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Mighall Masters WPT WOC Main Event and Series Ends

Written by Jennifer Newell
Last updated on
Jennifer Newell

One of the longest online poker series of the summer wrapped this week, as the World Poker Tour crowned the final major WPT winner of the World Online Championships on PartyPoker. A full 71 days of online poker history is in the books.

On a serious note, it was bittersweet, as this week also marked the celebration of Mike Sexton’s life, an online tribute organized and hosted by the World Poker Tour. One of the original believers in the WPT, Sexton was an integral part of its organization, its rise, and its longevity. The WPT family – and the poker community as a whole – mourned his loss and celebrated his life together this week.

Poker must go on, though, as Sexton would likely have it no other way.

So, the WPT WOC played on to its conclusion with the last of its 12 WPT-branded tournaments this week. What started in mid-July finally ran its course.

Previously, we tracked the first half of the series with these recaps:

–Events 1 and 2:  Paul Tedeschi and Alex Manzano win

–Events 3 and 4:  Gavin Cochrane and Nick Petrangelo win

–Events 5 and 6:  Daniel Smyth and Andrey Kotelnikov win

Let’s see how the remainder of the series played out.

Event 7: WPT NLHE Mini and Micro Main Events

To this point, other tournaments offered three buy-in levels per event. Each had a micro version, mini, and regular. Event 7 strayed from the norm to just combine the micro and mini versions of the WPT WOC Main Event.

These two events were separated from the main Main Event, as the latter started later and played out over more days. The micro and mini offered the standard two days of starting flights, with the micro playing out in three full days and the mini taking a bit longer.

Buy-in: $109 (Micro)

Total entries:  8,465

Total prize pool:  $1 million ($153,500 overlay)

Paid players: 1,304

Minimum payout: $210

1st place:  Luiz Antonio Silva (Brazil) $148,985

2nd place:  Kim Heidemann (Denmark) $104,299

3rd place:  Yin Zhang (Luxembourg) $66,686

4th place:  Philipp Zeckai (Germany) $43,630

5th place:  Hamish Crawshaw (New Zealand) $29,770

6th place:  Andre Figueiredo (Brazil) $20,070

7th place:  Joris De Baas (Netherlands) $13,950

8th place:  Patrick Leonard (UK) $10,450

9th place:  Anis Homaidan (Brazil) $8,540

Buy-in: $1,050 (Mini)

Total entries:  4,600

Total prize pool:  $5 million ($400K overlay)

Paid players: 600

Minimum payout: $2,600

1st place:  Renan Carlos Bruschi (Brazil) $504,583

2nd place:  Nichita Verbitchii (Moldova) $339,607

3rd place:  Arturs Balodis (Latvia) $535,269

4th place:  Liviu-Rodrig Bartha (UK) $472,867

5th place:  Freek Scholten (Austria) $153,750

6th place:  Janis Loze (Latvia) $104,450

7th place:  Romans Voitovs (Latvia) $73,550

8th place:  Ravil Tlimisov (Russia) $55,425

9th place:  Tobias Koerper (Germany) $45,600

It is important to note that the payouts for the top four players in the Mini version show uneven payouts because they came to a payout agreement during four-handed play. The amounts were based on chip stacks at the time, but they played on and changed the dynamic before the tournament ended.

Event 8: WPT World Championship NLHE Main Event

This was the big one, the finale that wasn’t actually the final tournament in the series. It was a big deal nonetheless, complete with a $10K buy-in and a WPT title on the line. This tournament played out over four days with a livestreamed final table.

Buy-in: $10,300

Total entries:  1,011

Total prize pool:  $10,110,000 (surpassing $10M GTD)

Paid players: 136

Minimum payout: $23,253

1st place:  Phil Mighall (UK) $1,550,298

2nd place:  Teun Mulder (Netherlands) $1,396,968

3rd place:  Damian Salas (Netherlands) $814,663

4th place:  Blaz Zerjav (Slovenia) $552,006

5th place:  Victor Simionato (Brazil) $391,257

6th place:  Dzmitry Urbanovich (Poland) $277,014

7th place:  Bert Stevens (UK) $194,112

8th place:  Akseli Paalanen (Finland) $153,672

9th place:  Laszlo Molnar (Hunbary) $127,386

Event 9: WPT NLHE Heads-Up Championship

This event offered three buy-in levels and caps on all of them, as is customary for heads-up tournaments.

The micro offering capped the field at 1,024 players for its $33 affair, though it found only 985 players. That still surpassed the $20K guarantee to create a prize pool of $29,550. The top 127 players received payouts, but it only 16 of them made it through to the final day. The final round saw Zhanar Shayakova take on Malte Kebler, and the latter won for $5,910.

The mini version of the heads-up action limited the field to 512 players for the $320 buy-in, though only 333 turned up. That put $99,900 into the collective pot, but the WPT added more since it guaranteed $100K. The 64 finalists received a payout, but the top two split $38K, with winner Stefan Dimitrov taking $19,558 of it for first place.

As for the main tournament, fans and players alike turned out to see how it turned out.

Buy-in: $3,200

Total entries:  166 (256 cap)

Total prize pool:  $500,000 (overlay)

Paid players: 32

Minimum payout: $5,000

1st place:  Steve O’Dwyer (Netherlands) $135,000

2nd place:  Artem Akhmetvaleyev (Russia) $75,000

3rd place:  Jorma Nuutinen (Finland) $40,000

4th place:  Allan Berger (Canada) $40,000

Event 10: WPT NLHE High Roller Championship

This was a singular event, one with a $25K buy-in and $5 million guarantee on the prize pool. And though the number of entries just missed the guaranteed, the overlay was relatively small, and the field was stacked with some of the world’s top players.

Buy-in: $25,500

Total entries:  199

Total prize pool:  $5M (overlay)

Paid players: 28

Minimum payout: $56,750

1st place:  Mikita Badziakouski (Belarus) $1,062,730

2nd place:  Jason Koon (US) $810,869

3rd place:  Alexandros Kolonias (Greece) $548,794

4th place:  Mark Demirjian (Lebanon) $380,652

5th place:  Daniel Rezaei (Austria) $259,979

6th place:  Aleksei Barkov (Russia) $197,667

7th place:  Almedin Imsirovic (US) $155,061

Though Badziakouski had a massive chip lead going into heads-up play, the two agreed on a payout deal to end the tournament and give Koon a substantial payout.

Event 11: WPT NLHE Turbo Championship

For people who want a decent structure but don’t want a lot of time to play out a tournament, the turbo is the right choice.

The micro turbo event attracted 3,890 entries for the $33 buy-in option, and the prize pool moved beyond its $100K guarantee to an actual $116,700. In the end, Ronald Fokker won it for $17,537.

Mini version players ponied up $320, with final registration numbers showing 1,353 entries in total. That took the prize pool to $405,900, which was well beyond the $300K guarantee. The last player standing was Floyd Rosner, who grabbed $66,041 for the win.

The biggest buy-in produced positive results as well.

Buy-in: $3,200

Total entries:  433

Total prize pool:  $1,299,000 (surpassing $1M GTD)

Paid players: 63

Minimum payout: $6,560

1st place:  Dimitar Danchev (Bulgaria) $188,316

2nd place:  Aliaksei Boika (Belarus) $156,843

3rd place:  Alfred Karlsson (Sweden) $184,832

4th place:  Ferenc Deak (Hungary) $81,364

5th place:  Asgrimur Karl (Iceland) $56,015

6th place:  Patrik Buzhala (Croatia) $41,489

7th place:  Oleg Vasylchenko (Ukraine) $31,908

Three-handed play led to a deal before they finished the tournament, which led to the third-place finisher taking home more than Boika in second place.

Event 12: WPT NLHE Super High Roller Championship

For the finale of the series, Event 12 was broken down into two versions. The mini one was not “mini” to most players but this was a super high roller event…sorta.

The Mini Super High Roller Championship had a $1 million guarantee for a $10,300 buy-in, and it looked to have drawn exactly 100 entries to hit the prize pool on the nose. It was enough to pay the top 16 finishers, but Artur Martirosian of Russia took the largest portion with $239,500 for the win.

The regular version – the actual Super High Roller – did better than many expected as the series came to a close.

Buy-in: $102,000

Total entries:  40

Total prize pool:  $4,000,000 (far past the $3M GTD)

Paid players: 6

Minimum payout: $229,600

1st place:  Michael Addamo (UK) $1,284,114

2nd place:  Isaac Haxton (Canada) $1,216,286

3rd place:  Charlie Godwin (UK) $620,000

4th place:  Sergi Reixach (Mexico) $374,000

5th place:  Linus Loeliger (Austria) $276,000

6th place:  Christoph Vogelsang (UK) $229,600

The last two players didn’t hesitate to agree to a payout deal, splitting the majority of the money per chip counts and playing for first place and another $30K.

Final Leaderboard Ranking

The WPT World Online Championships tallied points from every WPT tournament in the series, not just the 12 primary events. There was a lot at stake for the players, too. The main leaderboard reserved $50K for the winner, and another leaderboard for lower buy-in events that offered $10K to the winner.

Artur Martirosian, who won three tournaments and made 10 other final tables won the main WPT WOC leaderboard.

1st place:  Artur Martirosian (431 points) = $50K

2nd place:  Scott Margereson (378 points) = $10K

3rd place:  Phillip Mighall (329 points) = $5K

4th place:  Dimitar Danchev (300 points) = $3K

5th place:  Roberto Romanello (298 points) = $2K

6th place:  Kristen Bicknell (270 points) =$1K

7th place:  Mikita Badziakouski (266 points) = $1K

8th place:  Andrey Kotelnikov (264 points) = $1K

9th place:  Teun Mulder (251 points) = $1K

10th place:  Thomas Boivin (246 points) = $1K

The Rising Star leaderboard challenge results found the Micro Main Event champion from Brazil at the top after that big win and three other final tables.

1st place:  Luiz de Melo (298 points) = $10K

2nd place:  Patrick Leonard (261 points) = $6K

3rd place:  Vyacheslav Nikulin (251 points) = $3,500

 

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