Monster Heads-Up Comeback Sees Dietrich Wins Online Poker's Biggest Prize
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After 17 flights and 6,146 entries, the 2024 WSOP Online International Main Event has crowned its champion. Moritz Dietrich is the name written in GGPoker and, indeed, online poker history books as the player who captured the industry's largest ever prize, one tipping the scales at $4,021,012.
The star-studded final table took place on September 24 with Evgenii Akimov leading the way with 86 big blinds, followed by Rui Ferreira (67 big blinds) and Dietrich in third (57 big blinds). Four hours after the finalists received their first hole cards, the champion was crowned.
$5,000 WSOP Online Main Event Final Table Results
| Rank | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Moritz Dietrich | Austria | $4,021,012 |
| 2 | Evgenii Akimov | Mexico | $3,099,896 |
| 3 | Rui Ferreira | Brazil | $2,390,418 |
| 4 | Isaac Baron | Mexico | $1,843,337 |
| 5 | Diogo Coelho | Brazil | $1,421,478 |
| 6 | Ilya Anatski | Belarus | $1,096,180 |
| 7 | Hai Pan | China | $845,342 |
| 8 | Benjamin Rolle | Austria | $651,921 |
| 9 | Audrius Stakelis | Lithuania | $502,771 |
Final Table Action
The first elimination occurred after just 20 minutes after Audrius Stakelis min-raised from under the gun with ace-king, and the action folded to Isaac Baron in the small blind who looked down at pocket queens. Baron raised before calling Stakelis' shove of just over 15 million. Queens held and the Lithuanian was eliminated.
Benjamin Rolle busted a few hands later. Rolle sat down as the shortest stack but had already doubled as he looked to get back into contention. However, his comeback was halted by Baron. After Akimov min-raised from middle position with queen-ten, Baron flat-called with pocket nines from the next seat. Rolle then shoved for 18 million from the small blind with ace-queen, folding out Akimov, but Baron decided to call. Baron flopped a set and saw his stack swell to over 83 million, while Rolle headed to the rail in eighth.
Another 20 minutes passed before the final table lost another player, and Hai Pan was the unfortunate soul relieved of his chips. The action folded to Dietrich in the small blind, and he open-shoved with queen-six of diamonds. Pan, down to a shade over 10 big blinds, called with pocket eights. Pan's snowmen melted thanks to a queen on the flop.
Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
Pan's elimination left six players in the hunt for the title, each guaranteed a seven-figure haul for their efforts. Just before a scheduled break, Ilya Anatsky lost all but a handful of big blinds when his ace-king of clubs lost to the pocket kings in the hand of Diogo Coelho. Anatsky committed his last 3.5 big blinds with ace-jack of diamonds and ultimately lost to the pocket deuces of Baron.
Five-handed play lasted two hours, with the chip lead exchanging hands several times. A player finally busted when Ferreira min-raised to 7,000,000 under the gun with pocket tens before instantly calling the 38 million shove from Diogo Coelho from the big blind. Coelho turned over king-ten of clubs. A queen-high board was safe for Ferreira's tens, and Coelho crashed out in fifth, while Ferreira soared into a substantial chip lead.
The Most Ridiculous of Bad Beats
An absolutely sickening hand sent Baron to the rail in fourth. Akimov had upped the aggression as four-handed play began and decided to open-shove from the button for 20 big blinds effective. His hand? Six-four offsuit. Baron must have thought all of his Christmases had come at once because he looked down at pocket kings, and had one of the easiest calls of his long and illustrious career.
Baron flopped a set and was a 97% favorite to win the 164 million pot. The turn gave Akimov an open-ended straight draw, but some of his outs were removed because of a club flush draw. The river was an offsuit eight, gifting Akimov a straight and sending a despondent Baron home in fourth.
Heads-up was set when Akimov again fell in love with six-four offsuit. Now holding a massive chip lead, Akimov open-shoved with six-four, and Ferreira called off his eight big binds with ace-king. Ferreira called and flopped top two pair, but Akimov went runner-runner to improve to a hand-winning flush!
That hand gave Akimov a 5:1 chip advantage over Dietrich. Any deficit is challenging to overcome, never mind one that large, but Dietrich was not perturbed and went about trying to claw his way back into contention.
Dietrich doubled when his pocket fives held against the suited ace-king of Akimov. He then flipped the tournament on its head when his queen-ten backed into a Broadway straight when Akimov improved to a costly two pair on the river. It was all over a few hands later.
The final hand saw Akimov limp from the button with nine-five, and Dietrich check with his eight-deice. A six-king-eight flop with two clubs saw the Dietrich check-call a 7,000,000 bet. The turn was an offsuit three, and Dietrich checked again. Akimov moved all-in for 35,274,974 into the 29,700,000 pot, and Dietrich called with second-pair. Another three on the river completed the community cards, sent Akimov home in second place, and left Dietrich to become the 2024 WSOP Online International Main Event champion. Dietrich captured a coveted gold bracelet plus a massive $4,021,012 top prize, the largest single prize ever awarded in the online poker world.
GGPoker will make another player a millionaire later today when Event #29: $25,000 GGMillion$ Super High Rollers Championship concludes. Day 1 saw the 230-strong field whittled to only 24, each guaranteed $55,504. One of them will take home $1,122,201.
Adrian Mateos is the chip leader going into Day 2, closely followed by Samuel Mullur. The two big stacks has almost twice as many chips as anyone else in the field. Christoph Vogelsang, Ole Schemion, and Chris Brewer round out the top five.
