The Heads-Up Match Lasted One Hand. Dvoress Had Pocket Threes and Made a Wheel.

Today's Big Question

What happened

Daniel Dvoress won the $30,000 no-limit hold'em eight-max event at Triton Jeju II on September 9, beating 135 entries and a $4,050,000 prize pool for $942,000 and his seventh trident trophy. He took a 4.5 to 1 chip lead into heads-up play against Xuan Liu and needed one deal to finish it. The chips went in preflop. Dvoress held the three of spades and the three of clubs, Liu the king of hearts and the queen of spades. The board came jack of hearts, four of diamonds, two of clubs, ace of spades, five of hearts. Dvoress made a wheel. Liu took $638,000 for second, the second-largest score of her career. It was the second time the two Canadians had played heads-up for a Triton title, making them the first pair in the tour's history to do it twice. Last spring in Montenegro, Liu won that match and $860,000 and became the first woman ever to win a Triton event.

Why it matters

Dvoress started this year with two Triton titles. He has seven. Three of them came inside a single series at Montenegro, worth more than $3.2 million together, and this is the first live poker he has played since. Seven wins ties him with Michael Watson and Matthias Eibinger for second on the tour's all-time list, behind only Jason Koon on twelve. His career cashes now stand at $59.3 million. That leaves him $592,000 short of the tenth spot on poker's all-time money list, held by Daniel Negreanu, who spent Monday busting a Circuit main event in 99th place for the price of a used car.

In the Spotlight

Stephen Chidwick Busted in Fifth and Crossed $80 Million on the Walk to the Payout Desk

What happened

Chidwick got the last of his chips in with the ace of spades and the king of diamonds against the jack of hearts and jack of clubs of Gytis Lazauninkas at the Triton Jeju II $30,000 final table. Lazauninkas rivered a set of jacks and Chidwick finished fifth for $279,000. That $279,000 carried him past $80 million in career live tournament earnings, making him the second player in the history of the game to get there. He sits on $80,243,075, behind only Bryn Kenney on $92,002,616. Lazauninkas went out third two knockouts later, but his $424,000 was the largest live score of his career.

Why it matters

There is no ceremony for this. No trophy, no ring, no photograph with a stack of banded cash, because the milestone was reached by losing a coin flip and coming fifth out of eight. Poker's all-time money list is the one leaderboard nobody enters on purpose, and the only way to move up it is to keep buying in for amounts that would clear most people's mortgages. Chidwick has been doing exactly that, quietly, for about fifteen years, and the number that finally got him there was a fifth-place payout he would happily have traded for the trophy.

The Explainer

Paul Klann Has $1.17 Million in Career Earnings. He Won $1.004 Million of It in 2013.

What happened

Klann bagged 11,300,000 chips, or 113 big blinds, to lead the final 30 of the CA$5,000 WSOP Super Circuit Canada Main Event into Day 5 at Playground. The tournament drew 2,844 entries for a CA$13,082,400 prize pool, the largest ever produced by a WSOP Circuit event, and pays CA$1,500,000 to the winner on Thursday. Klann has $1,170,830 in recorded live earnings across a thin Hendon Mob page, and $1,004,090 of that came from winning the 2013 WPT L.A. Poker Classic out of 517 entries. His only recorded cash since, before this run, was a min-cash in the CA$2,500 WSOP Circuit Montreal Main Event at this same venue last year. He built his lead in part by calling a large bluff from Will Givens while holding the nut flush, a pot that ended Givens's tournament before he could bag.

Why it matters

Yesterday this brief listed Givens at the top of the Day 4 leaderboard, on the strength of the only checkpoint anyone had published. He did not survive the day. That is the hazard of reporting a live tournament at 7 a.m., and it is also the shape of the thing: 2,844 people bought in, one leaderboard has been published per day, and the names on it turn over completely between editions. Guoyan Li is second on 8,100,000 and Nicholas Palma third on 7,600,000. Chance Kornuth, who talked a river card into existence on Monday, returns sixth on 6,600,000.

Follow the Money

Blake Ellinghaus Had $140,000 in Career Cashes. Wednesday Paid More Than Twice That.

What happened

Ellinghaus won the $5,000 WPT bestbet Scramble Championship in Jacksonville for $294,900 and his first WPT title, beating Jared Reinstein heads-up after rivering a straight and moving all in. Reinstein, who had flopped a straight draw and paired the river instead, took $184,000. Ellinghaus is from Illinois and had roughly $140,000 in recorded live tournament cashes before this week. He entered through a $580 satellite. He finished Day 1a second in chips, finished Day 2 second in chips, and took the chip lead on Day 3. At the final table he spent the evening giving stacks away and taking them back. Hugh Membrino doubled through him and then went out sixth for $57,000, holding top pair with the worse kicker. Skyler Dennis doubled through him and went out fourth for $100,000. Bryan Paris finished third for $135,000 when his pocket nines ran into pocket jacks.

Why it matters

A $580 ticket returned $294,900, which is a little over 508 times the money, and it did so in the tournament this brief noted yesterday has lost entries three years running: 361, then 327, then 294. Those two facts are the same fact. A field that shrinks is a field with fewer people between a satellite qualifier and the trophy. The tour's answer to a thinning Main Tour stop is to keep the satellites cheap, cheap enough that a man with $140,000 in lifetime cashes takes the Champions Cup home to Illinois.

The Circuit

47,798 People Paid $250. 135 People Paid $30,000. The Cheap One Had More Money In It.

What happened

Aleksandr Kropotov of Russia, playing as sasha1317!, won the $250 Mystery Millions on GGPoker for $631,459, a WSOP bracelet and a $30,000 Super Pass to the Super Main Event at WSOP Paradise. The event ran dozens of Day 1 flights and drew 47,798 entries for a $10,993,540 prize pool. He eliminated all but one of his opponents at the final table. On the same day, in a casino on a Korean island, Daniel Dvoress beat 135 entries in a $30,000 buy-in for a $4,050,000 prize pool.

Why it matters

The online event cost one hundred and twentieth of the live one and built a prize pool nearly three times the size, because 47,798 is a very large number and 135 is not. Kropotov's first prize was two thirds of Dvoress's off a buy-in you could cover with a bar tab. The Super Pass is the part worth watching. Winning a $250 tournament now hands you a $30,000 seat, the same buy-in as the Triton event Dvoress just won. The two economies in this brief are joined by a promotional prize.

Missed a day?

Catch up on the last few days.

SEPT 9 Day 004 - The Ordered Off The Menu Edition

Chance Kornuth Called for the Ace of Diamonds by Name. The Dealer Produced It.

On Day 4 of the CA$5,000 WSOP Super Circuit Main Event at Playground in Kahnawake, with 99 players left and blinds at 25,000, Daniel Negreanu opened to 50,000 from the hijack with the ten of diamonds and the ten of clubs. Chance Kornuth three-bet to 140,000 from the cutoff with the ace of clubs and the king of hearts. Negreanu jammed 725,000 and Kornuth called. The flop and turn came five of hearts, six of spades, five of spades, three of clubs, leaving Kornuth six outs and one card. He asked the dealer, out loud, for the ace of diamonds. The dealer supplied the ace of diamonds. Negreanu finished 99th for $14,500 and high-fived the man who had just ordered his elimination off a menu.

AlsoJeju Ran Two $25,000 Tournaments at Once. Winning the Bigger One Was Worth $329,000 More. Read this brief →

The Biggest Prize Pool in WSOP Circuit History Is in Quebec and the Locals Are Not Sharing

SEPT 8

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