Inside Dominik Nitsche's Birthday Victory in the Millions Superstorm Main Event ($121,146)
888poker Ambassador Dominik Nitsche celebrated his 30th birthday in style by finishing on top of a massive field of 3,192 entrants to win the Millions Superstorm Main Event for $121,146 after agreeing to a four-way deal at the final table.
The Millions Superstorm was the biggest online poker festival to ever take place at 888poker, guaranteeing more than $8 million across 480 tournaments from Sept. 10 to Oct. 11.
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Nitsche's Impressive Resume
Nitsche needs no introduction as he has been crushing both the online and live tournament felts for many years with nearly $25 million in earnings ($18.6 million live and $6.3 million online). Keep in mind, this is all before his 30th birthday!
Among Nitsche's greatest achievements is winning four WSOP gold bracelets. His first bracelet came in Las Vegas when he shipped Event #59 $1,000 No Limit Holdem for $654,797 in 2012.
Two years later, Nitsche found himself with two more pieces of hardware. He first found the winner's circle the 2014 WSOP $10,000 National Championship for $352,800 in Atlantic City, NJ before a month later claiming yet another bracelet in Event #21: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em where he banked $335,659.
The best was saved for last as in 2017 Nitsche won the prestigious WSOPE Event #10: €111,111 High Roller for One Drop No-Limit Hold'em at King's Resort in Rozvadov, Czech Republic for €3,487,463 ($4,064,026), representing his largest single cash to date.
| Year | Event | Entrants | Prize Pool | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | WSOP Event #59: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em | 4,620 | $1,566,000 | $654,797 |
| 2014 | WSOP $10,000 National Championship | 126 | $1,260,000 | $352,800 |
| 2014 | WSOP Event #21: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em | 2,043 | $1,838,700 | $335,659 |
| 2017 | WSOPE Event #10: €111,111 High Roller for One Drop No-Limit Hold'em | 132 | €12,980,000 | €3,487,463 |
Despite all of Nitsche's success in many events both live and online over the years, this victory is one he will likely remember with fondness for the rest of his life.
"I really enjoyed the tournament and probably the fact that it happened on my birthday is something I'll remember for a long time," said Nitsche in an exclusive interview with PokerNews. "One thing that really makes this one stand out for me though was that pretty much all of play was on the livestream. David Tuchman, Nick Wealthall, and Vivi Saliba were doing commentary at the 888poker live stream on my table and I really enjoyed watching it on the side."
"This was especially true as we got deeper and things got more serious it was very nice to have a rail," Nitsche added. "Also, of course, all the people that came by to cheer for me. It felt like I was the only one with a virtual rail."
From Zero to Hero
Nitsche's rise to glory in the Millions Superstorm Main Event at 888poker is something we can all learn from. You might think someone with Nitsche's resume headed into the second and final table of this event with a huge stack and parlayed this into a victory and a huge payday.
This was not the case as Nitsche began the day with less than seven big blinds. This was something that Nitsche was less than pleased about and even felt hopeless about his situation.
"I was pretty annoyed honestly," Nitsche shared with PokerNews about his final Day 1 chip count. "I had a good chance to bag up a large stack in an early flight and I got unlucky to bust. I then fired four more bullets and all I got was seven big blinds. I pretty much had no hope for this tourney at all."
That being said, Nitsche is a professional and was confident in his game.
"I just tried to make the best of it," Nitsche explained. "With such short stacks there really isn't much to do and although I'm very confident in my short stack I could have busted quite a few times. Luckily I didn't."
Things turned around quickly for Nitsche as Day 2 began with a bang for the 888poker Ambassador. He doubled up once when he got his chips in with a set of sevens and faded his opponent's open-ended straight draw. before doubling up again a second time.
"I doubled up twice pretty much right away," Nitsche said. "I got up to 90k really quickly and I remember thinking 'oh the rest of my session isn't going well but somehow i have chips now in the best one of the day. Sweet!'"
The money bubble then passed and Nitsche continued to build his stack. He was in the top five players in the chip counts for most of the way from 100 players down but found himself in eighth place heading into the nine player final table.
"I was very focused on the payout structure and tried to build a stack that would let me go for the win," explained Nitsche about his final table plan.
Nitsche doubled at the final table almost as soon as it began and found himself in the middle of the pack and what was a short-stacked final table. He eventually eliminated "kistkutya23" in fifth place to leave him just a handful of chips behind second place when players began to discuss a deal.
A deal was agreed to by the players that would guarantee Nitsche slightly more than ICM but that wasn't possible within the software. The table agreed to let Nitsche win one more hand and a deal was done.
"Unfortunately things didn't quite work out and I found myself in the middle of the pack four-handed," Nitsche said. "I proposed that'd I'd get slightly more money in the deal than ICM. We agreed they'd let me win the last hand before we chopped, which worked out to around $3,000 over ICM. This guaranteed a six-figure score for myself."
One might think that Nitsche shouldn't be the type of player to make deals. But the payouts were steep with second paying $95,500 and first place paying $195,000 if no deal was reached. This was only part of Nitsche's thought process as he also understood his opponents were all capable players themselves.
"Everyone played very well at the final table, so I wasn't too upset to make the deal especially because as I said I was a medium stack at the time," Nitsche said.
Players were still competing hard after the deal was agreed as there was still $20,000 left on the line to be played for. Nitsche single-handedly eliminated his three opponents in quick fashion to go onto become the official winner!
2020 Millions Superstorm Main Event Final Table Results
| Place | Name | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dominik "888Dominik" Nitsche | Germany | $121,146* |
| 2 | GarbinaD | Malta | $112,609* |
| 3 | Artemka168 | Russian Federation | $106,194* |
| 4 | MrMarley83 | Canada | $80,551* |
| 5 | kistkutya23 | $45,000 | |
| 6 | DreamLikeMe | $30,000 | |
| 7 | dulek_jason | $25,000 | |
| 8 | Eduardo "franguet" Rocha | Brazil | $20,000 |
| 9 | joolius | Lithuania | $15,000 |
*Reflects four-handed deal at the final table.
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