Nine Remain In $25,000 Main Event With Patrik Antonius at the Top
The $25,000 Main Event at the 2026 Onyx High Roller Series presented by Onyx Club has reached its final table after another day of poker inside the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa.
From a field of 207 built across three starting flights, just nine players remain, all chasing a share of the $4,968,000 prize pool and the staggering $1,150,000 top prize.
Heading into the final day with the chip lead is one of poker’s original legends, Patrik Antonius. The Finnish pro bagged 9,660,000, a huge turnaround after starting the day among the shorter stacks. Australia’s Geoffrey Mooney sits close behind with 8,380,000, while one of Bulgaria’s end bosses, Boris Kolev, rounds out the podium positions on 7,500,000.
Final Table Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Patrik Antonius | Finland | 9,660,000 | 81 |
| 2 | Geoffrey Mooney | Australia | 8,380,000 | 70 |
| 3 | Boris Kolev | Bulgaria | 7,500,000 | 63 |
| 4 | Mikalai Vaskaboinikau | Belarus | 5,040,000 | 42 |
| 5 | Matthias Lipp | Austria | 4,920,000 | 41 |
| 6 | Daniil Kiselev | Russian Federation | 4,850,000 | 40 |
| 7 | Ottomar Ladva | Estonia | 4,265,000 | 36 |
| 8 | Kirill Shcherbakov | Russian Federation | 4,135,000 | 34 |
| 9 | Jessica Teusl | Austria | 3,005,000 | 25 |
Day 2 Action
When cards hit the felt, 32 players were back in action, all having locked up at least a $50,000 min-cash and now turning their attention toward the final table. Espen Sandvik and Istvan Birizdo were the first to fall, heading out in quick succession, both due to cruel river cards.
It was a good start to the day for Antonius, who spiked the river to double through Daniel Rezaei, then followed it up just a few hands later by doubling through him again, this time with ace-king against Rezaei’s ace-queen. Artur Martirosian never really got anything going on Day 2 and eventually found himself forced all in holding nine-four offsuit, ending his run in the Main Event.
For Rezaei, it was a rough day that kept getting worse. Still wounded from handing Antonius two doubles, he then got it in good with pocket queens against Yulian Bogdanov’s king-queen, only to see a king fall and leave him short. Not long after, Mooney finished him off when his top pair after Rezaei held a striaght draw.
When the tournament redrew for the final three tables, Alexey Borovkov still held the chip lead, but that changed almost immediately. Ottomar Ladva sent Quan Zhou packing due to being on the right side of a flip, before Bogdanov and Biao Ding followed him out the door. Antonius then found pocket aces to score a huge double against Mikalai Vaskaboinikau’s queens.
Vaskaboinikau stayed unfazed, perhaps helped by the massage he enjoyed throughout the day, and soon bounced back by doubling with aces against Elias Gutierrez. A few hands later, he won a massive flip to knock out Day 1b chip leader Joni Jouhkimainen, while defending champion Fahredin Mustafov saw his title defense end after Kenar turned a straight against his top pair.
With the tournament down to two tables, Kolev pulled off one of the calls of the festival, staring straight into Kirill Shcherbakov's soul and finding a hero call that even earned a nod of approval from the only Poker Hall of Famer in the room, Antonius. On a four-diamond board, Kolev called Shcherbakov's big river bet holding nothing more than two black sixes, a call that sent his stack rocketing up toward the top of the counts.
Not long after, Russia’s online cash-game wizard and poker streamer Borovkov four-bet jammed pocket nines into Antonius’ cowboys to bow out in 12th place. Pieter Aerts soon followed, shoving blind-vs-blind for 24 big blinds and getting looked up by Kolev with the better ace, and this meant the tournament was down to the final table bubble.
Mooney and Jessica Teusl then tangled in a massive pot that ended in a textbook cooler. Mooney turned a full house, while Teusl turned a straight, and with all the chips going in, it was Mooney who came out on top to score a huge double and lock up second place on the leaderboard.
The bursting of the final table bubble soon followed. Kenar three-bet ripped his short stack in holding pocket threes, only for Daniil Kiselev to wake up with pocket sevens behind. The board ran out clean, sealing Kenar’s exit and officially setting the final table of the $25,000 Main Event, with Antonius leading the way.
The final table will begin at 1 p.m. on Saturday, February 6, inside the Onyx Club, with cards back in the air on Level 21 and 27 minutes remaining in the level. The action will be streamed on a 30-minute delay via the OnyxLiveTV YouTube channel, as the most sought-after NLH event of the festival plays down to a champion.
Final Table Payouts
| Place | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1 | $1,150,000 |
| 2 | $717,000 |
| 3 | $490,000 |
| 4 | $355,000 |
| 5 | $270,000 |
| 6 | $200,000 |
| 7 | $160,000 |
| 8 | $124,000 |
| 9 | $100,000 |
Be sure to tune back into PokerNews for all the coverage from the final day of the Main Event, with all the latest chip counts and action, as this tournament crowns a champion.