WSOP bracelets are also awarded for winning Paradise Series tournaments, so Alexey also won his third bracelet. His Hendon Mob now sits at a cool $34,484,024.
"I really don't know where to begin," he said in an interview after the tournament. "I wasn't even planning on coming here. But now the curse is broken! I remembered all the mistakes I made in previous finals and tried not to repeat them. Experience gives you confidence and is a great motivator."
The three-day $100,000 buy-in tournament attracted 237 entries (including a whopping 81 re-entries). Heads-up, Aleks Ponakovs faced Brazilian pro Pedro Padilha, making his Triton debut, but it was China's Wang Ye who received particularly warm words from Alexey:
"Playing against him is very difficult. He's a very high-level player who often put me in difficult situations where I had no idea what to do."
The Main Event began alongside the end of The Invitational, so the influx of new players spiked toward the end of late registration. Nearly every superstar was present. Thirty-nine players made it into the money. Nick Schulman became the bubble boy.
With 22 blinds, he raised Stephen Chidwick all-in. Schulman had , and Chidwick made the call with and held firm.
11 players made it through to Day 3. Early winners included Talal Shakerchi (39th place, $164,000), Espen Jorstad (31st place, $185,000), Alex Foxen (30th place, same prize), Alexander Zubov (19th place, $256,000), and Stephen Chidwick (16th place, $291,000). The final table was determined after 12-time Triton winner Jason Koon was eliminated, forced to get all-in with offsuit and ran into Manuel Fritz's pocket kings.
Final Table Chip Stacks:
- Aleksejs Ponakovs – 15,375,000 (77 bb)
- Manuel Fritz – 9,800,000 (49 bb)
- Pedro Padilha – 9,200,000 (46 bb)
- Jean-Noel Thorel – 6,525,000 (33 bb)
- Adrian Mateos – 5,500,000 (28 bb)
- Ye Wang – 5,300,000 (27 bb)
- Klemens Roiter – 3,150,000 (16 bb)
- Eelis Pärssinen – 2,275,000 (11 bb)
- Wang Yang – 2,150,000 (11 bb)
What a worthy final table. A ton of regs, including Mateos, considered by many to be the best tournament Hold'em player in the world, as well as Omaha guru Eelis Pärssinen—and the fun-loving amateur Jean-Noël Thorel.
Pedro Padilha flopped the nut flush early on with and allowed Ponakovs to barrel with . Three barrels were enough to change the tournament leader.
Mateos, who was also fighting for a sixth bracelet, was the first among the losers in the final.
With , he four-bet all-in for 24BB against Wang Ye's equally-sized stack. Thorel folded, and the Chinese player called, sending Mateos to the cash for $495,000. Three players remained in the game with stacks of 12 big blinds or less. Mateos's elimination gave them all a $102,000 jump, but the patient short stacks outlasted another opponent—an additional $216,000! Jean-Noel's utterly fearless hero call led to disaster.
Thorel defended the big blind with against Manuel Fritz's raise. On the flop , Thorel check-called.
On the turn , his hand improved to a gutshot, and the French scientist and businessman made another call. And the river was a .
After Thorel checked, his opponent moved all-in, forcing a decision for the last 12 blinds. The Frenchman called, hoping his opponent was bluffing, but Fritz showed .
Eighth place earned Thorel $597,000, but that's not even the largest sum he'll earn at this festival. At the time of publication, he's the big chip leader heading into the final table of the $25k Super Main Event.
China's Wang Yang fell in 7th place, and the $813,000 prize was the largest of his Hold'em career. A year ago, he finished second in a 50,000-dollar Pot-Limit Omaha tournament at the same venue. He busted in a standard cooler: the big-stacked Padilha opened from the button, and Wang shoved 15 big blinds from the big blind with A9o.
Unfortunately, the Brazilian held . Yang was almost drawing dead on the flop.
And so. the remaining six guaranteed themselves seven-figure prizes.
Padilha and Fritz were in the lead, trading places periodically. After knocking out Wang, the Brazilian took the lead, but the Austrian responded by knocking out Pärssinen.
Once again, the big stack showed a hand from the very top of their range in the preflop clash: Pärssinen four-bet-shove with , Fritz made the call with , and confidently maintained the lead on all streets.
Pärssinen's 6th-place finish earned him $1,107,000.
But, he was warmed up apparently, and did very well in a second event a week later. Pärssinen placed 2nd in the $25K GGMillions$ Single Day Turbo, for an equally gorgeous prize of $1,043,400.
As we publish this, he's cashed in four events, and is up almost $2.5 million.
But back in the event, as soon as the big stack showed a weaker hand (some nonsense like ) instead of a knockout, a double-up happened. Wang Ye with beat Fritz and took the lead!
The rest of the battle was a back-and-forth affair. No one was eliminated, and the blinds kept rising. The average stack dropped below 25 blinds, and a level later, to just 15. A decidedly atypical structure for a World Series, but what can you do? He who pays the piper calls the tune.
At this point, luck began to smile on Aleks Ponakovs. After flopping aces, he doubled up against Wang Ye's AQo, and then eliminated the incredibly resilient Klemens Roiter in a blind clash. Reuter shoved the last seven blinds with , Alexey made a call from the big blind with and held. Reuter's prize for 5th place was $1,462,000.
Two more hands later, Ponakovs got it all in against Wang Ye again. Alexey opened-shoved from the button with . The Chinese player called with – and a came on the flop. Wang had to settle for 4th place and $1,865,000.
Fritz was the shortest at this stage. Aleks Ponakovs moved all-in against him with in the small blind. With 9bb, a weaker hand could have called, but Fritz was dealt – and had to see a on the flop!
Third place brought the Viennese resident the biggest prize of his career – $2,311,000.
Heads-up, Aleks Ponakovs had 47BB to Padilha's 28BB. It wasn't particularly deep, but there was plenty of room for creativity. However, the bracelet match didn't last long. Soon, Ponakovs was dealt , which he limped into a 19-blind stack.
Pedro Padilha with chose to push all-in straight away. The call followed, and the nines held strong.
Congratulations to Aleks Ponakovs on his big victory!
Here are the prizes for the last competitors. They each won small fortunes!
| Place | Country | Name | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Latvia | Aleksejs Ponakovs | 4,750,000.00 |
| 2nd | Brazil | Pedro Padilha | 3,160,000.00 |
| 3rd | Austria | Manuel Fritz | 2,311,000.00 |
| 4th | China | Ye Wang | $1,865,000 |
| 5th | Austria | Klemens Roiter | $1,462,000 |
| 6th | Finland | Eelis Pärssinen | $1,107,000 |
| 7th | China | Yang Wang | $813,000 |
| 8th | France | Jean-Noel Thorel | $597,000 |
| 9th | Spain | Adrian Mateos | $495,000 |
| 10th | United States | Jason Koon | $415,000 |
Other notable winners include:
- Stephen Chidwick: $291,000
- Alexander Zubov: $256,000
- Ben Heath: $232,000
- Shannon Shorr: $208,000
- Sergio Aido: $208,000
- Alex Foxen: $185,000
- Ike Haxton: $164,000
