The World Poker Tour (WPT) Online Series is in full swing and game’s finest are starting to rise up and take home a piece of history.
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Pascal Hartmann is among the recent winners in the inaugural WPT Online Series. (Image: WPT)
With coronavirus lockdowns prompting the WPT to host its first ever online series, players are currently fighting for glory until May 20.
First to enter the winners’ circle and take home the a WPT Online Series title was Leo Fernandez. The Argentinian pro outlasted 496 players in Event #1 ($5,200 No Limit Hold’em) to win $409,638.
Leo Fernandez Picks Up First WPT Online Title
Following Fernandez with a win in the “mini” version of Event #1 ($550 buy-in) was Evgeny Galakhov. Paul Höfer and Vitor Dzivielevski also picked up titles in the early offing and, since then, the winners have kept coming.
So far, Fernandez sits atop of the Player of the Series leaderboard. Also riding high is Zachary Clark and winner of the $1 million guaranteed High Roller, Pascal Hartmann.
With a $5,200 price tag, the event was awash with talent. That ensured Pascal Hartmann’s route to victory was far from smooth. Indeed, even after making it through 2019 players, he still had to play his A-game at the final table.
Nikita Bodyakovskiy and Christoph Vogelsang were Hartmann’s biggest threats in the May 7 finale. However, in the end, fortune was on his side and came away with the win and $205,827 after beating Dimitar Danchev heads-up.
Event #9 $5,200 High Roller Result
1 – Pascal Hartmann – $205,827
2 – Dimitar Danchev – $190,061
3 – Alberto Meran – $118,688
4 – Christoph Vogelsang – $87,750
5 – Nikita Bodyakovskiy – $61,875
The WPT Online Series has a long way to go until it reaches a conclusion. However, thoughts are already turning to the WPT Online Championship. The $3,225 main event gets underway on May 10 and features a $5 million guarantee.
More to Come With Main Event
There will be four starting flights spread over the course of a week before Day 2 starts on May 18. Players have already anted up in their droves due to the lack of live action.
Thanks to the WPT’s partnership with Partypoker, the action online has more than compensated for the unexpected changes to poker. The question now is whether the WPT Online Championship will break its guarantee.
Partypoker has built up a reputation for doing just that over the last 18 months. Between this and the fact players are still in a state of lockdown, the main event should prove to be a success over the next 12 days.
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