Mikita Badziakouski took a major blow to his stack when his flopped set of aces ran into a flopped diamond flush by Dario Sammartino.
One hand later, Xuming "scplayer" Qi open-shoved for 316,406 and Chi Zhang called from under the gun.
Xuming "scplayer" Qi:
Chi Zhang:
The flop spelled trouble for Qi and the turn left him on very thin ice, needing an ace to chop. It was not meant to be with the river and Qi exited in 15th place.
Chi Zhang went back to the same routine and simply open-jammed into shorter stacks. He did pick up a call by Mikita Badziakouski, who committed the 231,240 he had left over.
Mikita Badziakouski:
Chi Zhang:
The flop paired up Zhang and the turn left Badziakouski on the verge of elimination. Zhang further improved to two pair on the river and sent the Belorussian out in 14th place.
Giuseppe "0asis" Iadisernia limped in and then called a raise to 72,000 by "KOPOBA" as the table big stack. On the flop, Iadisernia simply moved all-in for 374,127 and his oppoent used the "good luck" emoji before making the call.
Giuseppe "0asis" Iadisernia:
"KOPOBA":
The turn and river failed to improve Iadisernia, who bows out in 13th place.
Sam Greenwood was left short after a clash with Daniel Dvoress but managed a double thereafter. He then limped in and "AnonAnomaly" jammed for 438,575. Alon "ArtinB" Huberman called all-in for fewer that and Greenwood reluctantly folded.
Alon "ArtinB" Huberman:
"AnonAnomaly":
The classic flip contained two twists: Huberman improved on the flop but fell behind on the turn. A blank river followed and Huberman had to settle for 12th place.
Down to the last 365,940 and in the hijack, Denys Chufarin moved all-in. He forced two folds but Dario Sammartino had other plans and called from under the gun.
Denys Chufarin:
Dario Sammartino:
The board locked up the pot for Sammartino on the turn and Chufarin had to settle for 10th place.
Chip leader "KOPOBA" limped in from the cutoff and Chi Zhang used a portion of his time bank. He then jammed for 811,023 and "KOPOBA" used the "one time" emoji before making the call.
Chi Zhang:
"KOPOBA":
The flop and turn was not without tease for Zhang but he bricked the river to bow out in 9th place.
As the first two players to act, Dario Sammartino and "AnonAnomaly" limped in. "FortNitPro" then opted to raise to 966,000 on the button while keeping 22,810 behind. "KOPOBA" moved all-in to force out Sammartino and "AnonAnomaly" and "FortNitPro" eventually called it off after nothing major happened on the other table.
"FortNitPro":
"KOPOBA":
The flop gave the Russian an additional gutshot and the turn brought "FortNitPro" on the brink of elimination. Only the case king or one of the queens would avoid his fate, yet it was sealed with the river. "AnonAnomaly" even flashed the king of hearts once all was done and dusted.
"FortNitPro" has been eliminated in 8th place and that concludes Day 1. The full chip counts and a recap of today's action are to follow.
The final table is set in the latest Championship Event of the 2021 GGPoker WSOP Online Bracelet Events. Out of a field of 144 entries, only seven players remain in contention for the gold bracelet in Event #18: $5,000 Short Deck Championship. Three former bracelet winners will aim to double their tally and claim the biggest slice of the $684,000 prize pool.
Russia's Radmir "KOPOBA" Sadirov holds a commanding lead over all other contenders, as he has nearly as many chips at his disposal as all his opponents have combined. Sadirov was responsible for the last two eliminations of the night and claimed a stack of 4,131,749 to his name, good enough for 258 antes.
Second-placed Yen-Liang "yao_poker" Yao (1,305,762) already has a second-place finish in Event #6: $200 FLIP & GO NO-Limit Hold'em to his name and also min-cashed in Event #15: $10,000 Heads Up NLHE Championship. Representing the flag of Ireland in the GGPoker client is Mukoro "AnonAnomaly" Gberevbie, who sits in third place with a stack of 699,655.
Four well-known poker pros follow within ten antes including Sam Greenwood, Daniel Dvoress, Joao Vieira, and Dario Sammartino. The former three already have one WSOP gold bracelet to their name while this feat has escaped Sammartino so far despite several close calls. The Vienna resident will return with the shortest stack of 31 antes but is just one double up away from jumping into third place overall.
Final Table Line-Up Event #18: $5,000 Short Deck Championship
Position
Player
Country
Chip Count
Antes
1
Radmir "KOPOBA" Sadirov
Russia
4,131,749
258
2
Yen-Liang "yao_poker" Yao
Taiwan
1,305,762
82
3
Mukoro "AnonAnomaly" Gberevbie
Ireland
699,655
44
4
Sam Greenwood
Canada
688,200
43
5
Daniel Dvoress
Canada
663,992
41
6
Joao Vieira
Portugal
650,397
41
7
Dario Sammartino
Italy
500,225
31
It appears that the action will resume in level 27 with an ante of 16,000 and from now on, all levels will feature 20 hands each instead of a fixed duration. The final table recommences at 5.01 pm UTC on Wednesday, August 25.
The Action of the Day
More than 30 players were seated when the action kicked off and the vast majority opted to fire the three stacks of 20,000 chips as single bullets. Eventual chip leader Sadirov was among the early casualties but re-entered successfully to establish a prime spot for the seven-handed final table.
The GGPoker ambassadors Felipe Ramos, Daniel Negreanu, and Mikhail "Misha Inner" Shalamov were also in the mix but Negreanu was the only one to run deep. The six-time WSOP bracelet winner even jumped into the top spot after claiming the largest portion of a spectacular four-way preflop contest. Other multiple former winners such as Anson Tsang, Kahle Burns, and Yuri Dzivielevski fell on the wayside.
Especially the frantic final stages towards the end of the registration period brought turned the field upside down. Ultimately, the action slowed down eventually when the money bubble approached and Chun Lei "judd trump" Zhou was the last participant to leave empty-handed.
From there on, the eliminations came at a rapid pace and Negreanu reached the final two tables as one of the shorter stacks. He took a stand with a suited ace-jack but failed to come from behind and beat the ace-queen of "FortNitPro", which ended his run in 11th place. Shortly thereafter, Denys Chufarin was eliminated by Dario Sammartino before Sadirov assumed control.
The Russian benefited from an aces-versus-kings setup to eliminate Chi Zhang in 9th place. Sadirov also prevailed against another pair of kings to burst the final table bubble when ace-king got there to seal the fate of "FortNitPro".
Sadirov has more than three times as many chips as second-placed Yen-Liang "yao_poker" Yao and will be in the driver's seat for the final table. Stay tuned for the conclusion of this event, as the PokerNews team will provide all key hands en route to crowning another WSOP gold bracelet winner.