The flagship event of the 2020 WPT World Online Championships: $10,300 NLH Main Event is in the books with British pro Phillip Mighall taking it down after an epic final day to claim his first WPT title and $1,550,298, the largest score of his poker career. He beat out a strong field of 1,011 entries, including Teun Mulder (runner-up for $1,396,968) from Netherlands. With the grand win, Mighall became the latest player to have his name inscribed on the WPT Mike Sexton Champions Cup.
On his way to the victory in the tournament, Mighall outlasted a tough field of great poker pros, including online poker legend Benjamin Rolle (“bencb789”), Ali Imsirovic, and WPT Champion Dan Smith. The tournament featuring a $10,000,000 guarantee ran on Partypoker and lasted four days. The guarantee was smashed with the strong turnout resulting in a final prize pool of $10,110,000.
The top 136 players were paid out in the tournament, with plenty of big names cashing including Jason Koon (131st – $23,253), Jake Schindler (130th – $23,253), Mike Watson (120th – $25,275), Steve O’Dwyer (118th – $25,275), Isaac haxton (93rd – $27,297), Timothy Adams (81st – $29,319), two-time bracelet winner Chance Kornuth (60th – $35,385), WPT champion Dan Smith (54th – $37,407), three-time bracelet winner Upeshka De Silva (17th – $58,638), three-time bracelet winner Davidi Kitai (14th – $78,858), and high-stakes regular Artur Martirosian (10th place – $103,122) to name a few.
On the final day, Argentina’s Damian Salas entered the final table with the chip lead, while the eventual champion Mighall began with the second-largest stack. Eliminations were a bit quick as the big stacks applied pressure and the short stacks had to make their moves. Laszlo Molnar was the first to exit FT, with an all-in move with ace-jack losing to Victor Simionato’s pocket jacks. He was followed by Finnish player Akseli Paalanen whose Ace-King was bested by Simionato’s ladies.
The next elimination came in Bert Stevens who ran his Q-10 into A-5 of Blaz Zerjav. Following him was the 2016 European Poker Tour Dublin main event winner Dzmitry Urbanovich whose run came to an end when his A-K was outflopped by A-Q of Teun Mulder. The two players got all-in preflop and the board ran out Qh 9h 8d 5h Jc. Urbanovich got eliminated in sixth place from the tournament.
After the eventual champion Mighall busting Damian Salas in third place, the play eventually came down to the heads-up where it was Mighall holding roughly a 5:3 chip lead. The two exchanged the lead with chips going back-and-forth but it was Mighall who eventually emerged as the champion.
Mulder holding pocket aces on the final hand got extremely unlucky. Mighall three-bet pre-flop with 10-7 and his opponent slow-played his pocket rockets. An ace did come on the flop Ad Jh 9s, giving Mulder a set, but the 8h on the turn gave Mighall the title and Mulder to settle in second place.
The two players had agreed to a chop. As per the chop, Mighall earned $1,550,298, while Mulder banked $1,396,968. The WPT World Online Championships continues on Saturday with the $25,500 High Roller Championship, followed by the $102,000 Super High Roller on September 23.
Final Table Payouts
1 Phillip Mighall -$1,550,298
2 Teun Mulder – $1,396,968
3 Damian Salas – $814,663
4 Blaz Zerjav – $552,006
5 Victor Simionato – $391,257
6 Dzmitry Urbanovich – $277,014
7 Bert Stevens – $194,112
8 Akseli Paalanen – $153,672
9 Laszlo Molnar – $127,386