Season III of the WPT500 poker tour kicked off with a thrilling partypoker-sponsored tournament at Aria Resort & Casino, running from June 27 to July 6. UK-based player Andreas Olympios topped the event’s field to receive $260,000, the largest cash he has scooped since the beginning of his poker career.
The partypoker-presented WPT500 at Aria Resort & Casino featured nine starting flights and two more days of play. As many as 3,956 entries paid the $565 buy-in fee to enter the event. Although it originally promised a guaranteed prize pool of $1 million, the amount of $2 million was eventually distributed to the top 201 players.
Day 3, the tournament’s final one, saw nine players returning to play the official final table and to determine the name of the champion. Wesley Hickey led the nine survivors with a considerable chip advantage over his eight remaining opponents. And the Canadian player was the last man standing at the final table, aside from Olympios himself, at the time the heads-up duel began.
Although the eventual champion started the day as the short stack with only 15 big blinds left, he managed to emerge as the chip leader after a terrific run at the final table. The player started the two-handed match holding more than 43 million in chips. Hickey had a little less than 16 million at that time.
Olympios needed as many as 9 hands to defeat his last remaining opponent and to scoop the top prize and the tournament trophy. Hand #143 was the last one not only for the day but also for the event as a whole.
Olympios limped for 600,000 and Hickey raised to 2,000,000. Olympios called. The [Ks][9s][2s] came on the flop to see Hickey move all in and his opponent call. Olympios tabled [Kh][Js] and Hickey showed [9d][8d]. The [5s] appeared on the turn, securing Olympios with a flush. The [Qc] did not change anything for both players. Olympios collected the pot and the title, and Hickey took home $185,000 for his runner-up finish.
Drazen Ilich from Las Vegas, Nevada collected $135,000 for his 3rd place in the tournament. Robby Seurynck from Orange, California finished 4th for $100,000. Jonathan Opas from Las Vegas, Nevada took 5th place in the event for a payout of $75,000.
Sanjay Mayekar from Los Angeles, California was paid $58,000 for finishing 6th. Khoan Ho from Jonesboro, Georgia took 7th place, good for $45,000. Guy Gorelick from Israel took home $35,000 to his eighth-place finish. Rounding out the official final table, Guy Cicconi from Las Vegas, Nevada scooped $27,150 of the entire prize pool.
