PokerStars’ peacock-like fan lies a smelly butthole.
Sticks and stones.
PokerStars turned up in Barcelona and stole the starlight after 1,931-entrants created a $10.9m prizepool.
The European Poker Tour (EPT) was back to its bristling best.
How would the MILLIONS brand react?
Ok.
PokerStars was the king of live tournament poker in Europe until Tom Waters, John Duthie and Rob Yong pulled out the typewriter, and started whipping up a more exciting narrative.
Massive prize pools.
Million dollar winners.
They were dimps in an ashtray no more.
Partypoker MILLIONS had become a Gurkha Royal Courtesan.
The latest attempt to overtake PokerStars in the playground stakes happened in Dusk Till Dawn (DTD)Nottingham. It was the second time the MILLIONS brand had wrapped its ivy like tentacles around Yong’s pride and joy.
In 2017, Maria Lampropulos took down a 1,204 entrant field, beating Jacob Mulhern, heads-up, to bank the £1m first prize, and by all accounts this year it was all hands to the pump to find enough souls to ensure they met the £5m Guarantee.
Ioannis Angelou-Konstas wins MILLION UK Main Event.
The 2018 MILLIONS UK Main Event fell 189 entrants shy of last year’s total. Granted, Nottingham is no Barcelona, but I imagine the team would like to see incremental growth at all tour stops, not a three-digit decline.
The final table boasted a talented parliament of magpies all eager to take home that eye-catching trophy, half of which came from the roosts of the British Isles & Ireland. However, after five-days of piles crushing poker, it was someone from Greece who banked the most money.
Ioannis Angelou-Konstas is no stranger to top-notch live poker tournaments, but he has never won anything like this before. Angelou-Konstas began racking up live tournament pennies in 2010. The £940,000 he earned in Nottingham for beating Alex Foxen, heads-up was more than all his previous scores combined.
Konstas is a former EPT side event winner, a two-time WPTDeepStacks Main Event winner, and in 2017, he finished 4/8120 in the Crazy Eights contest at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) for $257,888.
He knows what he is doing, but winning a MILLIONS Main Event is different gravy, especially when you come ‘stare to stare’ with the formidable Alex Foxen (although having 90% of the chips when heads-up helps ease your fears somewhat).
Foxen doubled up when his pocket sixes ran across a river full of crocodiles alongside Q9 without getting chewed to bits, and it was enough of a scare to lead the previous unconvinceable Angelou-Konstas to enter into a chinwag about deals.
Angelou-Konstas would take £840,000, the American would bank £720,000, and the pair would slap white gloves across cheeks over £100,000 and the title of MILLIONS UK winner.
Twenty minutes later, this happened.
Foxen opened to 22,000,000 holding pocket eights, and Angelou-Konstas called holding QcJh. The flop was AdKd4c, and Angelou-Konstas check-called a 13,000,000 Foxen bet. The turn was the 3h, and both players checked. The river was the Ts, to give Angelou-Konstas the nuts. The player from Greece checked, Foxen bet 46,000,000, Angelou-Konstas moved all-in, Foxen called, and the tournament ended.
Final Table Results
1. Ioannis Angelou-Konstas – £940,000*
2. Alex Foxen – £720,000*
3. Antoine Labat – £440,000
4. Tom Hall – £300,000
5. Sam Grafton – £205,850
6. Michael Wang – £140,000
7. John Haigh – £100,000
8. Dara O’Kearney – £70,000
*After a deal.
Three other oysters who gave their pearl to win this one were the former World Champion Ryan Riess (9th), the World Poker Tour (WPT) Champions Club winner, Dietrich Fast (17th) and the young lady who shares a bed with the runner-up, Kristen Bicknell (18th).
Steve O’Dwyer Wins Two High Rollers
I was going to write, “Steve O’Dwyer is on a roll,” until I realised that Steve O’Dwyer is always on a roll.
18th September and O’Dwyer won the $2,100 Eight Max No-Limit Hold’em title at the PokerStars’ World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) for $227,100.97. The win was O’Dwyer’s first WCOOP title, and the most significant online score of his career.
21st September and O’Dwyer won the $25,500 buy-in Super High Roller Championship Event for $896,610 during partypoker’s POWERFEST making his personal best of three-days before look like a maid’s mop.
And now this.
The American defeats 51-entrants, including Fabrizio Cataldi, heads-up, to take home the £450,000 first prize after winning the MILLIONS UK £25k Super High Roller and followed it up by beating 105 entrants in the £10,000 MILLIONS UK High Roller for another £314,000.
Incredible!
Increíble!
Ajabu!
Ongelooflike!
Incroyable!
Dochreidte!
£25k Buy-in Final Table Results
1. Steve O’Dwyer – £450,000
2. Fabrizio Cataldi – £286,750
3. Orpen Kisacikoglu – £200,000
4. Christoph Vogelsang – £140,000
5. Aymon Hata – £100,000
6. Niall Farrell – £60,000
£10k Buy-In Final Table Results
1. Steve O’Dwyer -£314,000
2. Gianluca Speranza – £193,000
3. Preben Stokken – £129,000
4. Dominik Nitsche – £95,000
5. Michael Zhang – £75,000
6. Chris Brammer – £60,000
7. Joao Vieira – £45,000
8. Anthony Elliot – £35,000
The man the Germans will tell you knows nothing about poker has now won just south of $25m, and that’s enough to propel him into the #10 spot in the All-Time Money Earned list edging out his compatriot, David Peters.
