Seven Stars Who Have Triumphed in partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Events

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Jan 03, 2020 5 min read

The first partypoker LIVE MILLIONS festival of 2020 gets underway at Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham, United Kingdom from Jan. 4 and it should attract plenty of talent to the poker room, particularly because the Main Event has a cool $5 million guaranteed prize pool.

Now entering its third season, the partypoker LIVE tour has seen its MILLIONS Main Events won by some of the game’s biggest stars, including one of its own sponsored pros. Here are seven of those elite grinders who have a MILLIONS trophy on their mantelpiece at home.

Maria Lampropulos: First Female MILLIONS Champion

The inaugural MILLIONS UK Main Event attracted a field of 1,204 entries all the way back in April 2017. It was a star-studded affair with some true greats reaching the top 253 finishing places where the prize money was distributed.

Such luminaries as 888poker Ambassador Chris Moorman, Faraz Jaka, Dario Sammartino, Adrian Mateos, Sam Trickett and Steve O’Dwyer cashed.

Any of the eight finalists would have become worthy winners. All eyes were on Stephen Chidwick, but he busted in sixth place for £150,000 ($188,250).

It was Argentina’s Maria Lampropulos who emerged victoriously, becoming the first female MILLIONS champion and padding her bankroll with a cool £1 million ($1,255,004) in the process.

Sam Greenwood: Seven-Figure Score in the Bahamas

Later that year, Sam Greenwood became a MILLIONS champion when he outlasted a field of 1,061 grinders in the Caribbean Poker Party MILLIONS Main Event.

Greenwood was super short at one point and was nursing a three big blind stack, yet he managed to produce an epic comeback to claim the $1,000,000 top prize after defeating Russian pro Andrey Shatilov heads-up for the title.

Viktor Blom: That Hero Call

Swedish superstar Viktor “Islidur1” Blom is more likely to be found playing high stakes online cash games than he is live poker tournaments, but his decision to enter the partypoker MILLIONS Germany Main Event proved to be a good one.

Blom came out on top of a 927-strong field to get his hands on a cool €850,000 ($1,048,153). Blom defeated Pavel Plesuv heads-up, with the final hand seeing Blom make an incredible call with K♥6♦ on a K♦9♥Q♥A♦5♥ board.

Pascal Lefrancois: Champion of the First Grand Final

The first MILLIONS Grand Final took place in Barcelona in April 2018 and saw 1,175 players exchange €10,300 for the chance to become the tournament’s champion. To say the field was stacked is an understatement with those reaching the money places reading like a who’s who of live poker.

Three players became millionaires that day. Once Thomas Boivin, Davidi Kitai, Diogo Veiga, Jan Schwippert and Dominik Nitsche busted, the final trio of players were guaranteed a seven-figure prize.

Stephen Chidwick busted in third for €1 million ($1,233,654) with Pascal Lefrancois sending the UK’s Adam Owen home in second-place. Owen collected €1,300,000 ($1,603,750) with Lefrancois scooping €1,700,000 ($2,097,211).

Anatoly Filatov: A Victory on Home Soil

Team partypoker pro Anatoly Filatov became a MILLIONS champion when he took down the Main Event in Sochi, Russia. The 692-entry field was predominately made up of Russian players, Filatov among them.

The popular pro kept his cool to come away with the lion’s share of the ₽291,000,000 ($4,579,518) prize pool, namely ₽60,000,000 ($944,230). This huge sum is now Filatov’s second-largest prize as he finished third in the 2019 WSOP Europe €100,000 Diamond High Roller for €907,301 ($1,009,279) in October 2019.

Tom Marchese: Marching On To Victory in Las Vegas

partypoker LIVE took its MILLIONS event to Las Vegas for the first time and it proved to be a roaring success. Some 536 players bought in to ensure the $5 million guarantee was surpassed by $360,000.

Tom Marchese was the main beneficiary of the juicy prize pool because he was the last man standing and, therefore, the recipient of a cool $1 million. Marchese had to navigate his way around the likes of Chris Moneymaker, Rainer Kempe, Conor Beresford, Sergio Aido, Kassem “Freddy” Deeb and Ana Marquez at the final table before sending Jeremy Ausmus home in second-place.

Adrian Mateos: Bink in the Bahamas

Adrian Mateos signed off 2019 with a bang by triumphing in the $10,300 MILLIONS Main Event at the Caribbean Poker Party. Mateos was part of a three-handed chop that saw Chris Hunichen fall in third for $1,097,195 and Mateos bust Aaron Van Blarcum heads-up, resigning the runner-up to the $970,000 consolation prize.

Mateos collected $1,162,805 for his victory, the third-largest prize of his amazing career to date.

partypoker LIVE MILLIONS UK Schedule

It will be interesting to see the attendance figures for this year’s MILLIONS UK. There is no PokerStars Caribbean Adventure to compete with, but there is the 2020 Aussie Millions. How many poker players will decide to avoid to the Aussie Millions with the devastating bush fires sweeping the nation remains to be seen.

One thing is for sure, DTD will be pulling out all the stops to ensure the MILLIONS UK festival runs as smoothly as possible. Here’s the full schedule of events.

Matthew Pitt hails from Leeds, West Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom, and has worked in the poker industry since 2008, and worked for PokerNews since 2010. In September 2010, he became the editor of PokerNews. Matthew stepped away from live reporting duties in 2015, and now concentrates on his role of Senior Editor for the PokerNews.

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• Tags Aussie Millions Chris Moneymaker Chris Moorman Davidi Kitai Dominik Nitsche Faraz Jaka PokerStars Caribbean Adventure PokerStars Marvin Rettenmaier Mustapha Kanit Jeremy Ausmus Isildur1 partypoker Stephen Chidwick Sam Trickett
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