Veksler Victorious in the Irish Open Main Event

Pavel Veksler is the 2021 Irish Open Main Event champion! The Ukrainian outlasted a star-studded field of 1,880 entrants in the €1,100 buy-in tournament and secured a life-changing €265,999.

2021 Irish Open Main Event Final Table Results

Place | Player | Country | Prize
1 | Pavel Veksler | Ukraine | €265,999*
2 | Stoyan Obreshkov | Bulgaria | €224,768*
3 | Franco Spitale | Argentina | €135,482
4 | Andreas Berggren | Sweden | €89,896
5 | Eduards Kudrjavcevs | Estonia | €61,228
6 | Julian Adamson | Germany | €46,742
7 | Victor Bonifacio | Brazil | €36,241
8 | Justin Ouimette | Canada | €28,776
9 | Justus Held | Austria | €22,480

*reflects a heads-up deal

The final nine players traded blows for the best part of two hours before one of them busted out. Justus Held became the first casualty of the final table during the 600,000/1,200,000/150,000a level. Eduards Kudrjavcevs min-raised to 2,400,000 under the gun with , Stoyan Obreshkov three-bet to 6,480,000 from the next seat along with , and the action folded to Held in the big blind. Held only had 516,385 chips left after paying the big blind, and they went into the middle holding . Kudrjavcevs folded leaving the five community cards to fall .

MILLIONS Online Mini Main Event Winner Ducks Out

Justin Ouimette fell in eighth-place, the Canadian unable to match his heroics from the MILLIONS Online Mini Main Event. Ouimette came unstuck shortly after Held crashed out. Ouimette opened with under the gun, making it 4,400,000 to go, leaving only 1.5 big blinds behind. Pavel Veksler, to Ouimette’s immediate left, called with , and Victor Bonifacio called from the small blind with . A flop reading saw Bonifacio check, Ouimette bet all but 200,000 of his stack into the 15,720,000 pot, and Veksler decided to flat call. Bonifacio also called. The rest of Ouimette’s stack went into the middle on the turn and both his opponents called. The river was checked by Bonifcio and Veksler. Game over for Ouimette.

Bonifacio was the next player out of the door, his seventh-place finish securing a €36,241 prize. The action folded to the Brazilian in the cutoff, and he min-raised to 2,800,000 with . Unfortunately for Bonifacio, Franco Spitale woke up on the button with and three-bet to 6,580,000. Bonifacio responded with an all-in four-bet, which Spitale snapped off. Spitale’s aces held to send Bonifacio to the showers.

Sixth place and €46,742 went to Germany’s Julian Adamson. Veksler min-raised to 3,200,000 from the cutoff with and called when Adamson jammed from the small blind for 22,276,779 with . Veksler caught an ace on the flop and a queen on the river to reduce the player count by one.

Relative Cooler Hand Five-Handed

Estonia’s Kudrjavcevs saw his tournament end in fifth-place, a finish worth €61,228. Kudrjavcevs bowed out against Andreas Berggren during the 800,000/1,600,000/200,000a level. Kudrjavcevs raised to 3,200,000 with from under the gun, Berggren raised all with , and Kudrjavcevs called off the 25,858,072 chips he had behind. Berggren’s kicker came into play as the board ran .

That hand propelled Berggren into the chip lead, yet he was still the next player out of the door. Veksler opened to 4,600,000 with before calling when Berggren re-raised all-in for 67,558,834 with the inferior . None of the five community cards came to Berggren’s rescue and he headed into the night with an €89,896 score to console himself with.

The final three players were now guaranteed a six-figure score for the €1,100 investment, and it was Spitale who got his hands on the first of those big prizes. Spitale claimed the €135,482 third-place prize when he got his chips in with and ran into the of Obreshkov.

Veksler held a substantial 253,552,828 to 122,066,547 chip lead over Obreshkov, but the Bulgarian was far from giving up on his chance to become the 2021 Irish Open champion. The pair struck a deal that left €10,000 extra for the eventual champion, and it was Veksler who bagged that additional prize.

The final hand occurred during the 1,250,000/2,500,000/315,000a level. Veksler ripped it in with and Obreshkov called off his 13.5 big blinds with . The board ran to hand the title to Veksler!