WSOP Main Event Online Title Won by Bert Stevens for $2.78 million
This week’s huge GGPoker event was a little bit special. In place of the usual GGMILLION$ was the World Series of Poker Online Main Event. With a $5,000 buy-in, the prize pool was a record-setting $28.6 million, and in the end, it was Bert Stevens, also known as ‘girafganger7’ who prevailed, winning one of the biggest-ever online WSOP top prizes in poker history.
Stevens Starts with Lead
With the final nine players featuring some of the best poker players on the planet, Stevens went into the final with the lead as he bid to win his first WSOP bracelet. Stevens’ stack of 103 big blinds saw the British player, playing from Austria, a little way clear of Dutch player Erik Bakker (90BB). Lukas Hafner (64BB) started a good way behind the dominant top two. Ezequiel Kleinman (43BB) was representing Argentina, while Uruguayan Ramiro Petrone was going for his second bracelet holding 42 big blinds.
Behind the top five, Chinese player Yagen Li (31BB), Fabian Rolli (29BB), Alexander Timoshenko (25BB), and Irish player Simon Wilson (22BB) brought up a strong rearguard action as no-one began with less than 20 big blinds. As it happened, it was the Irish player Simon Wilson who busted first in a tournament that could become a Guinness World Record holder for the biggest prize pool in an online poker tournament with a staggering prize pool of $28,609,250.
The first bust took place nearly 1.5 hours after the event started when Wilson moved all-in with ace-queen of diamonds pre-flop and was called by the chip leader Stevens who had pocket nines. The rainbow flop of K-K-4 kept the British player ahead, but a deuce of diamonds on the turn brought the diamonds flush draw. An offsuit deuce on the river let Wilson down, however, and the young player went home with a superb score of $251,073.
Bakker Plummets in Middle Stages
Thirty minutes later, with eight players still remaining, Swiss player Fabian Rolli ran out of luck and headed to the rail. From a field of 6,023 players, this was a superb effort, with his survival of a tough Day 2 seeing him make the final nine in healthy shape after 761 players had started the penultimate day of the event. Min-raising with pocket kings from the button to 3.2 million, he was overshadowed when Erik Bakker three-bet to 21.6 million with pocket queens in the small blind. Stevens in the big blind got out of the way, and Rolli shoved. Bakker made a quick call and was behind with five cards to come. A queen on the flop turned his luck and after a deuce on the turn and three on the river, Rolli was heading to the showers with $339,032.
That pot put Bakker in solidly in second place, 75 million chips behind the leader Stevens and 75 million ahead of Ramiro Petrone in 3rd. Just 12 hands later, Austrian Lukas Hafner lost with ace-queen to Yahen Li’s pocket kings on a queen-high board to cash for $457,864 in seventh. A few rotations later, Bakker moved all-in with ace-king. Sadly for him, he ran into Stevens with pocket kings and the queen-high board sent the Dutchman from the final table. Cashing for $618,406, he had lost the most pivotal pot of the latter stages of the event and gave Bert Stevens a commanding lead.
Stevens Sees it Home for First Bracelet
With five players still remaining after two and a half hours, the action was almost guaranteed to be fast and furious. This was due to the sheer magnitude of Stevens’ lead, as he held 223 million chips, over 60% of the chips in play, for an overwhelming advantage over the field. Second in chips at that stage was Yagen Li with 55.6 million, while Timohenko (32m), Kleinman (25.5m) and Petrone (21m) were all trailing as short stacks.
Next to go was the Russian Timoshenko. All-in for just one big blind with ten-seven offsuit, he lost to Steven’s ace-jack of clubs for a result worth $835,303. Ramiro Petrone failed to add another bracelet to his collection when his king-ten of hearts lost to Li’s pocket jacks for a fourth-place finish worth $1,128,331.
Three left, but it was effectively two, with Kleinman extremely short was all-in with six-four in the big blind lost to Stevens’ pocket fives. The Argentinian won $1,524,214 in third, as Stevens went into the heads-up with just under a 6:1 chip lead. A couple of hands in, it was all over, as Li was committed with ace-queen against Bert Stevens’ pocket sixes. Stevens hand held to win his first-ever WSOP bracelet and a massive top prize of $2,783,432. Chinese player Yagen Li made “the absolute most of what he was given” in the words of co-commentator Ali Nejad on the live stream presented by Jeff Gross, winning $2,059,058 in second place.
You can watch all the action right here:
GGPoker WSOP Online Main Event 2023 Final Table Results: |
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| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1st | Bert Stevens | United Kingdom | $2,783,432 |
| 2nd | Yagen Li | China | $2,059,058 |
| 3rd | Ezequiel Kleinman | Argentina | $1,524,214 |
| 4th | Ramiro Petrone | Uruguay | $1,128,331 |
| 5th | Alexander Timoshenko | Russia | $835,303 |
| 6th | Eric Bakker | Netherlands | $618,406 |
| 7th | Lukas Hafner | Austria | $457,864 |
| 8th | Fabian Rolli | Switzerland | $339,032 |
| 9th | Simon Wilson | Ireland | $251,073 |
About the Author: Paul Seaton has written about poker for over 10 years, interviewing some of the best players ever to play the game such as Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Chan and Phil Hellmuth. Over the years, Paul has reported live from tournaments such as the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas and the European Poker Tour. He has also written for other poker brands where he was Head of Media, as well as BLUFF magazine, where he was Editor.