Popular Twitch streamer posts a third-place finish for a $74,227 payday
One of poker’s most well-watched streamers put on a show for his 147,000 Twitch followers on Tuesday, coming up just short of a WPT500 championship.
Partypoker Team Online pro Jaime Staples scored the biggest payday of his career, finishing third in the WPT500 at the 2021 WPT Online Series at partypoker. Staples’ third-place finish earned a $74,227 payout for the Canadian poker pro.
David Afework came away with the victory, earning $160,211. The $530 buy-in WPT500 final table played as the penultimate action in the WPT Online Series, which wraps up with the Main Event final table today.
Afework knocked out Henning Andre (2nd - $108,796) in heads-up play to secure the victory. The $1 million guaranteed WPT500 drew 2,088 entries, playing out on the partypoker international client.
WPT Online Series WPT500 final table results
| Place | Player Name | Playing From/Country | Prize |
| 1 | David Afework | United Kingdom | $160,211 |
| 2 | Henning Andre | Sweden | $108,796 |
| 3 | Jaime Staples | Canada | $74,227 |
| 4 | Timo Borchmann | Germany | $49,225 |
| 5 | Teun Mulder | Netherlands | $33,503 |
| 6 | Klas Lofberg | Sweden | $25,558 |
| 7 | Sergei Koliakov | Russia | $19,798 |
| 8 | Lukas Hafner | Austria | $15,704 |
| 9 | Jon Santos | United Kingdom | $12,251 |
Staples spins up from ninth place
Staples began Tuesday’s final table at the bottom of the chip counts, but still had 20 big blinds to work with as nine-handed play began. The prolific live streamer played the biggest final table of his career on Twitch, giving his followers the chance to ride a rollercoaster of final table emotions along with Staples.
After about two hours of play, Staples found himself as one of the last three remaining. Around 10,000 viewers were watching Staples on Twitch at that point, as the WPT500 played down to its most critical juncture.
With just over 200 million chips (around 30 big blinds) left in the three-handed battle, Staples looked down at K♣Q♣ from the big blind. Afework opened to 17,500,000 from the button, and Staples called.
The monotone Q❤️K❤️8❤️ flop brought in top two pair for Staples, who checked. Afework bet 30,843,750, and Staples raised to 84,000,000.
Afework three-bet shoved over the top, and Staples snap-called. Afework turned over T❤️6❤️ for a flopped flush, leaving Staples drawing to a king or a queen for a full house.
The turn A♠ and river 4♣ didn’t bring the needed held for Staples, however, who bowed out in third place.
“I can’t really be upset with that,” Staples said immediately after the knockout. “I mean it’s painful, there’s a lot of money still there. There’s $85,000 more out there.”
“But I can’t be upset, getting it all in, top two against a flopped flush. It’ll happen. Damn that’s a lot of money.”
Featured image source: Twitch
