WPTDeepStacks Closes Year Online at 888poker
The World Poker Tour recently announced that its seasons switched to coincide with the calendar years. That means its next season – a milestone of its 20th anniversary – will run from January through December 2022. Thus far, though, WPTDeepStacks appears to be sticking to its regular schedule. That means that Season VII of WPTDS that started in May 2021 in Australia will continue into 2022.
Season VII started at the Star Gold Coast in Australia and then made it back to the US for a stop at the Venetian in Las Vegas. They then took the action to Sochi, Russia, online for players in India via Adda52, and online at partypoker for players in many other parts of the world.
Let’s take a look at the three most recent tournaments that finished in the last few months and how things stand as the holidays provide a break for everyone.
WPTDS Choctaw
Choctaw Casino is in Durant, Oklahoma, and it is no stranger to the World Poker Tour. It did, however, welcome WPTDeepStacks to its property for the very first time in November. There was an entire festival that started on October 27, but the Main Event ran November 5-8 to close things out.
The $1,100 buy-in Main Event offered two starting flights. That brought in 545 entries and a prize pool of $528,650. It was enough to pay the top 69 finishers at least $1,750.
Day 2 brought 104 players back and quickly moved them toward the money. Sam Brown ended up as the bubble player with his 70th-place exit. Players like Karen Norman (57th place) and Mark Toulouse (45th place) exited as play continued. The eventual exit of Thomas Santin in ninth place stopped the action for the night.
Only eight players returned on Day 3 with Marc Maxey holding a strong lead and Nick Pupillo in second and Mo Khan in a close third on the leaderboard. Andrease Halikias and Tony Nguyen each had 1M chips or more, but Jared Ward and Patrick Lenihan were below average. Shawn Ramsey was on the shortest stack of about six big blinds.
Ramsay doubled through Khan on the very first hand of the final table, but Khan eliminated Lenihan soon after. Halikias ousted Nguyen in a big hand shortly thereafter. Khan then eliminated Ramsay, but Halikias and Ward both doubled through Khan to put a dent in his stack. Ward then doubled through Pupillo and took a sizeable pot from Maxey to take over the chip lead.
Khan was short but doubled through Halikias, and the latter did the same through Maxey and Pupillo. But Pupillo did finally oust Halikias in fifth place. Then, Maxey doubled through Khan who doubled through Ward. But Maxey eliminated Khan on the 122nd hand of the night.
Ward needed to climb back and started with a double through Pupillo. Warn then eliminated him in third place to take 10.47M into heads-up. After putting up a good fight, Maxey risked his stack with A-9, but Ward had A-J which only improved with a jack on the board. Ward won the WPTDS title and trophy.
| Season VII | $1K | WPTDS Choctaw |
| Total entries: | 545 | |
| Total prize pool: | $528,650.00 | |
| Players paid: | 69 | |
| Minimum payout: | $1,750.00 | |
| Final table results: | 1st place: | Jared Ward ($102,200) |
| 2nd place: | Marc Maxey ($66,100) | |
| 3rd place: | Nick Pupillo ($48,660) | |
| 4th place: | Mo Khan ($36,240) | |
| 5th place: | Andreas Halikias ($27,305) | |
| 6th place: | Shawn Ramsey ($20,815) | |
| 7th place: | Tony Nguyen ($16,060) | |
| 8th place: | Patrick Lenihan ($12,540) |
This weekend's #WPTDeepStacks @ChoctawCasinos wrapped up today with Jared Ward taking down the first-place prize of $102,200.
"I love this place. I've been coming here for about ten years. I've never left feeling this good."
Congratulations, Jared!🏆 pic.twitter.com/wZg4REqUXj
— World Poker Tour (@WPT) November 9, 2021
WPTDS Championship at Thunder Valley
The WPTDeepStacks crew then took the action to Thunder Valley in Northern California. The festival began on November 15, but the $2,500 buy-in Main Event started on December 4.
Two starting flights brought the total number of entries to 588 and the prize pool to $1,311,828. Only 288 of the players survived to Day 2, though, and it took a while on Day 2 to get to the money portion of the tournament. It was after the dinner break that Jasthi Kumar’s bustout in 75th place opened the payout line. Players like Marco Johnson and Will Chao were among the collectors.
Play stopped with 27 people still in and Paul Snead as the chipleader. Tracie Osborn and Reggie Pears were among those who missed the final table, and Arish Nat busted in tenth to reduce the field to just one table. Chipleader Zach Smyth busted Steve Chanthabouasy in ninth for $24,870 after a slow start. William Prin doubled through Smyth, as did Brad Miller. Paul Snead busted Brock Wilson in eighth place, Prin busted Miller, and Michael Rossitto eliminated Prin in sixth place.
Snead stepped back up to send Justin Levitt home in fifth, and as Snead began running away with the lead, Rossitto doubled through him to take over. Rossitto then busted Smyth in fourth place. Andrew Ostapchenko doubled through Snead twice in a matter of 16 hands, but Snead doubled through Rossitto just before Ostapchenko doubled through Snead again. Snead finally ousted Ostapchenko in third place
Rossitto took 14.9M chips into heads-up play against the 8,525,000 of Snead on the 148th hand of the final table. Snead climbed, but Rossitto then took a massive pot to distance himself again. Snead took his shot with A-9, but Rossitto showed A-Q. The board of J-T-6-4-5 changed nothing, and Rossitto won the WPTDS Championship title.
| Season VII | $2,500 | WPTDS Championship (Thunder Valley) |
| Total entries: | 588 | |
| Total prize pool: | $1,311,828.00 | |
| Players paid: | 74 | |
| Minimum payout: | $3,680.00 | |
| Final table results: | 1st place: | Michael Rossitto ($250,073) |
| 2nd place: | Paul Snead ($171,750) | |
| 3rd place: | Andrew Ostapchenko ($110,085) | |
| 4th place: | Zach Smyth ($80,035) | |
| 5th place: | Justin Levitt ($61,435) | |
| 6th place: | William Prin ($50,440) | |
| 7th place: | Brad Miller ($41,570) | |
| 8th place: | Brock Wilson ($33,150) |
That’s a wrap from @TVPokerRoom and the #WPTDeepStacks season! 💥 pic.twitter.com/BU2X3kZA5j
— World Poker Tour (@WPT) December 9, 2021
WPTDS London Online
With international travel still sketchy at best, the WPTDeepStacks tour took its London stop online. That made it accessible to anyone in the 888poker global market. There were 28 events in all, and those amounted to $3M in guarantees. It got underway on November 28 but then started its Main Event on December 5. From there to December 20, there were ten flights.
Overall, the $1K buy-in Main Event garnered 1,024 entries and a prize pool of $1,024,000. Only 175 of them made it to Day 2, and they played quickly toward the 117 money spots. The last elimination of that night on 888poker was ingeruR014, who won $10,752 for tenth place.
The final table began on December 21 with daltonhb in the lead, jessecesar in second on the leaderboard, and Panxetillo close behind. Some initial double-ups started things off, but daltonhb didn’t take long to eliminate ShinyMew2 in ninth place. But new chipleader Panxetillo busted brudii030 in eighth place. Several players doubled through Panxetillo, though, including daltonhb. The latter ended up exiting in fifth place. Panxetillo did bust more players, including seijistar1 in third place.
Heads-up play began with Panxetillo holding 6,654,000 chips to the 3,588,000 of jessecesar. Promptly, jesecesar put himself at risk with 5-4 on a board of A-4-3-T-A, but Panxetillo revealed his A-J for the win.
| Season VII | $1K | WPTDS London Online |
| Total entries: | 1024 | |
| Total prize pool: | $1,024,000.00 | |
| Players paid: | 117 | |
| Minimum payout: | $2,048.00 | |
| Final table results: | 1st place: | Gerard “Panxetillo” Carbo (Andorra) $184,320 |
| 2nd place: | jessecesar ($133,120) | |
| 3rd place: | seijistar1 ($99,328) | |
| 4th place: | selouan1991 ($74,240) | |
| 5th place: | daltonhb ($51,610) | |
| 6th place: | BetBetFck ($41,370) | |
| 7th place: | Perrymejsen ($31,130) | |
| 8th place: | brudii030 ($20,992) |
The entire WPTDS series on 888poker brought in 15,660 entries to the 28 tournaments and paid out $3,415,810. The UK won the most titles with five, with Belarus claiming four, and Germany and Russia each taking three.
