Peru's Diego Cuellar Leads POWERFEST Main Event

The $1,050 POWERFEST Main Event attracted 1,703 players throughout three starting flights, and only nine of those remain in the hunt for the title and the $267,356 top prize. Peruvian pro Diego Cuellar finds himself in the envious position of chip leader going into the final table.

POWERFEST #27 - Main Event Final Table Chip Counts

Some 255 partypoker players navigated their way through the trio of starting flights and took their Day 2 seats on April 26. Each of those players received at least a min-cash of $2,157.

Dante Fernandes, Talal Shakerchi, Pablo Silva, and Team partypoker's Isaac Haxton and Dzmitry Urbanovich were among the early casualties.

Team Online's Matthew Staples saw his Main Event run end in a 152nd place finish. At the same time, fellow orange diamonds Mikita Badziakouski, Day Kotoviezy, Patrick Leonard, and Courtney Gee crashed out, the latter in 35th place for $5,799.

The final table was set following the demise of British star Conor Beresford. His exit in tenth saw $15,550 head to his partypoker account.

The nine finalists sit down for the last time from 7:05 p.m. BST on April 27. Cuellar's 51,699,015 stack towers over that of second-placed Miguel Lopes' 34,044,013, but a Cuellar victory is far from a forgone conclusion.

That is because there are some superb players among the final nine. Canadian Chanracy Khun (22,479,712) will certainly fancy his chances of capturing the $267,356 prize because he enters the final table third in chips. So too will the United Kingdom's Jamie O'Connor (18,729,333) and Lithuanian grinder Karolis Sereika (16,965,790).

Those players occupying sixth place through ninth have more work to do than the players mentioned above if they are to triumph in this event, but each is capable of turning their fortunes around. Diego Ventura (8,607,623), Jorma Nuutinen (6,634,508), Willem De Troyer (5,761,186), and Erik Tamm of Sweden (5,380,845) are those occupying the lower positions on the current leaderboard.

partypoker's excellent Twitch coverage starts at 7:30 p.m. BST. James Dempsey and Henry Kilbane are with you from the first cards pitched to the last pot sliding towards the champion. Who will that champion be? Tune into PokerNews on April 28 to find out.

Joao Vieira Emerges Victoriously From the $10,300 Super High Roller

Joao Vieira can call himself a POWERFEST Super High Roller champion after the Netherlands-based Portuguese grinder came out best from 96 entrants in this $10,300 buy-in event.

Only 17 of those 96 entrants made it through to Day 2, all 17 being in the money. Such luminaries as Laszlo Bujtas, Simon Mattsson, Justin Bonomo, and Michael Addamo busted before reaching the final table. Addamo was the chip leader going into Day 2 and one of the favorites for glory.

Alex Foxen fell in ninth, sandwiched between the eliminations of Mikita Badziakouski and Joni Jouhkimainen, the latter popping the final table bubble when he ran out of steam in eighth.

Nick Petrangelo could not get out of second gear at the final table and busted when his pocket sevens failed to improve against Timothy Nuter's superior pocket nines.

Vieira then hit a purple patch of form and sent Linus Loeliger, Sosia Jiang, Dusk Till Dawn casino owner Rob Yong, and Nuter to the showers, setting up a one-on-one battle with Francois Billard.

Billard trailed more than four-to-one in chips but fought valiantly to the end. Vieira is not the sort of player who hands over his chip easily, so trying to claw your back into contention against him is an unenviable task.

The final hand saw Vieira min-raise with pocket jacks before calling when Billard ripped in 30 big blinds with what turned out to be ace-deuce. The two of spades on the turn gave Billard some hope, but Vieira's knaves ultimately held to gift him the title.

POWERFEST #28 Super High Roller Final Table Results

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