button in SafariMain Event Reaches Penultimate Day; Dvoress Among the Leaders
The 2021 WPT Online Series Main Event is down to only 23 players from a field of 1,065 and it is Sebastian Henao who holds the chip lead.
Henao hails from Colombia but gets down to grinding online poker from Mexico. He finished top of the chip counts at the conclusion of Day 2 thanks to accumulating 25,199,310 chips. Henao is now guaranteed at least $20,778 for his $3,200 investment, but that sum increases to $42,711 if he navigates his way to the final table on June 1. Should Henao go all the way and become the tournament’s champion, he will pad his bankroll with $526,561.
Second place at the restart, which happens at 7:05 p.m. BST on June 1, is Daniel Dvoress with 15,483,228 chips. Dvoress is an incredible player, one with almost $16 million in live poker tournament winnings, and is one of the favorites for glory in this major online event.
Dvoress has a history of winning big at partypoker. He won $614,000 by taking down a $25,500 buy-in event at the inaugural Super High Roller Bowl Online Series. Dvoress followed that up by triumphing in the WPT Montreal Mike Sexton Classic for an additional $294,346. Will he complete his hattrick in this tournament?
Neither Henao or Dvoress will have an easy ride if they want to become a WPT Online Series champion because there are some incredibly talented poker tournament players in the chasing pack.
All but one of those players in the top ten chip counts have eight-figure stacks; there is little to separate them right now. Fabiano Kovalski (15,218,061), WSOP bracelet winner Christian Rudolph (13,300,776), Rainer Kempe (12,742,432), and Goran Mandic (12,271,533) are just a handful of stellar names still in the hunt for the title.
Further down the counts you find one of the Day 1 chip leaders, Stoyan Obreshkov (8,216,427), Sergei Denisov (6,414,398), Martin Mulsow (5,987,328), Alexandros Kolonias (3,500,937), and Yuri Dzivielevski (3,057,305)
WPT #20 Main Event Day 2 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sebastian Henao | Mexico | 25,199,310 |
| 2 | Daniel Dvoress | Canada | 15,483,228 |
| 3 | Fabiano Kovalski | Brazil | 15,218,061 |
| 4 | Felipe Boianovsky | Brazil | 14,606,355 |
| 5 | Georgi Sandev | Bulgaria | 14,481,230 |
| 6 | Christian Rudolph | Austria | 13,300,776 |
| 7 | Rainer Kempe | Austria | 12,742,432 |
| 8 | Goran Mandic | Croatia | 12,271,533 |
| 9 | Marc Lange | Austria | 11,856,590 |
| 10 | [Removed:554] | Austria | 9,663,449 |
Play resumes at 7:05 p.m. BST on June 1 and continues until only nine of the 23 returnees remain. The tournament then paused for 24 hours before resuming at 7:05 p.m. BST and continuing until one player has all the chips in place. That player, whoever it shall be, gets to call themselves the WPT Online Series Main Event champion, an accolade that comes with $526,561 in prize money.