The record-breaking partypokerLIVE MILLIONS Dusk Till Dawn £5,300 Main Event saw 35 hopefuls return to the tables of one of Europe's biggest card rooms in Nottingham, and less than seven levels of 75 minutes each later, the unofficial final table was set. Play carried on for another level, and Soenke Jahn missed out on the official final table in dramatic fashion to reduce the field to the last eight hopefuls for Sunday.
All finalists have at least £72,395 locked up, but everyone has the eyes set on the first-place payout of £1,000,000 and the coveted trophy that comes along with it. Furthermore, Mateusz Rypulak and Jacob Mulhern, who happen to be the two chip leaders, are also the two remaining contenders in the Golden Chip Last Longer competition that will award an extra £100,000 to the last man standing.
Rypulak bagged up 257,300,000 while Mulhern follows not far behind with 221,000,000, and Maria Lampropoulou follows in third place overnight with 194,700,000. The second remaining woman in the field, partypoker online qualifier Katie Swift, bagged up 171,500,000 and is in the middle of the pack along with Jeremy Pantin (157,100,000). Jon Spinks (108,100,000), Neel Murthy (93,300,000) and Stephen Chidwick (45,500,000) complete the final table line-up.
Final Table Seat Assignments
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mateusz Rypulak | Poland | 257,300,000 | 64 |
| 2 | Jacob Mulhern | United Kingdom | 221,000,000 | 55 |
| 3 | Maria Lampropoulou | Argentina | 194,700,000 | 48 |
| 4 | Jeremy Pantin | Trinidad & Tobago | 157,100,000 | 39 |
| 5 | Jon Spinks | United Kingdom | 108,100,000 | 27 |
| 6 | Stephen Chidwick | United Kingdom | 45,500,000 | 11 |
| 7 | Katie Swift | United Kingdom | 171,500,000 | 42 |
| 8 | Neel Murthy | USA | 93,200,000 | 23 |
Stephen Chidwick started the day with less than three big blinds, and was also in the big blind in the first hand as well to triple up twice in quick succession. It was the start of an incredibly hot run of the accomplished British poker pro, while six players were eliminated during the first level. Ben Farrell was the first to fall and Warren Russell, Golden Chip contender Thomas Boivin, and 2015 WPT Nottingham champion Iaron Lightbourne were among the notables to join him on the rail soon after.
In the second level of the day, Stephen Chidwick jumped above the average by eliminating Jonas Lauck and Grzegorz Grochulski in the same hand. Lauck shoved his short stack from the button with queen-seven suited and Chidwick reshoved in the small blind with king-queen. Grochulski found tens in the big blind and called, but a king appeared right in the window. 2016 Irish Open champion Daniel Wilson ran out of chips soon after, and Ben Morrison also had to settle for a payday of £20,000 as well.
Plenty of notables were among those to fall next with David Peters, Javier Gomez, Sergio Castelluccio, David "MissOracle" Yan, Andreas Samuelsson and Igor Kurganov all in the next payout step. Ashley Williams had scored an early double with ace-jack versus ace-king, but then lost a big pair with pocket tens against the turned two pair of Christoffer Stahle. Williams then lost a flip with pocket sixes against the ace-nine of start-of-the-day chip leader Moritz Dietrich, and the last three tables were set.
Noah Vaillancourt (22nd place) and Vicente Delgado (20th place) both had to settle for £25,000 and Moritz Dietrich then bowed out in 17th place after a wild roller coaster ride over on the feature table. That set up the last two tables, and the players had barely taken their seat when Mark Gardner had to grab his belongings. Gardner three-bet shoved with ace-deuce and Mateusz Rypulak called with pocket sevens to dodge an ace and flush draw. The remaining chips of Antti Halme also went to Rypulak after the Finn failed to get there with pocket sixes against pocket nines.
Jake Cody had to settle for 14th place when his pocket nines found no help against the pocket jacks of Stephen Chidwick, and the next well-known name on the British live poker circuit to fall was Ben Jackson. Jackson was part of a spectacular three-way all in on the feature table when he shoved the cutoff with ace-eight. Katie Swift, who didn't see the all in out of the small blind and put in raising chips, eventually called the shove before Maria Lampropoulou moved in over the top from the big blind. Swift called it off with ace-five suited and Lampropoulou held up with pocket tens to eliminate Jackson and double through Swift.
Christoffer Stahle and Tom "Jabracada" Hall then ran out of chips in quick succession and suddenly there were just 10 hopefuls left. On the feature table, Stahle three-bet all in with king-jack only to find Mateusz Rypulak behind him wake up with pocket aces. Hall lost the vast majority of his chips with ace-king against the pocket nines of Jon Spinks and bowed out the next hand. It was the second close call for the British poker pro, who already finished third in the £10,300 High Roller here at the Dusk Till Dawn.
While Katie Swift doubled up with pocket kings against the ace-queen of Stephen Chidwick over on the feature table, it was Mark Kelsall who put his tournament life on the line on the outer table. Kelsall's shove from the button for almost 15 big blinds was met by a call of Mateusz Rypulak in the small blind and Kelsall's king-jack suited faced ace-queen in the showdown. Rypulak flopped two pair and running queens even gave him quads to set up the unofficial final table.
The players were informed that the last 21 minutes of the current level and one further would be played, or until the next player busted, and it took until the end of level 53 to set up the official final table. Jacob Mulhern won a flip with pocket nines against the ace-king of Jon Spinks, also with quads, before Soenke Jahn then got it in with pocket tens. Spinks had slightly more chips and pocket queens, and despite flopping a ten, Jahn was left empty-handed as a queen appeared on the river to end Day 4.
The lion's share of the £6,017,395 prize pool is still up for grabs, and here is what the finalists are playing for:
| Place | Prize (in GBP) | Prize (in USD) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,000,000 | 1,281,700 |
| 2 | 650,000 | 833,105 |
| 3 | 450,000 | 576,765 |
| 4 | 320,000 | 410,144 |
| 5 | 220,000 | 281,974 |
| 6 | 150,000 | 192,255 |
| 7 | 100,000 | 128,170 |
| 8 | 72,395 | 92,789 |
The record-breaking partypokerLIVE MILLIONS Dusk Till Dawn £5,300 Main Event paid 253 spots, below are further details regarding the entries and prize pool contribution:
Phase 1 Live Entries: 2,705 = £1,352,500
Phase 1 Online Entries: 4,062 = £2,031,000
£5,300 Main Event direct entries: 564 = £2,820,000
Gross prize pool: £6,203,500 (which equals 1,240 entries)
Net prize pool: £6,017,395
All remaining eight players will return at 1 p.m. local time to play the last seven minutes of level 53 with blinds of 2,000,000/4,000,000 and a running ante of 400,000. The action will be streamed with hole cards on a security delay of 30 minutes and the PokerNews live reporting will provide updates until a winner is crowned.
in early position and moved all-in for 41,200,000. A few seats over Jonathan Spinks found 
, and he put his 57,300,000 at risk. The rest of the table were fine with having the short stacks battle, and it was heads up to the flop.
flop was everything Jahn could have hoped for, and the German was in a dominant position to secure a crucial double up. The 
on the turn gave Spinks some hope as it put a flush draw on the board, but that wasn't what ultimately send the pot to Spinks. The 
rolled off on the river, and just like that the official final table was a reality.
and Hall holding 
, it was a classic coin flip, but the percentages shifted heavily for Spinks as the flop came 
on the turn offered some hope for Hall, but the 
river wasn't it for "Jabracada", and Spinks got the massive double leaving Hall with only 550,000.
didn't get there against the 
were trailing badly, but the 
on the turn was no help, neither was the 
river and in doing so sits behind one of the biggest stacks in the room.
and was called by Mateusz Rypulak with 
, and the Pole was in great shape against the 
of Gardner.
