The latest edition of the PartyPoker MILLIONS Online has gotten off to a blistering start with its opening two event seeing prize pool that far exceeded their guaranteed amounts. Throw into the mix a solid turn out for Day 1A of the $3,200 buy-in $2 million guaranteed MILLIONS Online Main Event, and everything points to a hugely successful series for PartyPoker.
The $1,575 buy-in $250,000 guaranteed MILLIONS Online #01 Opener PKO event drew in a 255-strong crowd that created a $382,500 prize pool; only 37 grinders made it through to Day 2 on September 5, and only nine progressed to the star-studded final table.
MILLIONS Online Opener PKO Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Bounties | Prize | Total Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vojtech Skalak | Czech Republic | $41,625 | $29,841 | $71,466 |
| 2 | Nino Ullmann | Austria | $7,687 | $29,803 | $37,490 |
| 3 | Jans Arends | Austria | $12,796 | $20,258 | $33,054 |
| 4 | Renan Bruschi | Brazil | $9,374 | $13,469 | $22,843 |
| 5 | Daniel Petersen | Denmark | $4,476 | $9,835 | $14,311 |
| 6 | Tiago Fernandez Dos Santos | Brazil | $4,875 | $7,912 | $12,787 |
| 7 | Elio Fox | Mexico | $2,812 | $6,074 | $8,886 |
| 8 | Pedro Madeira | Brazil | $5,460 | $5,057 | $10,517 |
| 9 | Leon Sturm | Austria | $3,281 | $4,236 | $7,517 |
Leon Sturm's time at the final table was short-lived because Renan Bruschi flopped trip threes when Sturm paired his king on the flop. Sturm could not find a fold, and walked away with $7,517 for his ninth place finish.
The first of three Brazilians at the final table, Pedro Madeira, busted in eighth for $10,517. Vojtech Skalak raised from the cutoff but folded when Madeira three-bet from the small blind, and Nino Ullmann four-bet from the big blind. Madeira shoved with what turned out to be pocket tens, and lost to Ullmann's pocket jacks after Ullman flopped a boat.
Elio Fox went from one of the chip leaders to the seventh place finish in the space of a couple of hands. First, he lost a flip with ace-queen versus the pocket tens of Daniel Petersen. He then three-bet all-in over the top of a Jans Arends raise with pocket nines, only for Arends to snap-call with his superior tens. No help arrive on the board, and Fox was ousted.
You need to win your coinflips to win poker tournaments, but Tiago Fernandes Dos Santos must not have received that memo. He three-bet all-in for 15 big blinds with pocket fours after Arends had opened from the small blind. Arends called with suited ace-nine, flopped a nine, and Dos Santos was done and dusted.
A brief raising way between Ullmann and Petersen left the latter all-in and at risk of elimination with ace-king versus his Austrian opponent's pair of red tens. Petersen flopped a king and turned another, but Ullmann had flopped a set and, therefore, turned a full house. No miracle river for Petersen and he headed for the exits. Petersen would later finish ninth in the MILLIONS Online Mini Opener PKO for $2,209.
A double elimination not only gifted Skalak the chip lead going into heads-up, but also a massive pair of bounty payments. Arends min-raised to 2,400,000 on the button with ace-king, Bruschi three-bet to 23,400,000 (leaving less than a small blind behind), only for Skalak to cold-four-bet jam for 59,380,049, covering both players. Arends called off his 46,621,686 chips to discover he was ahead of Bruschi's dominated ace-five, but trailing Skalak's pocket sevens. The sevens flopped a full house and neither of his opponents caught up.
Ullmann gained the upper hand in the early stages of the one-on-one contest. However, Skalak fought back and began pulling clear of his talented opponent. The final hand saw Skalak make it 5,000,000 at the 1,000,000/2,000,000/250,000a level with jack-four, and Ullmann call with ace-ten. Skalak flopped two pair, and Ullmann check-called a 7,560,000 bet. Ullmann then check-called a larger 19,000,000 bet on the arrival of a queen on the turn, before checking again on a nine river. Skalak moved all-in, and Ullmann pondered his options before hero calling all-in, his stack almost exactly the size of the pot. Two pair obliterated ace-high, and Skalak had become the first MILLIONS Online champion of the series.
Gabriele Re Holds a Commanding Lead After Day 1A of the MILLIONS Online Main Event
All 152 PartyPoker players who bought into the $2 million guaranteed MILLIONS Online Main Event Day 1A received 1,000,000 chips. All but 23 of those starters lost their stacks by the time the curtain came down on proceedings. One man who certainly did not dust off their starting stack was Malta's Gabriele Re, who finished the flight with a colossal stack of 27,674,473 chips!
To put Re's stack into perspective, Rodrigo Sirichuk finished in second place with 17,229,755 chips, more than 10 million fewer chips than the current chip leader. There is a long way to go before this tournament crowns its champion, but one would guess that Re has every chance of becoming that player eventually.
A whole host of stars navigated their way to Day 2, which takes place in 20 days' time. The likes of Preben Stokkan (10,292,581), Ioannis Angelou Konstas (8,806,690) and Opener finalists Fox (8,683,019), Sturm (7,348,137), and Skalak (7,228,802) each finished with a top ten stack.
Also through are such luminaries as Jerry Odeen (5,568,695), Team PartyPoker's Jaime Staples (3,45,348), Joakim Andersson (3,043,468), and former MILLIONS Online champion Jon Van Fleet (1,551,816).
Day 1B commences at 7:05 p.m. BST on September 11, with budget satellites from only $0.01 running around the clock.
MILLIONS Online #05 Main Event Day 1A Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gabriele Re | Malta | 27,674,473 |
| 2 | Rodrigo Sirichuk | Brazil | 17,229,755 |
| 3 | Manfred Hermann | Austria | 13,296,440 |
| 4 | Kresten Nielsen | Denmark | 12,483,996 |
| 5 | Preben Stokkan | United Kingdom | 10,292,581 |
| 6 | Ioannis Angelou Konstas | Ireland | 8,806,690 |
| 7 | Elio Fox | Mexico | 8,683,019 |
| 8 | Martins Adeniya | United Kingdom | 8,652,352 |
| 9 | Leon Sturm | Austria | 7,348,137 |
| 10 | Vojtech Skalak | Czech Republic | 7,228,802 |
