Ever since Chris Moneymaker turned a $38 online satellite ticket into $2,500,000 by winning the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event, poker players around the world have dreamed about turning a small investment into a much more substantial sum.
Milan Harper managed to do exactly that earlier this year, essentially freerolling his way to a WPT500 Las Vegas package in the Kings of Vegas promotion and returning home to Leeds with a career-best $33,800 to show for his effort.
Now another partypoker player has won his way to a major live event via our satellites and banked a huge score. Step forward Rainer Kempe .
Kempe is a 26-year old German who used to live in Berlin, but now resides in the seaside town of Brighton, and who now has $999,030 in live tournament winnings. The bulk of this impressive total stems from his play during 2015, which include:
- Seventh place in the Little One for One Drop worth $90,189
- Fifth place in the EPT Barcelona Main Event worth €320,400 ($364,716)
- Fifth place in the EPT Malta Main Event worth €161,340 ($177,724)
- Second place in the partypoker WPT Nottingham 8-Max for £24,000 ($36,975)
Kempe Qualifies for the WPT Montreal Main Event
The partypoker WPT Montreal Main Event took place last week and saw 697 players flock to the Playground Poker Club with C$3,850 in their hands, ready to start their quest to join the exclusive Champions Club.
Kempe was among this sizeable crowd, although he didn’t have C$3,850 in his hand because he’d won a package to the main event via a satellite at partypoker for a fraction of the cost. The partypoker team kept tabs on all of the online qualifiers, and Kempe’s name kept popping up in the end-of-day chip counts. Then, at the end of Day 4, with the elimination of Chris Arvanitis in seventh place, the official final table was set and Kempe had navigated his way to it and done so with the third biggest stack.
The least any of the six finalists would take home was C$87,520, but that increased to a six-figure score when AJ Gambino raised to 180,000 from the cutoff, Darryll Fish three-bet from the button to 355,000 and then called when Gambino moved all-in for 1,175,000. It was for Fish and
for Gambino. A final board reading
sent Gambino to the rail and everyone else moved up one rung on the payout ladder.
Carter Swindler then fell in fifth place when his lost to the
of former WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open winner Brian Altman when the latter caught a jack on the turn and another on the river, before Altman himself bust in fourth place on the 100th hand of the final table.
Fifty hands later, Fish doubled through Kempe when his flopped two pair to melt Rainer’s
, before Kempe doubled through Fish with
versus
with the board running
.
However, Kempe’s fightback was cut short when on the very next hand Jared Mahoney opened to twice the big blind (500,000) on the button and Kempe moved all-in from the big blind for 5,175,000. Mahoney tanked for 90-seconds before calling and showing . Kempe turned over
and needed some help from the board.
It appeared the help had arrived on the flop, as it improved Kempe to two pair, although Mahoney did pick up a flush draw. The dealer burned a card before placing the
on the turn, gifting Mahoney a flush, and leaving Kempe needing a seven or a nine to stay in the tournament. The
river was not one of Kempe’s outs and his incredible run ended with a third place finish worth a cool C$195,940.
A huge congratulations to Kempe on his third place finish, and another to Mahoney who went on to defeat Fish heads-up when his remained true versus Fish’s
with the final board running
.
Create Your Own Success Story at partypoker
If you check the partypoker lobby right now you will see dozens of satellite tournaments feeding into online and live events. Check out the daily Ticket Brawls for your chance of winning your way into the $50,000 Uppercut and $150,000 Main Event, or the Dusk Till Dawn tab where you could be playing in the Grand Prix Poker Tour for pennies.
Those of you who want to give yourself an edge in satellite tournament may want to feast your eyes on this article entitled How to Succeed at Satellite Tournaments as it is crammed with helpful tips and strategies.
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