WSOP-C Grand Victoria

Randy Weber

Jess Beck

From a starting field of 159 entrants, to just 5 survivors coming into today at 1:00 PM for Event #7: $600 Pot-Limit Omaha. Each of them are guaranteed a minimum payout of $4,370, but all eyes rest on the $20,278 and WSOPC ring to be awarded to the winner. 

Michael Mieszala leads and is sitting with 2,631,000 looking for his first WSOPC ring. Just two other WSOPC ring winners remain in the forms of TJ Scarber (346,000) and Randy Weber (192,000). Weber won a ring in PLO in Hammond 2024 in March, then came in second in the most recent edition of the WSOPC in Hammond in the same event. He looks to better that runner up finish a few weeks ago. 

Final Table Chip Counts

• Michael Mieszala - 2,631,000 (219 bb)
• Deividas Markevicius - 563,000 (46 bb)
• TJ Scarber - 346,000 (28 bb)
• Kevin Yu - 244,000 (20 bb)
• Randy Weber - 192,000 (16 bb)

Final Table Payouts

1. $20,278
2. $13,131
3. $8,789
4. $6,088
5. $4,370
   

Play ended with 10 minutes left in Level 18, with blinds at 6,000/12,000, with a 12,000 big blind ante. After the first level of play, the blind levels will be raised to 45 minute levels and play until a winner is crowned. 

Stay tuned to Poker.Org for all of the exciting updates on the ground here at Elgin. 

Anwar Baig

It is time for another hefty guarantee out here at the WSOPC at Grand Victoria Casino in Elgin, IL. 10:00 AM sees the kicking off of the first flight for Event #8: $400 Monster Stack, which sees its prize pool guarantee upped from last November to $250,000. With a bigger size and prize, the players of the midwest will be not ones to miss this fun multi-flight event. 

Last November, it was Chicago poker regular Anwar Baig who collected his second WSOPC ring for $55,932. The part time poker player has since added a third ring to his collection and he will have a chance to defend his title and prove just why he is such a respected player on the Chicagoland circuit. 

Players will begin the tournament with 40,000 in starting chips, with blinds going up every 30 minutes. After Levels 4 and 8, there will be a 15-minute break, but after Level 12 there will be a 60-minute dinner break. At the conclusion of this break, the players will return with the registration period closed up. They will play until the end of Level 24 or until just 5% of the field remains. All flights will combine and return to play on Thursday, April 10th at 12:00. 

Stay tuned to Poker.Org to see who bags up in the Monster Stack!

Oliwer Sankiewicz

This morning began the first ever 6-max event to be played here at Grand Victoria Casino in Elgin, Illinois. Event #6: $400 6-Max generated a prize pool of $69,630 to be divided up between the final 32 players, with a gold ring and passage to the WSOPC tournament of champions to go along with the first place prize. After just under 14 hours of play, a new winner emerged. 

A couple of months ago at GVC, Oliwer Sankiewicz got heads up in the Monster Stack with Anwar Baig playing for his first ring. He ended up in second place in his first ever circuit heads up match, but continued to grind events all over and racked up several other cashes and deep runs across the circuit. Sankiewicz can now call himself a member of the WSOPC ring winners club as he took down the event to claim his second biggest live score and first piece of jewelry. 

"Standard nine-handed is my preference," Sankiewicz remarked on whether he prefers six-max or full ring tournaments "but I do like playing way more hands than I can in the nine-handed tournaments. Just to get in their and battle with some of the players." 

Sankiewicz put on what can only be described as a wire-to-wire performance as there was not a single moment from 32 players on down where he did not posses the chip lead. He held a quarter of the chips in play after the bubble burst and utilized his big stack to extrude chips from opponents throughout the tournament. 

"I didn't feel a ton of pressure from having that many chips. I just stayed the course, stuck with what I knew, and not let the nerves get to me," Sankiewicz described his thought process throughout the day while adding a little joke on the end, "I did feel some added pressure from Milan (Patel) who kept telling me he would beat my *** if I didn't win." 

The young gun talked a little bit about his preparation beforehand on the days of play. 

"I meditate about 10-15 minutes a day before the start of the tournament. I don't study too much in the morning before a tournament. If it is a Day 2, I will always do some research into my table draw, into stacks." 

Sankiewicz' Rail

Jess Beck

Throughout the final table, Sankiewicz possessed one of the most active rails of the series so far. One such addition on the rail was Chris Thiel (second from left) who won the last ring awarded in November at GVC, and Sankiewicz stayed the whole time to watch his good friend win a ring. A full circle moment today as Thiel had already left the property, but did the 40-minute drive back to see his good friend win the tournament. 

(Left to right) Natan Lidukhover,  Benjamin Krauss, Milan Patel, and Marcin Michaski also all remained on the rail the entire final table to support Sankiewicz, always being their for him on breaks to talk things out or even give the occasional cheer for a raked in pot. 

"Without them it would be really hard to stay positive," Sankiewicz said of his friends "Having them at your rail supporting you is absolutely priceless. I think it is very important to have a friend group in this game. It is very hard to make it if you are solo, so it makes it important to be a part of a community that supports you. You can talk about hands, you can talk about stories, or you can just have fun." 

With the ring now his, Sankiewicz collected his winnings and left to take some well needed rest before coming back tomorrow for the first flight of Event #8: $400 Monster Stack. 

Final Table Results

1. Oliwer Sankiewicz - $16,379
2. Matthew Schiavo - $10,497
3. Adam Zschau - $6,937
4. Caleb King - $4,730
5. Carlos Beltran - $3,331
6. Andrew Skiles - $2,426
7. Janchiv Enkhnyam - $1,829

That will conclude today's coverage of the WSOPC here today at Elgin. Be sure to check WSOP.com to see if your chip counts and results and be sure to check back in with Poker.Org tomorrow for more updates here on the floor. 

Michael Mieszala

The first non-NLH event of the WSOPC here at Grand Victoria Casino in Elgin, IL drew out a total of 159 entrants over the course of eight levels of registration. What was initially $50,000 guaranteed prize pool soon became a tournament where $81,885 would be divided between the final 24 players. The initial plan was to play to six player or eighteen levels, but the tournament played out differently as just five players ended up with a slip at the night's end. 

Leading the way by an insane margin is Michael Mieszala sitting with 2,631,000 of the 3,900,000 in play. The Illinois local, who hails from Mount Prospect, sees this as only his second ever WSOPC cash. Nearly 90% of Mieszala's live cashes come from GVC with his biggest live score coming from a victory in their Sunday Deepstack for $8,251. He now has his sights set on the larger score and the ring as he aims for a piece of WSOPC history. 

Final Table Chip Counts

• Michael Mieszala - 2,631,000 (219 bb)
• Deividas Markevicius - 563,000 (46 bb)
• TJ Scarber - 346,000 (28 bb)
• Kevin Yu - 244,000 (20 bb)
• Randy Weber - 192,000 (16 bb)

Play ended with 10 minutes left in Level 18, with blinds at 6,000/12,000, with a 12,000 big blind ante. Players will return to GVC to play at 1:00 and blinds will hop up to 45 minutes each. 

Stay tuned to Poker.Org for the recap of Event #6: $400 6-Max later to come.