Another winner was crowned Tuesday in the WPT World Online Championships, with the micro buy-in tier of the seventh major tournament in the series going to Brazil's Luiz Antonio Silva.
Silva emerged victorious in the WPT World Online Championships Event #7: $109 Micro Main Event. Silva topped a massive field of 8,465 players, taking home a $148,985 payday.
The win came in the first of two buy-in tiers for Event #7. Still to come is the $1,050 Mini Main Event, which begins Saturday. Silva's win took place in the heart of the World Poker Tour World Online Championships schedule, which plays out on partypoker through September 23.
Silva, also known as Luis De Melo and Luiz Constantino, finished as one of three Brazilian players in the final nine.
Unlikely board seals the win for Silva
Silva took home the title after outdueling Denmark's Kim Heidemann (2nd - $104,299) in the final heads-up battle. The final hand saw Heidemann, with A♠J❤️, get all of the chips in against Silva, who tabled his own A♦️J♣.
The runout proved nightmarish for Heidemann, who saw his tournament hopes ended when four spades hit on a 6♠Q♠2♣5♠7♠ board. Silva went into the final hand with a two-to-one chip lead and clinched the championship after the improbable runout, which only had a 2% chance of showing up.
Other top-five finishers included Yin Zhang (3rd - $66,686) of Luxembourg, Germany's Philipp Zeckai (4th - $43,630), and New Zealand's Hamish Crawshaw (5th - $29,770).
Tuesday's final day action started with 56 players, and it took more than eight hours of play to crown Silva as the champion. The Micro Main Event played as a $1 million guaranteed event.
Final Table Action
Silva entered final table action as the tournament chip leader with 74 big blinds. Right on his heels, however, was one of the world's most accomplished players in partypoker ambassador Patrick Leonard. The UK's Leonard came into the tournament with more than $11.5 million in career online tournament earnings, including more than $3.2 million on partypoker.
Leonard sat at the final table with 54 big blinds. Crawshaw (39 big blinds), Germany's Zeckai (37 big blinds), Brazilian Andre Figuerido (23 big blinds), and Zhang (22 big blinds) all remained within striking distance.
Brazil's Anis Homadian (9th - $8,540) was first to exit from the final nine. Leonard (8th - $10,450) departed next, with most of his stack diminished in a pocket queens versus pocket aces battle against Zeckai's pocket aces. Leonard went out a few hands later, leaving the final seven to battle it out for the championship.
Figuerido (6th - $20,070) hit the rail in sixth place, followed by exits from short-stacked players Crawshaw and Zeckai. Zhang looked poised to make a run at the title with a massive chip stack at one point but had to settle for third place and a $66,686 payday.
The heads-up battle between Silva and Heidemann lasted only minutes, with Silva clinching the championship and the six-figure payday on the four-space board that ended Heidemann's championship hopes in unlikely fashion.
Featured image source: Twitter
