Austria's Armin Rezaei finished on top of a field of 2,601 entrants to win the WPT #13 WPT500 Knockout at partypoker for $139,971 ($76,275 + $63,696 in bounties).
The event was yet another success story for partypoker as the $1 million guarantee was smashed with entries generating a huge $1,300,500 prize pool. As this was a progressive knockout tournament, half of the buy-ins went towards the prize pool while the other half were place as progressive bounties on each player.
Razaei, who waves a Maltese flag at partypoker, had to navigate through a tough final table which included the likes of Gustavo Mastelotto, 2019 MILLIONS Online champion Benjamin Chalot, Aliaksei Boika, and Gediminas Uselis before defeating David Lopez Llacer heads-up for the title.
Read on to learn more about the final table action in the WPT #01 WPT500 at partypoker.
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WPT500 Knockout Final Table Payouts
| Place | Player | Country | Prize | Bounties | Total Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Armin Rezaei | Malta | $76,275 | $63,696 | $139,971 |
| 2 | David Lopez Llacer | United Kingdom | $76,143 | $25,380 | $101,524 |
| 3 | Gustavo Mastelotto | Brazil | $48,993 | $5,398 | $54,392 |
| 4 | Duff Charette | Canada | $32,193 | $5,113 | $37,307 |
| 5 | Benjamin Chalot | Hungary | $21,762 | $6,691 | $28,454 |
| 6 | Aliaksei Boika | Belarus | $16,518 | $8,742 | $25,261 |
| 7 | Jeroen Van Dijck | Netherlands | $11,929 | $5,297 | $17,226 |
| 8 | Robert Svedin | Sweden | $9,446 | $7,361 | $16,807 |
| 9 | Gediminas Uselis | Lithuania | $7,352 | $7,898 | $15,251 |
WPT500 Knockout Final Table Recap
The WPT500 Knockout attracted a huge field of 2,601 entrants during the eight opening flights on March 15-22 with 390 players advancing to Day 2 on March 22 with the knowledge they have banked at least a min-cash of of $541 in addition to any bounties collected.
The field trimmed down to just nine final table hopefuls to start yesterday's action with the eventual winner Rezaei and the runner up Llacer kicking off the action in the top two spots.
James Dempsey and partypoker Ambassador Jeff Gross announced the action on the partypokerTV YouTube and Twitch channels with a small delay with hole cards exposed.
The first elimination at the final table happened so quickly that it wasn't picked up by Dempsey and Gross on the stream. Uselis came into the final table as the short stack and collected $15,251 for ninth place after being unable to spin it up.
Robert Svedin (eighth - $16,807) then suffered a bad beat that no player wishes for at a final table with so much equity involved. Llacer jammed with nine-six offsuit from the small blind and got there after Svedin called off with pocket rockets. Llacer held the chip lead after the hand but this didn't last long.
The first orbit wasn't even completed yet before more fireworks went off. Rezaei jammed the button with nine-eight suited and was called by Jeroen Van Dijck in the small blind with ace-queen. Van Dijck flopped top pair and improved to trips on the river. This wasn't good enough and he was eliminated in seventh place for $17,226 with Rezaei nailing a straight flush on the turn.
Llacer took the lead once again during the very next hand while also sending Boika packing in sixth place for $25,261 after his nines won a flip against big slick.
The action then cooled off for a little while during which time the lead change swang back and forth between Rezaei and Llacer before Rezaei took control of the captain's chair one final time and never looked back.
Rezaei eliminated his final four opponent single-handed. Chalot (fifth - $28,454) when his queens didn't hold against ace-jack suited. Duff Charette (fifth - $37,307) quickly joined Chalot on the rail when Rezaei's ace-four suited held against ten-nine suited.
Mastelotto (third - $54,392) was Rezaei's next victim when his king-jack whiffed the board against Rezaei's ace-nine suited.
Rezaei entered heads-up action with nearly double the chips of Llacer. It was anyone game until Llacer was coolered. Llacer had top two pair with king-queen and lost most of his stack with Rezaei holding cowboys for a set.
Llacer then jammed his short stack with ten-four suited and was eliminated in second place for $101,524 after not improving against Rezaei's ace-jack suited.
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