2021 WSOP Winter Circuit Online: India’s Aniket Waghmare, China’s Wei Guo Liang, and Italy’s Dario Sammartino among the first six ring winners

Shortly after completing live events in the USA and Europe, the World Series of Poker kicked off another lucrative festival, the 2021 WSOP Winter Circuit Online, currently underway at online platform Natural8 on the GG Network. The series boasts a massive US$ 100 Million in guaranteed prize pools, 18 Circuit Rings, and a 1 Million Dollar Freeroll. The festival opened on December 12 and will run through January 10. Headlining the series is the $525 Main Event featuring a US$ 5 Million guarantee. Day 1 flights begin on December 27. 

After ten days of games, the first six rings have been claimed. Among the early champions were two Asian players, Aniket “lockstock” Waghmare from India and bracelet holder Wei Guo “SPARK1207” Liang from China. Other winners were Spain’s Adria Faura Calonge, Latvia’s Vladimirs “justVOL” Sarigins, Serbia’s Nenad “O O L” Djukic, and Italian pro Dario Sammartino who banked the biggest first prize payout of US$ 740,917 for his victory at the $10,300 Super MILLION$. We’ve got those results for you below. 

Ring #1: BIG 50 MILLION$ – ANIKET “lockstock” WAGHMARE – US$ 89,738

India’s Aniket “lockstock” Waghmare is having the most incredible run of his poker career. On opening night of the WSOPC, Waghmare outlasted 3,127 Day 2 players of Event #1: BIG 50 MILLION$ to lock up his first ever circuit ring and turn his measly US$ 50 buy in into a career high score of US$ 89,738. That same night, Waghmare also took down the network’s GGMasters freezeout event, defeating 3,620 players for an added US$ 56,947 in winnings. In just that one evening, he collected a combined US$ 146,685, which easily surpassed his total tournament earnings on other networks. 

Briefly reviewing the event, the cheap buy-in attracted 23,667 across 80 Day 1 flights with a crowd of 3,128 advancing to Day 2. Out of the many Asians that dipped into the US$ 1,088,682 pot, five were at the final table. Aside from the champion Waghmare were two Taiwanese players, well known decorated pro En Ching “Pizza Hut” Wu aka Jack Wu who finished in 3rd place for US$ 50,463 and Wen Chi “Rebirth_fish” Wang in 8th place for US$ 11,966. Hong Kong was also represented by player “TUTUTUTUTUTUTU” who placed 7th for US$ 15,958, and female player Nana “Nanacharachan” Sanechika from Japan who faced Waghmare at heads up. Although she didn’t pull off the win, she did pocket a career high US$ 67,924. This was another strong performance by Sanechika who last month placed 30th at the 2021 WSOP Min Main Event in Las Vegas. 

Date: December 5 to December 13
Buy in: US$ 50
Guarantee: US$ 1,000,000
Entries: 23,667
Day 2 qualifiers: 3,128
Prize pool: US$ 1,088,682
ITM: 2,400 places

Final table payouts

1st Aniket “lockstock” Waghmare – India – US$ 89,738
2nd Nana “Nanacharachan” Sanechika – Japan – US$ 67,294
3rd En Ching “Pizza Hut” Wu – Taiwan – US$ 50,463
4th Sergio “TonyGPT” Veloso – Portugal – US$ 37,842
5th “Jacob25” – Brazil – US$ 28,377
6th Noam “lamalo21” Garama – Israel – US$ 21,280
7th “TUTUTUTUTUTUTU” – Hong Kong – US$ 15,958
8th Wen Chi “Rebirth_fish” Wang – Taiwan – US$ 11,966
9th “Vali999acv” – Romania – US$ 8,973

Ring #2: BIG 500 No Limit Hold’em – ADRIA FAURA CALONGE – US$ 251,427

Also running on opening day was Event #2: BIG 500 No Limit Hold’em $2M guaranteed which saw an overlay of US$ 236,800. Out of the 3,712 entrants, the top 440 earned a cut. Spain’s Adria Faura Calonge shipped it to lock up the ring and collect the largest payout of US$ 251,427. Based on Calonge’s tracked scores, this may well have been his biggest takedown yet and he did so by firing just one bullet. Among the Asian players in the money, Korean player “outofmind” ran the deepest of 15th place for US$ 10,004, then two days later, added a 37th place finish at Event #3: Deepstack Championship for US$ 5,597. Other notable Asians in the top 100 were two bracelet holders, Abhinav “OBellaCiao” Iyer (48th for US$ 4,766) and Wei Guo “SPARK1207” Liang (49th for US$ 4,766), and notable player Thailand’s Thananat Therdtakoonrat (51st for US$ 4,766). 

Date: December 12 to 13
Buy in: US$ 500
Guarantee: US$ 2,000,000
Entries: 3,712
Prize pool: US$ 2,000,000
Overlay: US$ 236,800
ITM: 440 places

Final table payouts

1st Adria Faura Calonge – Spain – US$ 251,427
2nd Rafael “OpalaPreto” Monteiro – Brazil – US$ 188,544
3rd Julian “don chimbo” Pineda – Colombia – US$ 141,388
4th “Badungz” – Luxembourg – US$ 106,026
5th Gal “glgltz” Bar – Israel – US$ 79,508
6th “Lakshmi47” – Malta – US$ 59,622
7th “Katykhin_M” – Ukraine – US$ 44,710
8th Roman “prororo” Ro – Russia – US$ 33,528
9th Harald “OscartheCon” Sammer – Austria – US$ 25,142

Ring #3: $1,500 Deepstack Championship – WEI GUO “SPARK1207” LIANG – US$ 182,219

Having just cashed at the previous event, China’s Wei Guo “SPARK1207” Liang went on to close out Event #3: $1,500 Deepstack Championship to claim his first circuit ring and the US$ 182,219 champion’s payout. This was another big achievement by the Chinese pro who boasts a gold bracelet won back at the 2018 WSOP Little One for One Drop event where he also claimed his largest career score of US$ 559,332. Going even further back, in 2016, Liang won the Tencent Poker Tournament Main Event for US$ 287,340. To date, he has over US$ 1.4 Million in live tournament earnings and over US$ 900K in GGPoker winnings. 

The third ring event drew 888 entries, which was more than enough to exceed the US$ 1 Million guarantee for a richer US$ 1,265,400 prize pool. The top 116 players got paid. Among the Asians running deep was India’s Neel Joshi in 28th place for US$ 3,123. Other than Liang, Bulgaria’s Ognyan “fizoka” Dimov was the only other bracelet holder to reach the final table. He finished 9th for US$ 22,737. 

Date: December 14 to 15
Buy in: US$ 1,500
Guarantee: US$ 1,000,000
Entries: 888
Prize pool: US$ 1,265,400
ITM: 116 places

Final table payouts

1st Wei Guo “SPARK1207” Liang – China – US$ 182,219
2nd “GGrizzly” – Russia – US$ 140,479
3rd “always have it” – United Arab Emirates – US$ 108,300
4th Simon Mattsson – Sweden – US$ 83,492
5th Andrija “bzvz” Robovic – Serbia – US$ 64,367
6th Arkadiusz “Noksukow” Liszewski – Poland – US$ 49,622
7th Lucas Greenwood – Canada – US$ 38,256
8th “HappyLove1306” – Slovenia – US$ 29,492
9th Ognyan “fizoka” Dimov – Bulgaria – US$ 22,737

Ring #4: SUPER SIX Bounty NLH – VLADIMIRS “justVOL” SARIGINS – US$ 86,481

1,733 headhunters turned up for Event #4: SUPER SIX Bounty No Limit Hold’em to crush the US$ 600K guarantee in exchange for a sweeter US$ 987,810 prize pool. A long list of Asian players ran well with China’s Yunlong “maxiajiang” Qian taking it to victory’s doorstep however he could not get past Latvia’s Vladimirs “justVOL” Sarigins who finally captured the elusive ring and the US$ 86,481 first prize. Included in that payout was US$ 48,164 in bounties. Three months prior, Sarigins was denied the ring at Event #32: $1,050 GGMasters HR Freezeout falling in 2nd place to Hong Kong’s Ren “TonyLin008” Lin. The win marks Sarigins first ever series title. He also reached the final table of WSOPC side event $365 GIANT, placing 6th out of 782 for US$ 10,521. Taiwanese online player Chin Wei “davidchien88” Chien also found his way to the final table but missed his bid for a second WSOP ring having busted in 5th place. 

Date: December 16 to 17
Buy in: US$ 600
Guarantee: US$ 600,000
Entries: 1,733
Prize pool: US$ 987,810
ITM: 242 places

Final table payouts

1st Vladimirs “justVOL” Sarigins – Latvia – US$ 86,481
2nd Yunlong “maxiajiang” Qian – China – US$ 49,010
3rd Ivan “uPayMyOnix” Limeira – Brazil – US$ 46,516
4th “FiiL” – Brazil – US$ 31,762
5th Chin Wei “davidchien88” Chien – Taiwan – US$ 20,957
6th “Fatipro” – Cyprus – US$ 15,073
7th Jon Proudfoot – UK – US$ 12,701

Ring #5: $10,300 Super MILLION$ High Roller NLH – DARIO SAMMARTINO – US$ 740,917

Last night, Italian pro Dario Sammartino took down Event #5: $10,300 Super MILLION$ High Roller No Limit Hold’em, which was the most expensive ring event of the series. He entered the final table running third in chips, then at five handed, he shipped a three way with defeating Russia’s “Topgrek” and chip leader David Miscikowski’s to skyrocket to the top. From there, he proceeded to eliminate the remaining players to pocket the monster US$ 740,917 first prize and circuit gold ring. 

Sammartino has consistently run well on the GG network with over US$ 8.1 Million in earnings. In April, he won the network’s Spring Festival $25,500 Super High Roller event for US$ 508,447. Three months later, he nearly clasped a bracelet at the WSOP Online [International] Monster Stack Freezeout event, falling short by one spot. On the live arena, Sammartino has collected over US$ 14.6 Million in winnings with his biggest score of US$ 6,000,000 earned at the 2019 WSOP Main Event for 2nd place. He claimed his first seven figure payout of US$ 1,608,295 at the 2017 WSOP $111,111 No Limit Hold’em High Roller for One Drop for 3rd place. 

Date: December 20 to 22
Buy in: US$ 10,300
Guarantee: US$ 3,000,000
Entries: 414
Prize pool: US$ 4,140,000
ITM: 50 places

The $10,300 Super MILLION$ High Roller drew 414 entries to bump up the US$ 3 Million guarantee to a juicier US$ 4,140,000 prize pool. Out of the 50 players that reached the money were notable Asian players, Lei “A LEI” Yang (27th for US$ 27,341) and Yen Liang “yao_poker” Yao (12th for US$ 40,439). Australia’s Vincent “Moist” Huang just missed the final table, exiting 10th for US$ 49,180. Bracelet holders Ognyan “fizoka” Dimov and Karolis “Internecik” Sereika both found their way into the final table. Sereika finished 7th and Dimov out in 4th place. Dimov was the first player to land a second final table in this series having placed 9th at Event #3: Deepstack Championship. 

Final table payouts

1st Dario Samartino – Italy – US$ 740,917
2nd Francisco Benitez – Uruguay – US$ 571,325
3rd David Miscikowski – USA – US$ 440,552
4th Ognyan “fizoka” Dimov – Bulgaria – US$ 339,712
5th “Topgrek” – Russia – US$ 261,954
6th Tyler “TheRayGuy” Cornell – USA – US$ 201,994
7th Karolis “Internecik” Sereika – Lithuania – US$ 155,758
8th Michael Dattani – Malta – US$ 120,106
9th Michael Watson – Canada – US$ 92,614

Ring #6: $400 COLOSSUS – NENAD “O O L” DJUKIC – US$ 368,421

The COLOSSUS event drew 9,624 entrants across 39 Day 1 flights, and at $400 buy in each, it easily smashed the US$ 2.5M guarantee for a larger prize pool of US$ 3,618,624. Only 1,320 advanced into Day 2 with the top 1,000 paid. While all eyes were on streamer Kevin Martin who entered the final table as chip leader, in the end, it was Serbian player Nenad “O O L” Djukic snatching up the gold ring and a career high payout of US$ 368,421. Djukic denied Hungary’s double ring holder Daniel “dodiapa” Heredi at heads up. Also at the final table was bracelet holder Nick Maimone who finished 7th. Noteworthy Asia Pacific players in the top 50 were Chinese players Fangzhou “leo17” Zhu (13th), Kaimin “UncrownedK” Shi (15th), and Lei “A LEI” Yang (20th), New Zealand’s Charlton “Value_Town” Hawes (16th), and India’s Raghav “TheCooon” Bansal (42nd). 

Date: December 12 to December 20
Buy in: US$ 400
Guarantee: US$ 2,500,000
Entries: 9,624
Day 2 qualifiers: 1,320
Prize pool: US$ 3,618,624
ITM: 1,000 places

Final table payouts

1st Nenad “O O L” Djukic – Serbia – US$ 368,421
2nd Daniel “dodiapa” Heredi – Hungary – US$ 276,277
3rd Kevin Martin – Canada – US$ 207,178
4th Luis “CfOrTh3G0ldB” Dono – Portugal – US$ 155,362
5th Aliaksei Boika – Cyprus – US$ 116,505
6th “chernis” – Austria – US$ 87,366
7th Nick Maimone – Canada – US$ 65,515
8th “Borpa” – Netherlands – US$ 49,129
9th Hannes Speiser – USA – US$ 36,842

Stay tuned to Somuchpoker as we bring you the next batch of WSOP Winter Circuit Online ring winners.