Oh my, the winners are starting to get big, and the young pros seem to be doing the most damage. At least in the past several days. Here are some notable victories that caught the attention of our CardsChat News team, for the week ending Saturday, March 13, 2021:
Michael Addamo
Partypoker Millions Online
Mega High Roller
$1,310,715
Addamo could be one of the most underrated pros, and he keeps adding to his winnings, both live and online. The 27-year-old Australian known as “Imluckbox” (except at Party, where high-stakes tourneys require real names) played this 2-day, $100K buy-in event from the UK. Thirty-five players total. Heads-up vs. Florian Loehnert lasted one hand. Addamo’s virtual trophy case includes online tournament wins in WCOOP, a Sunday Million, the 202o WPT Online Championship, and four GGPoker Super Millions. In January 2021, he beat more than 8,700 players to win a gold ring in the WSOP Circuit winter online Colossus. In IRL poker, Addamo has two WSOP bracelets.
Qing Liu
WPT Venetian
Las Vegas
$752,880
On Tuesday, Liu shipped the $5,000 WPT Venetian main event for nearly $753K. He was in town, however, primarily to complete the WPT Gardens Poker Championship, which had been delayed 14 months thanks to COVID-19. That gave him the opportunity to pull off something truly historic in poker — winning two World Poker Tour titles in less than 24 hours. Alas, it didn’t work out that way. At the WPT Gardens final table, he finished fifth for $111,795.
Markus Gonsalves
WPT Gardens Poker Championship
Gardens Casino → PokerGo Studio
Los Angeles → Las Vegas
$554,495
Gonsalves got to play spoiler at this final table, which had been set 14 months ago in California. By the time the last six in a field of 257 had arrived at the PokerGo Studio in Las Vegas (as originally planned pre-COVID), all eyes were on Qing Liu. But Gonsalves, a cash game specialist from San Diego, got to play spoiler in this $10,000 World Poker Tour event. He performed a masterful finishing act to take down the title in what we’re pretty sure (haven’t confirmed with Guinness yet) was the longest poker tournament in history. Beyond the pandemic delay, heads-up play against Tuan Phan lasted a grueling three hours.
Fedor Holz
‘CrownUpGuy’
Face-Off Challenge
GGPoker
$90,374.98
After all the trash-talking between the two competitors concluded, Holz and Wiktor Malinowski (Limitless) finally squared off in a brief but entertaining No-Limit Hold’em heads-up duel online. In the end, through four sessions and 1,885 hands of $100/$200 NLH, Holz took home the win, pocketing more than $90K. The German poker sensation added to his impressive resume, which includes more than $32 million in live tournament cashes. And he’s still only 27 years old.
Chris Moneymaker
‘MONEYMAKER’
BOSS 8-Max High Roller
Americas Cardroom
$26,875
Just six weeks into his stint as the new face of Americas Cardroom, Moneymaker binked his first tourney on ACR. The 2003 WSOP Main Event champ beat a field of 197 in the Bigger Online Super Series Event #4, a $630 8-Max High Roller. He did it with coaching help from WPT legend Faraz Jaka.
Rob Shulman
‘RShulman’
International Women’s Day Charity Tournament
GGPoker
$1,100
GGPoker did its bit for International Women’s Day this week by hosting a $9+1 charity event, with the $1 (and $10K extra from GG) going to three charities: The Pink Ribbon Foundation, The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation, and the National Breast Cancer Research Institute Ireland. It came with a $10K guarantee, creating a small overlay on 950 buy-ins. Online grinder RShulman won the event and picked up a $100 bounty along the way by eliminating GGPoker Twitch streamer Koray Turker (aka “KakiTee”).
