Maria Lampropulos, Christopher Kruk Take Early Leads in Player of the Year Races. By Earl Burton - Jan 19th, 2018. Yes, it is very early in the year. Yes, these folks probably won't be. MariaLampropulos Through 14 previous years of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA), champions have come from all walks of life and all levels of the game. There have been elite pros, young guns and amateurs, stepping into the brightest spotlight and celebrating victory in one of the most prestigious tournaments in the game.
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Argentina'sMaria Poker Player
Maria Lampropulos@mlampropulos | Twitter
became the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure‘s first female champion taking down the 2018 PCA $10,300 Main Event at the Atlantis Paradise Island resort in the Bahamas on Sunday.Lampropulos topped a field of 582 players over six days of play to capture the event's $1,081,100 first-place prize. She also earned a $30,000 Platinum Pass that will give her entry into the $8-million-added $25,000 PokerStars Players No Limit Hold'em Championship at the 2019 PCA, plus $5,000 to cover travel and expenses.
Lampropulos beat Canadian online poker legend Shawn Buchanan heads up to win the title. German high roller Koray Aldemir finished third and 2017 Global Poker Index Player of the Year Adrian Mateos from Spain took fourth. Mateos led Sunday's final six to start out. Plus, both Buchanan and Aldemir held the lead short-handed. However, Lampropulos, who never led until after she got heads up for the title, persevered to book the win.
Lampropulos comes back to win
In fact, the Argentine was facing a 2:1 chip deficit to start heads-up play, but won two coin flips to snatch the chip lead from Buchanan before putting him away.
Lampropulos played in a slow and deliberate fashion that saw other players call the clock on her several times throughout the final day. It made the live stream difficult to watch at times, but certainly worked out for her.
This marked the second seven-figure score for Lampropulos in less than a year. In April 2017, she won the partypoker Millions Live event in Nottingham, UK for £1,000,000.
The deepest run by an American was put together by none other than 2016 GPI Player of the Year David Peters.
Peters made it all the way to the event's fifth day, and even held the chip lead for a time. However, the Toledo, Ohio native bubbled the final table finishing in 11th place for $75,640. Peters was down to a little over half a million in chips when he moved all in preflop with ace-jack off suit. Canadian Daniel Coupal made the call with the dominating ace-king and turned a king to leave Peters drawing dead.
Of course, Peters is coming off a year in which he earned $3,541,519 in live tournaments, following up on the $7,564,647 in live tournament cashes he booked on his way to winning 2016 GPI POY honors.
Peters at the PCA
His lone cash at the PokerStars Championship Bahamas in 2017 was a third-place finish in a $5,000 Turbo event for $28,440. However, the 2016 PCA was a big one for Peters. He booked three scores, including two Hyper-Turbo Survivor cashes for close to $144,905 and a fifth-place finish in the $100,000 Super High Roller for $461,340.
No Americans made the final table of the 2018 PCA Main Event event. However, 22 US players did managed to make the list of the 87 who cashed. This included Darren Rabinowitz, who was the first player to bust in the money, earning a $17,500 min-cash for his 87th-place finish.
Eight US players made the top 40. This included the Buffalo, New York mother and son tandem of Sharman Olshan (33rd for $25,400) and Aaron Olshan (39th for $25,400).
Veteran American Team PokerStars Pro Barry Greenstein Online fruit machine. finished 47th for $22,020.
Americans wrap up PCA prelims and post-lims with big scores
As the 2018 PCA Main Event was wrapping up, American Almedin Imsirovic beat fellow American and 2013 World Series of Poker champion Ryan Riess heads up to win the final $10,000 Single-Day High Roller event on the schedule.
Imsirovic earned $160,050 for the victory and the former WSOP champ had to settle for a $115,770 consolation prize.
Plus, Canadian Christopher Kruk made a miraculous comeback heads up to beat American Jonathan Jaffe in the $25,000 High Roller event. Kruk collected $836,350 and Jaffe settled for $569,760 in runner-up money.
Photo Credit: Neil Stoddart/Rational Intellectual Holdings/PokerStarsBlog.com
Maria Lampropulos won the partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Dusk Till Dawn Main Event for £1,000,000, a historic feat.
'It really feels like a magic moment I'm in right now,' she said after her win. 'I'm a little tired after such a difficult final table, but tomorrow I'll realize what I did. He didn't want to make a deal. He was convinced that he could win. Perhaps because I am a woman and he didn't want to deal with a woman, but I trusted in my game, I just thought ‘let's play.''
Outside Super High Roller results, Lampropulos has just made history by winning £1,000,000 – an incredible achievement cheered by the female players in the Ladies Event.
'I am proud of that obviously,' she said. 'It's wonderful. Every woman here supported me. When everyone chanted, I felt so emotional. They were all cheering and smiling because they feel ‘OK, I can do it too.''
The festival promised to be a huge event with three events guaranteeing seven-figure prize pools and the home of poker in the UK delivered in style. A total of £6,000,000 were locked up before the first card was dealt in Nottingham, and the £5,300 Main Event broke that number to create a massive prize pool of £6,017,395 with the top 253 spots earning their share and more than 8,500 players taking part through the various stages.
WHEN EVERYONE CHANTED, I FELT SO EMOTIONAL. THEY WERE ALL CHEERING AND SMILING BECAUSE THEY FEEL ‘OK, I CAN DO IT TOO.''
After several online and live starting days at the venue and three following tournament days, the field was reduced to the last eight hopefuls and the final table was set with an incredible combination of stories.
There were two women left in contention, one of which qualified twice through partypoker for a combined £131. one of the biggest names in UK poker. One of the biggest names in UK poker took his seat and there was the story of the duel for an extra payday of £100,000 as part of a special Golden Chip last longer competition with a special twist.
Add to that the guaranteed first-place prize of £1,000,000 in one of the biggest card rooms of Europe, with two other events with at least £1,000,000 in prizes up for grabs, and it was a match made in heaven for all poker enthusiasts with a dream.
It would take less than five hours to set up the duel for the title and seven-figure score. Jacob Mulhern faced Maria Lampropulos in a 79 versus 77 big blind deep battle. By then, Mulhern had already locked up the last longer competition and was on cloud nine thanks to the support of a massive rail. The 24-year-old from Doncaster quickly pulled away and put tremendous pressure on Lampropulos before the duel ended with a bang after just 40 minutes.
Lampropulos shoved with kings and Mulhern called with ace-queen. The board came no higher than a nine and the rail exploded.
Final Result 2017 partypokerLIVE MILLIONS Dusk Till Dawn Main Event
Jacob Mulhern winner of the £100,000 Golden Chip last longer competition
Mulhern not only took home £650,000 for his second-place finish, but also another £100,000 on top of that after being the last man standing for all Caribbean Poker Party players that bagged up chips in Punta Cana last November.
'I'm chuffed,' he said. 'Maybe I could have folded at the end, but I'd struggle to fold ace-queen heads up. I didn't think she'd shove for that many big blinds with kings, to be honest. But it all spun from $22 online in a tournament. I can't believe it. It feels unbelievable.
'My life has changed. It's a massive amount of money for anybody to win, but for a lad like me of 24 it's huge. It means a lot to my family. Yesterday my phone was vibrating all day, they took it off me. It's gone so fast. People talk about getting tired playing poker. I've not felt tired once. It kept me going all day. I've loved it from start to finish.'
For five months, Mulhern continued to work and dream of his moment. Today, it came.
'Every time we talked about it with my mates, I've been saying '£1.1 million soon' and they'd laugh, but heads up then I was looking at them all thinking, 'There's a chance here.' I'm not disappointed at all, I thought I gave a really good account of myself.'
'The hardest opponent was Stevie [Chidwick] - he's a huge player,' she said. 'I have no words, because he's better than so many players, I was afraid of him.'Coming into the final table, there was one man who Lampropulos wasn't looking forward to taking on.
Lampropulos had the support of her friends on the rail, and was cheered home by her poker-playing boyfriend Ivan Luca. It's clear how much the two rely on each and celebrate as equals in moments like the one we've just seen.
'It's important to have his support,' she said. 'I learned all that I know from Ivan and we play so much together. I'm next to him every day and I learned a lot. I can never be better than him but I'm happy.'
The day started with eight hopefuls remaining and short stack Stephen Chidwick turned two pair and doubled through Mateusz Rypulak's top pair.
Neel Murthy became the first casualty on the final table. Murthy picked the wrong timing to three-bet seven-five off suit out of the blinds, bet a ten-high flop and jam a blank on the turn only to see Lampropulos look him up with pocket kings to leave Murthy drawing dead.
The second woman on the final table, Katie Swift, saw her hopes destroyed within two big hands in quick succession. First, Chidwick doubled through Swift with ace-jack versus ace-king when a jack on the turn and the river gave Chidwick a full house. Then, Swift moved all in with pocket tens and was unfortunate enough to have Jeremy Pantin wake up with pocket queens in the small blind.
Chidwick would bow out just a few minutes later. After Pantin raised, the Brit got it in with ace-queen and Rypulak looked down at pocket kings in the big blind. Rypulak, who was the other player in the last longer competition, reshoved to isolate successfully and a ten-high board sent the most-accomplished finalist to the rail in sixth place for £150,000.
Down to the last five players, Jon Spinks was the shortest stack and wouldn't find an opportunity to chip up. His elimination came in brutal fashion, as Spinks jammed over the top of a raise by Lampropulos and a call by Pantin. While Lampropulos folded, Pantin called with ace-seven off suit and cracked the pocket kings of Spinks thanks to an ace in the window.
Rypulak, who started the final day with the chip lead, saw his stack plummet and he then defended the big blind with seven-eight suited.
On the three-way ten-high flop, Rypulak check-jammed with second pair and Lampropulos called with queen-ten suited for top pair. Another ten on the turn left Rypulak drawing dead and Mulhern's rail went wild as the last longer competition was decided.
ANOTHER TEN ON THE TURN LEFT RYPULAK DRAWING DEAD AND MULHERN'S RAIL WENT WILD AS THE LAST LONGER COMPETITION WAS DECIDED.
With three players remaining, the stacks were very similar. But then Pantin lost a lot of chips with two pair on the river against Mulhern's straight. Pantin then ran a big bluff against Lampropulos that would reduce his stack to zero.
Lampropulos limp-called the raise of Pantin out of the small blind with ace-three and check-called with bottom pair on the flop and two pair on the turn. A deuce on the river delivered a four-card straight and Pantin went for it with king-jack only, and Lampropulos called after long consideration.
The duel for the seven-figure score and trophy was very intense. Lampropulos fell back rather quickly, as Mulhern tried to push her around. Two bluff-catchers in a row with ace-high and second pair, however, gave Lampropulos a 2-1 lead and it was over three hands later. Mulhern three-bet with ace-queen and called the four-bet shove to run out dry against pocket kings.
This ends the PokerNews live reporting here from the Dusk Till Dawn, and poker enthusiasts can look forward to plenty of events coming up from the partypokerLIVE team.
The second woman on the final table, Katie Swift, saw her hopes destroyed within two big hands in quick succession. First, Chidwick doubled through Swift with ace-jack versus ace-king when a jack on the turn and the river gave Chidwick a full house. Then, Swift moved all in with pocket tens and was unfortunate enough to have Jeremy Pantin wake up with pocket queens in the small blind.
Chidwick would bow out just a few minutes later. After Pantin raised, the Brit got it in with ace-queen and Rypulak looked down at pocket kings in the big blind. Rypulak, who was the other player in the last longer competition, reshoved to isolate successfully and a ten-high board sent the most-accomplished finalist to the rail in sixth place for £150,000.
Down to the last five players, Jon Spinks was the shortest stack and wouldn't find an opportunity to chip up. His elimination came in brutal fashion, as Spinks jammed over the top of a raise by Lampropulos and a call by Pantin. While Lampropulos folded, Pantin called with ace-seven off suit and cracked the pocket kings of Spinks thanks to an ace in the window.
Rypulak, who started the final day with the chip lead, saw his stack plummet and he then defended the big blind with seven-eight suited.
On the three-way ten-high flop, Rypulak check-jammed with second pair and Lampropulos called with queen-ten suited for top pair. Another ten on the turn left Rypulak drawing dead and Mulhern's rail went wild as the last longer competition was decided.
ANOTHER TEN ON THE TURN LEFT RYPULAK DRAWING DEAD AND MULHERN'S RAIL WENT WILD AS THE LAST LONGER COMPETITION WAS DECIDED.
With three players remaining, the stacks were very similar. But then Pantin lost a lot of chips with two pair on the river against Mulhern's straight. Pantin then ran a big bluff against Lampropulos that would reduce his stack to zero.
Lampropulos limp-called the raise of Pantin out of the small blind with ace-three and check-called with bottom pair on the flop and two pair on the turn. A deuce on the river delivered a four-card straight and Pantin went for it with king-jack only, and Lampropulos called after long consideration.
The duel for the seven-figure score and trophy was very intense. Lampropulos fell back rather quickly, as Mulhern tried to push her around. Two bluff-catchers in a row with ace-high and second pair, however, gave Lampropulos a 2-1 lead and it was over three hands later. Mulhern three-bet with ace-queen and called the four-bet shove to run out dry against pocket kings.
This ends the PokerNews live reporting here from the Dusk Till Dawn, and poker enthusiasts can look forward to plenty of events coming up from the partypokerLIVE team.
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Maria Lampropulos Poker Bio
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