Andrii entered the final table as the chip leader. He was introduced with the following hand:
The experienced Pascal Lefrancois, having received an all-in in response, thinks for a long time, perhaps trying to outlast someone at other tables, but then calls with . The flop comes with a five, but also a queen!
The turn comes a second diamond. But on the blank river, Andrii successfully takes it all and knocks out the formidable Canadian.
Hellmuth called this a tricky spot, but a call that must be made, citing several Ace-X hands that go wild here.
The $5,000 WSOP Online Main Event – Final Table:
- Andrii Novak – 108.5 bb
- Simon Beckmann – 88.7 bb
- Pablo Silva – 57.2 bb
- Pavlo Yakovliev – 43 bb
- Fernando Jose "liano96" Liano – 42.3 bb
- Arian "Who Am I" Hassankashani – 34.2 bb
- Yury "Ex Nadinsky" Nadinsky – 26.9 bb
- Charles "LaughingStorm" La Boissonniere – 26.7 bb
- Moyan "JimWanDalaoHu36" Chen – 22.1 bb
The Seating Arrangement:
Helmuth and Gross make a bet on the winner. Both want to take Beckmann, but Gross chooses first, so Helmuth settles on Novak. ("Whose flag is that?" Phil asks.)
In the very first hand, Liano min-raises with A-Ko, and Beckman triple-raises him with K-Jo. Liano's best option is to push all-in (it's not profitable for him to provoke a small four-bet), and the hand ends there.
In the second hand, Andrii is allowed to open-raise with K7o. Boissonniere calls with K9s. On the flop , a quarter pot rainbow c-bet turns out to be enough.
The first bluff in the final table comes from a player from China.
He attacked preflop and the flop, checked the turn, and on the river, despite Hellmuth's warning ("Never bluff a Brazilian!"), he used a straight blocker to apply maximum pressure. And, to Phil's surprise, Pablo Silva calmly folded.
Andrii opens from second position, gets called by Liano with fours. On the flop , a quarter-pot continuation bet knocks out the best hand.
In the next hand, Andrii has . The big blind is second in stack size. Perhaps that's why the Ukrainian player chooses a larger open size—2.5 big blinds. Everyone folds.
It's been a bit of a rough start for Beckmann, who first made a poor bluffing 3-bet and now folds to a similar move from the active Chinese player.
Liano has two difficult decisions to make with jacks: 1) what to do with the shortest player's min-raise from UTG and 2) what to do with Boissonniere's all-in?
Liano chooses the conservative decision both times – first call, then fold, which Hellmuth respected.
Andrii opens from third position. Nadinsky, the shortest stack (about 20bb), decides to call in the small blind with sixes.
On the flop , a continuation bet of even less than a quarter of the pot is made, and Nadinsky immediately folds.
In the next hand, Andrii min-raises , but Hassankashani is dealt two queens. He calls. Liano also calls in the big blind with .
On the flop , Andrii bets 20% of the pot, Hassankashani calls, and Liano folds.
On the turn comes . A neat second barrel of just over a quarter of the pot. And "Who Am I" gives up.
Jeff Gross suggests the chip leader squeeze, but he could just call and see the flop. !
After two checks, Liano bets a quarter of the pot. Andrii calls, and Silva folds.
Turn – . Two checks.
River – . The pot is 9,870,000. Hellmuth suggests two bets, 6 million and a "tricky" 4 million, and adds that Liano will have a hard time finding a fold. Andrii bets 6,274,500. Liano quickly folds, and Phil applauds his decision.
Nadinsky continues to churn out tight folds to continuation bets.
"What was that?" Helmuth asks indignantly.
The blinds go up. Beckmann, who still has 61 big blinds in his stack despite a dismal start, min-raises from first position.
Pavlo Yakovliev has AKs in the cutoff and moves all-in for 30 big blinds. Beckmann is forced to fold.
And then Pavel performs the first real hero call in this finale.
He checked the flop, called about 40% of the pot on the turn, and defended his king-high on the river, despite a highly coordinated board. The Chinese player's ten-high draw worked, and the former ninth-place stack is now tied for third or fourth place.
"There's only one justification for this call," says Helmut. "It sends a signal to the opponents: 'Did you see that? Don't bluff me. Don't!'"
Beckmann makes a min-raise to 2,000,000 from the lowjack with . Andrii acts after him with .
What will he do? He 3-bets to 5,750,000. Beckmann calls, and the flop comes. .
A quarter-pot continuation bet, but even that's hard to call with tens. Beckmann folds.
Andrii opens with a min-raise, makes a continuation bet of between 20% and 25% of the pot, gets called, and checks the turn and river.
"And I would put in a small extra bet, 2.2 million," Hellmuth grins.
In a limped pot, Andrii checked against his opponent, checked the turn, and easily folded on the river. Beckmann is starting to win some hands, but for now, it's just small stuff. The real prize is still to come.
The Brazilian decides not to wait anyone out and goes all-in. Beckmann calls immediately.
The flop came with both a queen and a king. Pablo Silva was eliminated in ninth place. His prize was $491,676.
La Boissonniere gets the opportunity to open-raise from the button. He holds AKo, and the Canadian opts for a slightly larger raise of 2,330,000. Both opponents are in the blinds. – a hand Phil frowns on three-bets with.
Pavlo is first to act, holding a suited hand, even a trump suit with two diamonds, but the fold is immediate. It's understandable, since Nadinsky in the big blind only has seven big blinds.
The player from Kazakhstan goes all-in with A4o, and nothing magical happens. Yury Nadinsky leaves the tournament in eighth place, earning $637,477.
Hassankashani is overjoyed at the pay jump:
The players leave the chip leaders to sort things out in the blinds. Beckmann limps . Novak checks with .
On the flop , Beckmann checks. Andrii checks back. Both actions are approved by GTO Wizard.
Turn – . Beckmann bets a little over a third of the pot, and Andrii calls with a two-way hand.
River – . GTO Wizard recommends a block bet, and the Austrian complies, betting just over 20% of the pot. Andrii's response is quite conservative: he just calls. But the important thing is that the chips are moving in the right direction.
An interesting hand, which provoked a strong reaction from Hellmuth, begins with a limp (not the first) from Beckmann.
This time he limps from the cutoff with . Andrii Novak folds 76o on the button. The Chinese player in the small blind calls with . Hassankashani, with a stack of less than 10bb, checks .
Flop – . The blinds check. Hellmuth advises betting half the pot, but Beckmann checks behind with a flush draw and a pair.
Turn – . Again two checks from the blinds.
"Now you have to check," Phil advises. But he's wrong again. Beckmann bets three-quarters of the pot!
Chen folds the two-way hand, and the action is on Hassankashani.
"Just move all-in," says Hellmuth. "You can't call and then fold the river. You have a ten and a double gutshot. The flop was checked. Just move all-in! That's why I don't like Simon's bet..."
But Hassankashani folds.
"Wow! What's going on here?!" Hellmuth is shocked. "If the game is at this level now, maybe I should start playing online again? How can you not go all-in here? There aren't even any other short stacks at the table! This is insane!"
He continues to complain while Beckmann limps KQo from the hijack, and Hassankashani moves all-in for 8 big blinds from the small blind with A5o. Beckmann calls and is left with no outs on the turn. Double up.
"Well, at least that's right. A good all-in with ," Phil adds.
Pavlo Yakovliev gets the action in the small blind with . He raises to 3,300,000. Liano calls in the BB with . The stacks of both are just over 20bb.
Flop – . Both check. On the turn , Pavlo checks, and Liano bets 5,760,000, three-quarters of the pot. It's a big bet, but the Ukrainian player calls.
"That kind of tenacity could have really helped this guy get somewhere in the top three. But calling with KJ-high in 9-max or KT-high in 7-max is a mistake," Hellmuth says sadly.
River – . The pot is 19,170,000. The SPR is slightly under one. Pavlo checks. Liano bets 12,219,000. Pavlo quickly calls again, leaving him with five big blinds...
Meanwhile, Andrii min-raises JTo from first position (for some reason, he's no longer bothered by the second chip leader in the big blind) and gets his first small 3-bet. Chen just happened to have two aces. Well, a disciplined fold.
In a limped pot, Andrii calls the flop with a gutshot draw and bluffs the river after his opponent checks the turn and river. Beckmann folds.
"It's not a terrible fold, but I would call in that situation," Phil says.
The chip leader's first open-shove: against stacks of 31 million and 20 million, Andrii shoves KTs from the button. It's the strongest hand, and both opponents fold trash without hesitation. But even non-trash hands would often go the same way when Pavlo is at the table with a 5.5 million stack.
In the next hand, Pavlo pushes ATo from first position, gets called by La Boissonniere's KQs in the big blind, and doubles up.
Next hand:
Without thinking twice, Pavlo folds.
"Wow. I can't believe he folded," Hellmuth says, puzzled.
Beckmann limps 54s. Andrii isolates him to 4,200,000 with K4o. It's not like he's been isolating a lot before, but Beckmann gets ahead of the game and 3-bets to 15,000,000! He snaps back! Andrii, of course, folds.
The unpredictable Yakovliev amuses the commentators and puts Chen in a difficult position.
Hellmuth's suggestion: reraise to 9 million, and fold to an all-in. Chen thinks for a long time and folds. "Also a good move, we'll save our stack." La Boissonniere is also quite puzzled by his opponent's odd sizing and folds.
Liano opens AJo and fires two barrels postflop.
"I'd go all-in already. The stack is too small," Hellmuth advises. GTO Wizard advises calling. Hassankashani finds a third option: he folds.
Hellmuth laughs. And Jeff Gross reminds everyone:
"One more elimination and the prizes will exceed a million dollars. Nobody wants to be that guy."
Then Liano comes in again with , this time suited. He min-raises to 2,400,000. Andrii Novak has KTo in the cutoff, and he takes on his mischievous opponent, 3-betting to 7,200,000. La Boissonniere in the big blind hesitates with KQs... and moves all-in for 29.4 million!
Two folds and a storm of emotions.
Pavlo moves all-in from the cutoff with two nines for under 6 big blinds. The button and small blind fold, and Andrii ponders for a long time with Q2s, but realizes he's pot-committed. He calls, and Pavlo Yakovliev doubles up.
Having received new ammunition, he continues to light it up:
Chen folds and Phil Hellmuth shakes his head.
Chen min-raises from the hijack with jacks. Hassankashani, now the shortest stack at the table, looks down at two tens in the cutoff. With no choice, he 3-bets big to 11,200,000 and calls the all-in.
The jacks remain ahead. Hassankashani takes seventh place and receives $826,556. The remaining six players are guaranteed seven-figure payouts.
Beckmann calls Liano's raise. After his opponent skips the continuation bet, Beckmann quickly goes from a small flop bet for protection to a full-pot bluff on the turn.
Liano folds.
Andrii opens JTo preflop, makes a small continuation bet on the ace-high flop, and then checks both the turn and the river.
"Well played. Now I'm starting to consider Novak the favorite to win!" Hellmuth approves. "Because he didn't do anything stupid."
The blinds are already 800,000/1,600,000. Pavlo, with a stack of about 29 million, limps from the hijack with .
Before Chen, everyone folds in the BB.
The Chinese player had , and after thinking about it, he goes all-in for the same 29 million. Pavel calls. Chen's stack is a couple antes bigger.
The dealer puts out . Pavel Yakovlev leaves the tournament in 6th place, winning $1,071,761.
The shortest in the top 5 is Boissonniere with 31 million. Tthe rest have quite a decent depth.
Andrii opens with a min-raise in first position holding . Liano calls in the small blind with . Beckmann calls in the BB with .
On the flop , Andrii continuation bets a third of the pot. Liano calls with two pair, and Beckmann wisely backs off with his open-ended hand.
Turn – .
Liano checks, and Andrii bets 14 million into a 17.8 million pot. Hellmuth initially suggests a shove, but after hearing Gross's objections, who recommends a call, he changes his recommendation to fold! As if hearing these words, Liano folds.
An important hand that seems pretty easy with the cards down.
In the next hand, Andrii finds himself in the big blind. Everyone folds to Beckmann, who limps for 1,600,000. Andrii had , and he raises to 4,950,000.
Beckmann calls. We can't see his hand—it's a Mystery Hand.
The flop doesn’t promise us any mysteries – the flop came. What will happen? A straight flush? A paired board? Andrii, after some thought, bets about a quarter of the pot, 2,725,000. Beckmann takes ten seconds from his time bank and check-raises to 8,284,000.
Andrii calls.
Turn – . Aha, now I get it! Beckmann checks.
"Easy, easy check after Novak!" Phil demands.
Andrii follows his advice.
And on the river the board brings a . And it seems that this is all Beckmann needs!
"I don't mind folding," says Helmuth. "I'll throw it away, keep the 109 million, and guarantee a top-three finish. Just fold."
Andrii calls and loses. .
Simon Beckmann becomes the new chip leader.
Beckmann starts to pressure the table, wins a few pots, but runs into a tough cooler against Chen:
Chen calls his opponent's big bet. The river is a . The SPR is already around one.
Chen checks. For Beckmann, the GTO Wizard has only one solution: go all-in. Beckmann does just that, and the lead, along with a stack of 101 million, passes to former shortstack Moyan Chen!
What a twist.
Blinds are 1,000,000/2,000,000. Chen min-raises from the button with . Liano defends BB with .
On a flop of , Chen continuation bets just over 20% of the pot. Liano check-calls.
Turn:
The radical departure from GTO Wizard turns out to be a happy one for Liano:
Now the chip leader is Liano.
But he doesn't hold this status for long. The new blinds are 1,250,000/2,500,000. Liano min-raises from the cutoff with . Beckmann calls on the button with . The blinds fold.
On the flop , Liano makes a big bet, 2/3 pot. Beckmann calls.
Turn – . Liano continues the attack into a pot of 36,600,000. With top set in position, Beckmann makes the least difficult call of his life.
The river makes his life even easier—the final eight comes. Liano decides to keep his 76 million and check-folds to his opponent's small bet.
Beckmann, having regained the lead, begins to pick up the pace. He even open-shoved successfully with Q5s into three players at once (with 20, 20, and 15 big blinds, respectively), and the formidable 62o, 94o, and 72o were folded.
Soon, the two biggest stacks, Liano and Beckmann, are left alone in the blinds. Liano has two kings, and Beckmann has two nines. The action begins with a limp for 2,500,000. Beckmann, as he has done many times before, isolates to 8,750,000.
"Liano should raise to twenty..." Hellmuth begins, and Liano 3-bets to 26,250,000. "Yeah, I like 26 million."
Beckmann doesn't make a decision right away. He starts thinking, although there isn't much time left in his time bank, just a couple of minutes.
"The longer Beckmann thinks, the more he realizes he can fold the nines," Phil says. "Who cares if you get bluffed? You're keeping your stack of 130 million, which guarantees a top-three finish, meaning a $1.3 million pay jump."
Beckmann folds.
La Boissonniere min-raises AJs from the cutoff. Andrii hesitates in the big blind with two treys. He has 49 million, and his opponent has 30 million... Andrii announces all-in!
The Canadian calls instantly!
A much-needed knockout! Charles Boissonniere finishes 5th, $1,389,755.
Before the dust has even settled, another potential cooler is brought in in a 4-max. Liano has AJo against Beckmann. Liano min-raises from the cutoff, Beckmann calls, and the flop is .
Liano plays defensively – check-call a bet of 5 million. On the turn , Liano checks again and Beckmann bets 80% of the pot, 20,474,000.
“You call in situations like this,” says Helmuth, “but I think for a minute and a half and then go all-in.”
Liano calls.
River – . (It's worth noting that if Chen had called one blind with 54o, he would have been pleased with this runout.)
Liano checks, Beckmann wastes time and suddenly goes all-in!
Liano leaves himself 3 minutes 19 seconds and folds.
– Oh my God... I don't believe it... – Phil is shocked.
“I don’t understand something,” says Gross, “was he drawing or did he decide to turn his hand into a bluff?”
Andrii's cards are completely out of place in 4-max, and to pick up any chips, he has to come up with a lead and a second barrel like this:
Liano called on the flop lead, but the second barrel convinced him.
"Wow! He's going to go all-in?" Gross asks.
“Well, yes, I have no doubt,” Helmuth smiles.
Beckmann goes all-in. Andrii quickly calls. Chen folds. By the turn, Beckmann's equity is already close to 40%, with a gutshot, a flush draw, and an overcard. But the river is a blank, and Andrii regains second place in the chip count.
Andrii raises fives, but when behind him there is almost all-in and a call for half a stack, fives no longer look good.
On the flop , Beckmann pushed Liano all-in, and the turn immediately brought a queen. Fernando José Liano is in 4th place, winning $1,802,142.
Three-handed, Beckmann has over 200 million, Andrii has about 110 million, and Chen, the short stack, has 35 million, or 10 big blinds. Beckmann sticks to his wide-open strategy. After Chen folds, he goes all-in with 65s! I wonder what the correct calling range looks like here?
Andrii folds seven-high.
Chen defends 98o in the big blind against the chip leader, calls a flop continuation bet with third pair, and shoves all-in over his opponent's second barrel on the blank turn.
He made a good bet. But the river brought a king. Moyan Chen finished the WSOP Online Main Event in a respectable third place. His prize was $2,336,939. Not bad for someone who started the day last!
The leaders swapped places after the start of the final table, but both reached heads-up. The stacks were 250 million for Beckmann and 109 million for Novak.
In the previous hand, Beckmann moved all-in with 54s after Andrii's open-raise. A quick 3-bet shove felt like some kind of macho poker, but calling with A9o is hard to fault anyway.
However, the kicker wasn't destined to play in this hand. The pot was split.
In a limped pot, Andrii unloads three barrels. Beckmann runs out of time, and an automatic fold follows.
Andrii defends preflop against a minraise and after checks on the flop . The turn is the and he goes all-in on the river .
Beckmann, with , gives up.
Beckmann continues to show off his well-rehearsed (probably?) charts, but his limp-push timing is off.
The tension continues until the last card, but in the end, Andrii doubles up and takes the lead.
Andrii limps K4s, calls an isolator 3bb, and three barrels postflop:
317 million against 42 million! Beckmann has less than 10 big blinds.
Andrii open-shoved with AJo, and Beckmann called with Q7s.
Victory!!
"One of the key pots of the tournament is the hand with against , which should have sent a completely different player into heads-up play against Novak. Novak probably played the best and deservedly won," Hellmuth concluded. "He made only one mistake, calling with an ace-high flush against a full house, but otherwise he played excellently and always showed the stronger hand when needed. The strongest is the champion!"
