Andreas Olympios Comes from the Bottom to Win WPT500 at ARIA for $260,000
The 2016 partypoker presents: WPT500 at ARIA Resort & Casino wrapped up on Wednesday night in Las Vegas with Andreas Olympios topping the 3,956-entry field to win his largest live tournament score of $260,000.
Olympios began the day second to last in chips, but ran his stack up to a victory, which included defeating Wesley Hickey in second place. Hickey earned $185,000.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Andreas Olympios | $260,000 |
| 2 | Wesley Hickey | $185,000 |
| 3 | Drazen Ilich | $135,000 |
| 4 | Robby Seurynck | $100,000 |
| 5 | Jonathan Opas | $75,000 |
| 6 | Sanjay Mayekar | $58,000 |
| 7 | Khoan Ho | $45,000 |
| 8 | Guy Gorelick | $35,000 |
| 9 | Guy Cicconi | $27,150 |
Coming into the nine-handed final table, Hickey was the man to catch, and he had a big lead over the rest of the field. To start the final day of play, Hickey had 20.925 million in chips. The closest person to him was Jonathan Opas with 10.625 million.
The first elimination took place on the ninth hand of the day, with Guy Cicconi busting to Opas. Right after, Olympios found a double on the 11th hand of play to start his comeback.
Ops kept climbing when he busted Guy Gorelick in eighth and Khoan Ho in seventh, and then Sanjay Mayekar was eliminated by Drazin Ilich in sixth. At this point, Olympios was the short stack, nursing less than 10 big blinds and in the danger zone.
Olympios was soon able to find another double, this time through Opas, and then he doubled on the 70th hand of play against Ilich to move to a high point of 24 big blinds. He then doubled again through Opas on the 100th hand of the final table, and this time it gave Olympios the chip lead.
Opas would go on to bust fifth to Olympios when his pocket tens couldn't beat pocket queens, and then Olympios sent Robby Seurynck packing in fourth place. On Seurynck's bust, he lost a race with two fours to the ace-queen of Olympios.
Ilich was the short stack when three-handed play began, and he went out five hands after Seurynck did to earn a career-best $135,000 payday. Hickey got Ilich's chips and went into heads-up play with 15.95 million to Olympios' 43.4 million. Ten hands later it was all over.
On the final hand of play, Hand #143 of the final table, Olympios called Hickey's shoved on the K?9?2? flop with the K?J?. Hickey had the 9?8? for a worse pair and no flush draw. The 5? on the turn made things quick, giving Olympios an unbeatable flush, and the river completed the board with the Q?.
*Photo courtesy of Joe Giron/WPT.
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