Artur Martirosian Leads Final 24 Into Day 3 of the WPTWOC Main Event
Russian superstar Artur Martirosian excelled on Day 2 of the WPT World Online Championships Main Event. Martirosian multiplied his stack ten-fold, going from a shade under 3 million chips to a tournament-leading 30,030,334.
The Russian’s stack is huge, so huge in fact that it contains 11,202,746 more chips than anyone else in the final 24. Victory is far from a done deal, but Martirosian must fancy his chances of getting his hands on the title of champion and the gargantuan $1,715,667 top prize that comes with such an accolade.
Race for the WPT Leaderboard title hots up
WPT Main Event Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Artur Martirosian | Russia | 30,030,334 |
| 2 | Bert Stevens | Belgium | 18,827,588 |
| 3 | Teun Mulder | Netherlands | 17,374,291 |
| 4 | Pieters Aerts | Belgium | 14,105,891 |
| 5 | Akseli Paalanen | Finland | 12,300,834 |
| 6 | Benjamin Rolle | Germany | 11,129,192 |
| 7 | Diogo Cuellar | Peru | 11,037,070 |
| 8 | Ole Schemion | Germany | 9,468,034 |
| 9 | Blaz Zejav | Slovenia | 7,600,081 |
| 10 | Viktor Kudinov | Russia | 7,256,874 |
Some 156 players sat down on Day 2, each sharing the common goal of navigating their way through to the top 136 places where the $10,110,000 prize pool started being dished out.
Alex Foxen and Christan Jeppsson fell just shy of the payout places, with Ioannis Angelou-Konstas bursting the money bubble when he crashed and burned in 137th place.
The exit of Angelou-Konstas paved the way for a who host of poker stars to receive a payout. Among those who cashed in this huge event were the likes of Team partypoker’s Jason Koon (131st - $23,253), Jake Schindler (130th - $23,253), Anton Wigg (123rd - $23,253), Christian Rudolph (111st - $25,275), and another Team partypoker duo in Philipp Gruissem (97th - $27,297) and Isaac Haxton (93rd - $27,297).
Timothy Adams (81st - $29,319), Parker Talbot (75th - $31,341), Shaun Deeb (65th - $33,363), Dominik Panka (45th – $39,429), Niklas Astedt (28th - $45,495), and Dimitar Danchev (25th - $45,495) also saw a return on their $10,300 investment.
Day 3, which commences at 8:00 p.m. CEST on September 15, sees a whole host of stellar names join Martirosian for the penultimate day’s action.
Bert Stevens, better known as “girafganger7”, returns second in chips with an 18,827,588 stack. Dutch star Teun Mulder (17,374,921 chips) isn’t too far behind Stevens.
You’ll also find such luminaries and Benjamin Rolle (11,129,912), and German legend Ole Schemion (9,468,034) with top 10 stacks, plus start-of-the-day chip leader Blaz Zerjav (7,600,081).
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Further down the chip counts lays the last remaining member of the partypoker stable. Dzmitry Urbanovich has 5,951,864 chips, enough for 12th place. Urbanovich is in solid form having finished second in the $5,200 WPT Big Game on September 14 for $146,050. Finishing eighth or higher here will best that impressive prize.
Also still in the running are British grinder Phil Mighall (5,685,494), Claas Segebrecht (5,667,464), Damian Salas (4,125,200), Belgian superstar Davidi Kitai (2,889,086), and the tournament’s short stack Upeshka De Silva (2,576,898).
Play resumes at 8:00 p.m. CEST on September 15 with 24 players in the hunt for the title. Each is guaranteed $58,638 but that will swell to $127,386 by the time the final table of nine is reached. The tournament pauses once this happens before resuming at 8:00 p.m. CEST on September 16 where it plays out until a champion is crowned. That looks like it will be Martirosian right now but anything can happen.
