WPT Online Series: Fabio Sperling Wins WPT500 For $281,125

It has been a smashing opening for the World Poker Tour (WPT) Online Series, making its inaugural run at partypoker! In the opening week itself, the series registered north of 40,000 entries across 27 events, and awarded over $25 million in prize money!

Echoing the sentiment, WPT CEO Adam Pliska said, “The WPT Online Series success thus far is a testament to the demand of poker at all buy-in levels and an incredibly creative collaboration with our friends at partypoker. This marks a major milestone in bringing nearly two decades of legacy online, and you can bet this will become a more important component of our tournament schedule in the future.”

Following on the footsteps of Sweden’s Niklas Astedt, who took down Event #15 $1,050 Weekender for his career’s sixth-largest cash worth $174,751 on Sunday, was Fabio Sperling, who started the week on a high note by taking down the first of the series’ three flagship events, the $530 buy-in WPT500.

Making its debut online run, the WPT500 attracted a staggering field of 4,828 entries over 10 starting flights, collecting $2.4 Million in the prize pool. The turnout is the second-largest field in the tournament’s history.

Sperling had entered the final table with a monster stack of 18.702 Million, second only to Italy’s Walter Treccarichi, who commanded the chip lead with 18.966 Million in chips. The final table played out on Tuesday. A four-way chop eventually saw the title being handed out to Sperling, who walked away with a $281,125 payout. Treccarichi settled for the runner-up trophy and $235,666 in prize money. Austria’s Markus Prinz (3rd for $202,012) and Christopher Putz (4th for $187,289) were the other top finishers.

The series has crowned several other champions as well like Andrew Pantling ($10,300 PLO High Roller for $302,287), Wiktor Malinowski ($10,300 High Roller for $281,750), Hungary’s Norbert Scezcsi ($5,200 High Roller for $194,656.20) and Giuseppe Iadisernia ($2,650 NL Bounty Hunter for $135,000).

Meanwhile, the star attraction at this high-octane series, the $3,200 buy-in $5 Million guaranteed Main Event has begun proceedings. Till now, we have information only on Day 1A that logged in 808 entries. There are three more starting flights on tap, and the Main Event looks well on track to break the 1,795-entry record set at the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown in 2014!

WPT500 – Day 2

The $530 buy-in WPT500 attracted 4,828 entries across 10 starting flights. The field had trickled down to 681 qualifiers by the start of Day 2 on Monday. By the time the chips were bagged, only the final nine remained in contention.

Italy’s Walter Treccarich (18,966,747) ended the day in pole position, with Fabio Sperling (18,702,704) and Philipp Dietrich (18,212,576) rounding out the top three stacks on Day 2

Final Table Chip Counts

1. Walter Treccarich – 18,966,747

2. Fabio Sperling – 18,702,704

3. Philipp Dietrich – 18,212,576

4. Christopher Putz – 13,082,130

5. Markus Prinz – 12,825.148

6. Harutyun Sahakyan – 5,046,239

7. Fabrizio Gonazalez – 3,611,032

8. Giuseppe Vassallo – 2,784,224

9. Daan Mulders – 2,760,152

Final Table Recap

The final table began at 3 PM EDT on Tuesday. Fabrizo Gonzalez was the first casualty and bowed out in ninth place. The two other short stacks, Giuseppe Vassallo and Daan Mulders hit the rail next in eighth and seventh place, respectively.

Walter Treccarich dispatched Harutyun Sahakyan in sixth place.

Once Philipp Dietrich hit the rail in fifth place, the remaining four agreed to a deal that saw Sperling being named the champion!

Final Table Results (USD)

1. Fabio Sperling – $281,125*

2. Walter Treccarichi – $235,666*

3. Markus Prinz – $202,012*

4. Christopher Putz – $187,289*

5. Philipp Dietrich – $74,785

6. Arutyun Saakyan – $50,887

7. Daan Mulders – $35,799

8. Guiseppe Vassallo – $23,174

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