Phil Mighall won the World Poker Tour World Online Championship Main Event yesterday. The British pro was the second chip leader going into the final table. And he more or less stayed in that spot throughout play. Finally jumping into the lead when he eliminated Damian Salas in 3rd place.
Mighall took home $1,550,298 for his first-place finish. Sharp readers will spot that this is lower than the first place prize that was initially advertised as $1,715,667.
The lower figure reflects a deal cut during heads up play with Teun Mulder. Mulder haggled himself to a $1,396,968 payday.
Shuffle up and deal
Play kicked off promptly, with a delayed stream following a few minutes behind. Play was pretty measured at first. There were no stacks under 21 big blinds so players had some room to maneuver.
The final table had an oddly by rote quality to it at first.
The opening casualty of the day was Laszlo Molnar. He went out with a pre-flop all-in with AJ against JJ. He missed all three aces.
Then Akseli Paalanen got it all in with AK v. QQ. A classic coinflip that landed wrong side up for Paalanen.
Bert Stevens was next out. And following him went partypoker's sponsored pro: Dzmitry Urbanovich. He hit the bricks in sixth.
Simianato was next, turning his $22 satellite entry into $391,257. Not bad for a week's work.
Blaz Zerjav went out in fourth with unimproved pocket sixes versus unimproved pocket kings. And that just left Salas to bust out, before we were down to heads up play between Mighall and Mulder.
Mano a mano
Heads up play started with Mighall out in front, with a 125.6 million to 75.2 million chip lead.
Mulder managed to chip away at that lead and pull out in front. But he handed the lead back when he paid off Mighall’s paired K-Q with pocket sixes. Mighall slow-played his bigger pair and caught trips on the river calling bets on every street.
That hand meant that Mulder was covered when he picked up pocket threes and raised from the button. Mighall re-raised rather speculatively with T-7.
The flop gave Mulder a set and Mighall a straight draw. Mighall threw out a c-bet semi-bluff and a confident Mulder called.
His slow play allowed Mighall to fill his straight up though, which Mulder only discovered when he called Mighall's all in. Mulder needed — but didn’t get — a paired board to win.
Mulder takes $1,396,968 million as a consolation prize.
Final table results
1st – Phil Mighall – $1,550,298*
2nd – Teun Mulder – $1,396,968*
3rd – Damian Salas – $814,663
4th – Blaz Zerjav – $552,006
5th – Victor Simionato – $391,257
6th – Dzmitry Urbanovich – $277,014
7th – Bert Stevens – $194,112
8th – Akseli Paalanen – $153,672
9th – Laszlo Molnar – $127,386
