Russia’s Viktor Taranenko was in dreamland after he turned a €0.01 ticket into a €10,350 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event seat, but his dreams turned to nightmares with 82 players remaining.
Eighty-one of the 534 entrants were guaranteed prize money for their efforts, a min-cash weighing in at €15,074. Once the money bubble burst, those surviving players had a legitimate shot at a coveted WSOP bracelet and a massive €1,122,239 first-place prize.
Taranenko must have been dreaming of telling his friends and family about the time he turned a single cent into a €15,000 score, but it all went wrong during the 6,000/12,000/12,000 level.
2018 WSOP Europe Main Event Bubble
Our Russian online qualifier found himself seated in the big blind and all-in as he was down to only 12,000 chips after paying the bounty. Belgium’s Gary Hasson opened the betting with a raise to 29,000 from under the gun and the other players at the table folded their hands. As Taranenko was all-in, his and Hasson’s hole cards were flipped onto their backs.
Viktor Taranenko: 
Gary Hasson: 
Although it looked like Taranenko was in serious trouble of being eliminated, he still has a 32 percent chance of doubling his tiny stack. The 
flop was no help to Taranenko who saw his chances of survival reduced to only 23%. After burning a card, the dealer placed the 
onto the turn and the writing was almost on the wall for Taranenko, who now only had a 14% chance of survival.
The river had to be a ten or a four, but the dealer revealed the 
on the river, meaning Hasson’s hand was the best and Tarenenko busted in 82nd place to burst the money bubble.
Visibly upset, Taranenko made his way out of the tournament area with the 81 remaining players celebrating a return on their investment.
It’s not completely over for Taranenko, however, because we have given him a $530 MILLIONS Online satellite ticket as a consolation prize. Taranenko now has the chance to qualify for online poker’s biggest-ever single tournament, one with a $20 million guaranteed prize pool and one that is guaranteed to award the top four finishers at least $1 million and the champion $2.5 million.
With Taranenko’s obvious satellite tournament prowess, we wouldn’t bet against him turning this $530 satellite ticket into a $5,300 seat into this huge online tournament.
MILLIONS Online: Online Poker’s Biggest-Ever Single Tournament
MILLIONS Online runs from Nov. 25 to Dec. 4 and costs $5,300 to buy into unless you manage to win your way into this spectacular event via our ADDED value satellites, or the upcoming Mega Satellites.
There’s also the opportunity to win your seat for $10 via our MILLIONS Online Sit & Go Jackpot games. Win MILLIONS Online using the ticket won from our Sit & Go Jackpots and we’ll double the $2.5 million prize to an incredible $5 million! If the $2.5 million bonus isn’t won, we’ll double the prize of the highest finishing eligible player up to a maximum of $20,000.
Thanks to PokerNews for the lead image. Head to PokerNews to follow their excellent WSOP Europe live updates from King’s Casino, Rozvadov
Ready to join the party?
If you’re ready to jump into the action, then click here to download partypoker and get started!
If you already have an account with us, click here to open partypoker and hit the tables!
