Millions Main Event

Romero Leads Final Dozen in partypoker MILLIONS UK; Lampropoulos Gunning for Second Title

Posted January 11, 2020 at 7:39 pm ET by Jen Mason

Day 3 of the $10,300 partypoker MILLIONS UK Main Event saw 76 in-the-money players from both the live and online arenas convene at Dusk Till Dawn. They had the goal to play towards a final table and a shot at the 2020 title and $1,000,000 first prize that comes with it.

Guaranteed at least $20,000 when they sat down at noon, the twelve players who have made the final day have locked up at least $50,000 for their efforts.  Three players are bunched at the top of the counts: overall leader James Romero (77.9 million), Jamie O’Connor (73.5 million) and Weijie Zheng (71.7 million).  Romero and Zheng shared a late-night stint on the feature table where action flowed thick and fast; the latter (last year’s Irish Open champion) had maintained the chip lead through most of the day and barely relinquished it at the eleventh hour.

Lying fourth in chips is the winner of the inaugural MILLIONS UK Main Event, Maria Lampropoulos. The £1,000,000 first-place prize ($1,255,004) she picked up here in 2017 is the biggest of her career, though she came close in 2018 when she won another $1,081,100 in January in the Bahamas.  Lampropoulos collected multiple scalps over the course of the day, busting (among others) Anthony Romanello (one of three brothers including partypoker PRO Roberto who all, incredibly, made the money in the Main Event) as well as Georgy Philippovich and Martin Mulsow in the same hand.

Finishing tantalizingly close to the final table were the likes of MILLIONS Online champion Benjamin Chalot (22^nd for $40,000), Patrick Leonard (17^th), Carlos Chadha (15^th), Peter Chien (14^th) and last to be eliminated Robert Heidorn.

Returning tomorrow more modestly stacked are the likes of the early challenger for the chip lead Anton Suarez, whose 41 million chips still represent 34 big blinds.  Jack Hardcastle, Alex Lindop, Christian Rudolph and Fredrik Andersson round out this middle bunch, with the bottom of the counts represented by the – still dangerous – partypoker PRO Ludovic Geilich, John Mooney and James Clarke.

Play restarts at noon, with the live stream – and live coverage in time with it – beginning at 1 pm, as the final challengers for the MILLIONS UK title get back to the felt.