This week, players who made our winners’ rostrum came from all around the world — a Brit, a Canadian, a Taiwanese living in Vegas, and two Russians, including the top online pro in Russia, a mysterious player who’s been banking big wins for years. (We know his name and screen names, but not much else.) These are some of the winners you should take note of for poker tournaments ending Saturday, March 6.
Endrit Geci
Millions Online Main Event
Partypoker
$774,838
Geci beat a field of 1,084 players in this $5,300 event to ship one of the biggest online poker tournaments so far in 2021. The poker pro from Manchester in the UK entered the final session with a chip lead, and in the end took the trophy end of a heads-up chop with Brazilian Francisco Correia. Geci dominated the final table from start to finish. With five players left, he had accumulated nearly half the chips in play. The win was the biggest of his career. He finished second in a WSOP online bracelet series $1K NLH 6-handed event this summer for $224K.
Arsenii Malinov
“hellohellohello”
Super Millions High Roller
GGPoker
$661,743
As part of GGPoker’s “Super Millions Week,” the usual $10K buy-in for their Sunday Super Millions was bumped up to $25K, and the event drew 114 entrants. Malinov, the #6 ranked online pro and top Russian according to Pocket Fives, qualified by winning a $2,500 satellite. This win was the biggest score of the mysterious Malinov’s storied online career. Over the years, he’s booked more than $14.2 million in online winnings, playing under “hello_totti,” “phileasfogg” and “nicecallLOL,” among others.
Maksim Sekretarev
WPT Russia Main Event
Casino Sochi
$160,694
Taking down a World Poker Tour title in your own country is one thing, but to do it by eliminating everyone at the final table is all the more impressive. Only 19, Sekretarev became the second-youngest WPT champion of all time on Sunday, when he plowed through a field of 251 with a mature performance in the ₽245,000 (~$3,300 USD) main event. This was the WPT’s first live series of 2021.
Kitty Kuo
APT Taiwan Main Event
CTP Club, Taipei
$25,918
The Asia Poker Tour stopped in Taiwan this week, and on Wednesday hilarious tweeter and familiar face on Live at the Bike Kitty Kuo bested a field of 120 to take down the NT$15,000 (~$537 USD) main event. She was one of three women at the eight-player final table. Kuo, a Natural8 ambassador representing Taiwan, has become one of the top female poker players in the world, with over $2.3 million in live cashes, good for 15th all-time.
Arlie Shaban
‘Prince Pablo’
Turbo Series 6-Max
PokerStars
$7,116
What does it feel like to turn $11 into $7,116? The ever-expressive PokerStars pro Shaban knows, and now so does anyone within a 5-mile radius. The former Big Brother Canada contestant is as much of a streaming star as a poker player and that showed when he picked up his second Turbo Series title in two years. After topping a field of 4,935 entrants, Shaban let out a primal scream, pounded on the table and dropped a mother of all f-bombs that reverberated across Twitter.
Best. Celebration. Ever.
You rock @ArlieShaban. 🤘#TurboSeries champion. 💥https://t.co/fMbsd93cOU (MGA/B2C/213/2011) pic.twitter.com/HLBzsujKNj— PokerStars (@PokerStars) March 3, 2021
