The first main event of the WPT World Online Championships is in the books. Although pros are eyeing up the $10,300 main event on September 6, players anted up on mass this week for the $1 million guaranteed micro event.
Running from August 29 to September 2, the $109 MTT was much more than a prelude to the festival’s marquee event. Two starting flights saw the total number of entries hit 8,465.
Even though that left the WPT and host site Partypoker with a $153,500 overlay, a field of that size is respectable in any context. What’s more, it allowed Luiz Constantino to take home a top prize worth $148,985.
Constantino Sits Tight As Chaos Ensues
There was action aplenty as 1,365 survivors navigated Day 2. However, the real drama occurred in the latter stages of the tournament. With a WPT World Online Championships title up for grabs, there was action from the start of Monday’s final table.
First to fall after a dramatic three-way all-in was Anis Homaidan (see video below). A short-stack and pocket sevens looked good for a preflop all-in. However, when Partypoker pro Patrick Leonard made a move with pocket queens and Philipp Zeckai, who covered Homaidan, woke up with pocket aces, it was all over.
Leonard couldn’t recover from his loss with queens and hit the rail in eighth. With the most accomplished player gone, the smaller stacks started to open up. That led to the elimination of Joris De Baas, Andre Figueiro, and Hamish Crawshaw in fairly quick succession.
Constantino remained a bastion of calm as chaos ensued around him. With more than 70 big blinds, he sat tight and picked his spots while Zeckai’s hot streak ended in a fourth-place finish.
Pre-flop, Yin Zhang piled on the pressure. Moving all-in against Zeckai with J♠ 8♣, Zhang was simply playing his position. Zeckai made the call with A♥ K♣ and went in ahead. He couldn’t avoid a jack on the flop, however. That hand ousted the German, but Zhang’s demise came soon after.
An all-in with pocket fives would be his undoing after Kim Heidermann called with pocket eights. A miracle five never appeared and, with that, the WPT World Online Championships micro main event was down to two.
Lucky Break Brings WPT Micro Main to an End
Constantino may have been relatively quiet, but his stack was such that he took control heads-up. Eventually, a generous helping of good fortune gave the Brazilian his first WPT title (see video above).
A re-raise from Constantino triggered a chain reaction that led to Heidermann committing his stack. When the cards were revealed, it was Heidermann’s A♦ J♣ against Constantino’s A♠ J♥. Despite a chop being the odds-on favorite, the board ran out 6♠ Q♠ 2♣ 5♠ 7♠.
That pot gave Constantino the remainder of Heidermann’s chips and a significant return on his $109 investment.
WPT World Online Championships $109 Micro Main Event Result
- Luiz Constantino – $148,985
- Kim Heidermann – $104,299
- Yin Zhang – $66,686
- Philipp Zeckai – $43,630
- Hamish Crawshaw – $29,770
- Andre Figueiro – $20,070
- Joris De Baas – $13,950
- Patrick Leonard – $10,450
- Anis Homaidan – $8,540
