Rare is it when the World Poker Tour holds a tournament and there is another event on that calendar that actually bests it not only as far as entries but also tops it with the prize pool. That happened at the end of the week as partypoker, the sponsor for the WPT Caribbean event held in Punta Cana last week (and won by Niall Farrell over Troy Quenneville) concluded that schedule with their partypoker Millions $2 Million Guaranteed event.
Over two Day Ones that were conducted while the WPT event was in its Day Two and Three action, the partypoker Millions drew in 526 entries, more than what came out for play in the WPT Caribbean itself. Although such players as Farrell, Tony Dunst and Martin Jacobsen came out for the tournament, only Jacobsen was around by the last day of the event. Leading the way was Quenneville, who had used his second-place finish money from the WPT Caribbean to jump into this event as a late entry.
Quenneville had more than a 2:1 lead over the second-place competitor, Andrei-Lucian Boghean, as the other 19 players behind them jostled for position. Among those players were Erik Cajelais, Ari Engel, Matt Salsberg and Jacobsen, with both Jacobsen and Salsberg on short stacks to start the action.
Engel got healthier from the start in knocking out Sviataslau Desimon in 20th place and growing his stack over the one million chip mark. Cajelais also made some moves towards the top of the leaderboard, knocking off Dominic Smith in 12th place as Cajelais popped into third place behind Quenneville and David Yan. Once Moritz Dietrich was eliminated in ninth place by Quenneville, it was looking increasingly likely it was Quenneville’s tournament to take.
How big was Quenneville’s lead, you ask? Look for yourselves:
1. Troy Quenneville, 8.1 million
2. David Yan, 3.5 million
3. Erik Cajelais, 2.8 million
4. Ari Engel, 2.6 million
5. Andrei-Lucian Boghean, 2.3 million
6. Fabion Jergen, 2.2 million
(tie) Edward Van Klooster, 2.2 million
8. Martin Kozlov, 300,000
After the players came back from dinner, they made quick work of the final table. Kozlov went on the very first hand back, thinking his pocket Aces would stand against Quenneville’s suited J-10 only to see the board run 10-8-5-J-4 to give Quenneville Jacks up and the hand. That wasn’t enough for Quenneville as he continued his rampage over the final table, eliminating Yan when Quenneville’s Big Slick rivered a King against Yan’s pocket sevens.
Eager to get into the fight, Cajelais came to life. After seeing Engel raise the betting to 160K, Cajelais three bet to 450K but had to stop after Engel moved all in on him. The moments to ponder saw Cajelais eventually fall on the side of a call, but it was initially the wrong move. Engel was sitting on A-K, which completely dominated Cajelais’ A-10, and the 5-7-A-5 flop and turn kept Engel in the lead. The 10♠ on the river, however, flipped the script completely, giving the hand to Cajelais and eliminating Engel in sixth place.
While Cajelais stepped up, the night still belonged to Quenneville. He eliminated Jergen in fifth and, after Van Klooster took out Boghean in fourth, Quenneville had a sizeable lead over both Van Klooster and Cajelais. Once Quenneville had taken down Van Klooster in third place, he entered heads up play against Cajelais with a monstrous 8:1 lead. It would take a few hands (two of which Cajelais would double his meager holdings) but, on the final hand, Quenneville’s A-10 stood over Cajelais’ A-8 on a 9-10-9-K-2 board to give Quenneville the championship.
1. Troy Quenneville, $400,000
2. Erik Cajelais, $250,000
3. Edward Van Klooster, $150,000
4. Andre-Lucian Boghean, $90,000
5. Fabian Jergen, $70,275
6. Ari Engel, $58,000
7. David Yan, $46,000
8. Martin Kozlov, $36,000
Along with his winnings from the WPT Caribbean tournament, Quenneville in the span of two days earned $620,000, a nice run for sunning yourself in Punta Cana! Congratulations to Troy and all those who came back from their trip with something in their pockets.