WPT Spring Festival – Poker King: “DannyAce66” wins the Main Event for US$ 270,300; Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, Jean Robert Bellande, Nick Petrangelo reach ITM

The WPT Spring Festival wrapped up its twelve-day online series that ran from February 11 to 22 at sponsor Poker King app. For those in attendance, money flowed daily with CN￥2,000,000 (~US$ 310,880) guaranteed across 12 tournaments and a whopping CN￥10,000,000 (~US$ 1,554,390) paid out at the highlighted Main Event. We’ve got the results for you just below.

For those that missed it, the Main Event Final Table streamed live in four languages on multiple platforms:

WPT YouTube & Twitch (English): Nick Petrangelo and Daniel Dvoress
PokerGuru (Hindi): Mohsin Charania and Nipun Java
VietContent (Vietnamese): Tran Duc Hung and Steven Nguyen
PokerFang (Chinese): Celina Lin and Xuan Liu

As stated on the WPT site, ”On February 25 at 1pm EST / 6pm GMT, the final table will be rebroadcast on PlutoTV’s platforms in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. Even after all that, the final table of the WPT Spring Festival will be available on additional online platforms including, but not limited to, Samsung TV Plus, STIRR, Freecast, Vizio, and the WatchWPT app.”

“This event is a testament to the growing WPT global audience and we are grateful for the international support,” said Adam Pliska, CEO of the World Poker Tour.

WPT Main Event – DANNYACE66 – CN￥ 1,750,000 (~US$ 270,300)

The biggest winner of the festival was player “DannyAce66” who shipped the WPT Main Event for CN￥ 1,750,000 (~US$ 270,300). This win will certainly be unforgettable for the champ given that the buy in was just CN￥2,000 (~US$ 311). DannyAce66 entered the final table running 3rd in chips, railroaded four players that included Tianxingjian at heads up.

Dates: February 17 to February 22
Buy in: CN￥2,000 (~US$ 311)
Guarantee: CN￥10,000,000 (~US$ 1,554,390 )
Entries: 3,505
Prize pool: CN￥10,000,000 (~US$ 1,554,390 )
ITM: 550 places

Final table payouts

1st DannyAce66 – CN￥ 1,750,000 (~US$ 270,300)
2nd Tianxingjian – CN￥ 980,000 (~US$ 151,370)
3rd Sojo – CN￥ 730,000 (~US$ 112,760)
4th Yuyouqianshuijian – 530,000 (~US$ 81,870)
5th Mysterious11 – CN￥ 430,000 (~US$ 66,420)
6th Nengfeifei – CN￥330,000 (~US$ 50,970)
7th YeyeDowneyJrYKY – CN￥230,000 (~US$ 35,530)
8th Yuchuan – CN￥120,000 (~US$ 18,530)

Starting Day recaps and Invited Stars

The WPT Main Event drew 3,505 entries across three starting days. Day 1A brought in the largest of 1,318 entries, Day B had 1,094, and Day 1C with 1,093. With each entry contributing the CN￥2,000 (~US$ 311) buy in, it was great value for the players with an overlay of around CN￥3 million. To add to the excitement invited stars joined the action, and for every fallen star, the winning player received a CN￥1,500 (~US$ 233) bounty reward.

Day 1A was graced by Scotty Nguyen, Stephen Chidwick, Allen Iverson, Brad Owen, Andrew Neeme, Matt Savage, and Lynn Gilmartin. Only Nguyen and Chidwick were among the 265 players that survived. At Day 1B, invited stars in action were Poker King ambassador Tom Dwan, Tony Dunst, Jean Robert Bellande, and Matt Savage who was back for his second attempt. Bellande was the lone star survivor among the 260 that held on to chips. At Day 1C, another six stars made an appearance. On the virtual felt were Phil Hellmuth, Nick Petrangelo, Daniel Dvoress, Andy Milonakis, Matt Savage for his third attempt, and Poker King ambassador Phil Ivey who also played the SD Championship where he cashed out in 20th place. Ivey, Hellmuth, and Petrangelo were among the 251 Day 1C survivors.

Day 2 and Day 3 recap

Day 2 opened with 776 players. Payouts began at 550th place. Day 1A stars Chidwick and Nguyen fell before the money. Bellande, Hellmuth, and Ivey cashed in CN￥6,000 (~US$ 927) each, while Petrangelo lasted the longest, exiting in 157th place for CN￥9,000 (~US$ 1,390). The heat closed with 43 players led by “samurs561”. On Day 3, the game played down to the final 8. Mysterious11 closed with the biggest stack.

Mysterious11 – 33,120,635 – 47 bb
Sojo – 24,764,524 – 35 bb
DannyAce66 – 23,733,185 – 34 bb
Tianxingjian – 19,528,066 – 28 bb
YeyeDowneyJrYKY – 13,510,843 – 19 bb
Yuyouqianshuijian – 11,897,633 – 17 bb
Yuchuan – 7,196,556 – 10 bb
Nengfeifei – 6,448,558 – 9 bb

Final table rundown

Immediate action at the final table resulted in five players eliminated within the first 25 minutes. Commentating at WPT YouTube were Nick Petrangelo and Daniel Dvoress with WPT host Lynn Gilmartin and WPT Executive Tour Director Matt Savage dropping in. First hand, shortest stacked Nengfeifei doubled up through Yuyouqianshuijian with outdrawing . Not so fortunate though for shover Yuchuan who entered running second to the bottom with 10 bb. Yuchuan hoped to scoop a double with against recently chunked Yuyouqianshuijian , however, the ace showed up to further cripple Yuchuan. Yuchuan proceeded to lose the rest to DannyAce66 with dominated by . Just before the next bust, entering chip leader Mysterious11 almost had it but was rivered by Sojo . This gave Sojo a big lead. Next showdown, DannyAce66 claimed a second victim in YeyeDowneyJrYKY who defended on the big blind with a push, however button DannyAce66 was not bluffing with that dominated throughout.

With six remaining, Tianxingjian went on a knock out spree. Tianxingjian delivered a nasty bad beat bust to Nengfeife when turned set against . Minutes later, Tianxingjian claimed a second player’s stack by booting Mysterious11 who four-bet shoved from UTG with that still couldn’t push out Tianxingjian with . The board ran for a nut flush to Tianxingjian. To bring the table down to three, Tianxingjian’s held against Yuyouqianshuijian’s .

Three handed

Three handed was the longest round running for nearly 45 minutes. During that time, the lead bounced from Sojo to Tianxingjian then to DannyAce66 who never relinquished. It was a game changer double up for DannyAce66 with turned set against Sojo’s top pair on a board . This sent Sojo plunging to below 10 bb, and though he recovered to a healthy stack, Sojo still met the end in 3rd place with DannyAce66 giving the boot. Sojo shoved with that didn’t get past .

Heads up

The final showdown opened with DannyAce66 up 3:1 against Tianxingjian. In bb count, Tianxingjian had 25 bb to DannyAce66’s 75 bb. It took only eight minutes for DannyAce66 to nail it shut. The final hand button DannyAce66 raised, bb Tianxingjian defended. At the flop , DannyAce66 c-bet, Tianxingjian check-raised, DannyAce66 called. The turn . Tianxingjian pushed top pair, DannyAce66 called with overpair. The river was .