Kornuth Wins Two Stairway to Millions Events

The Stairway to Millions series is in full swing at ARIA Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. The series gives poker players the chance to turn $1,100 into a $102,000 buy-in tournament entry. PokerGO created Stairway to Millions, which kicked off on January 12 and runs through to January 20.

Eight events run on eight consecutive days, each with a larger buy-in than the next. The first event cost $1,100 and featured a $100,000 guaranteed prize pool. Stairway to Millions concludes with a $102,000 buy-in tournament boasting a $1,200,000 guarantee.

Players receive entry to the next highest buy-in level if they reach the money places in their tournament. For example, cashing in the $4,200 buy-in event puts them into the $8,400 buy-in tournament.

Date	Buy-in	Guarantee
January 12th	$1,100	$100,000
13th	$2,150	$100,000
14th	$4,200	$100,000
15th	$8,400	$200,000
16th	$15,800	$300,000
17th	$25,100	$500,000
18th	$52,000	$500,000
19th	$102,000	$1,200,000

Sepiol Wins First Stairway to Millions Event

The first Stairway to Millions event drew in a 190-strong crowd, each paying $1,100. Daniel Sepiol of Bloomington, Indiana, was the last man standing; he received $28,500 for his efforts.

The tournament attracted plenty of stellar names despite the relatively low buy-in. Stars including Shannon Shorr, Chance Kornuth, Justin Saliba, and Joseph Cheong cashed, with Cheong finishing in third place.

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Daniel Sepiol	United States	$28,500
2	Rich Dixon	United States	$19,000
3	Joseph Cheong	United States	$15,200
4	Justin Saliba	United States	$11,400
5	Qing Liu	United States	$9,500
6	Mehdi Anooshahr	United States	$7,600

Kornuth Reels in First Stairway to Millions Title

Chance Kornuth finished 16th in the first Stairway to Millions event, meaning he had a free entry to the $2,100 buy-in second event. Kornuth freerolled his way to an impressive victory.

Kornuth navigated his way through a 129-player field and took his seat at the six-handed final table. The Denver, Colorado, native entered the final table fourth from six, but found himself heads-up against Eric Baldwin. Kornuth got the job done and his hands on a $51,600 payday in addition to a free Event #3 entry.

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Chance Kornuth	United States	$51,600
2	Eric Baldwin	United States	$36,120
3	Jovan Santiago	United States	$28,380
4	Joelle Parenteau	Canada	$23,220
5	Brock Wilson	United States	$18,060
6	Jeremy Ausmus	United States	$12,900

Second Kornuth Victory

Event #3 of the Stairway to Millions cost $4,200 to enter, and 84 players paid that sum. Such luminaries as Jeremy Ausmus, and former WSOP Main Event champion Ryan Riess reached the money places, but it was Kornuth who shone the brightest.

Kornuth locked horns with Joseph Cheong heads-up for the title and the lion’s share of the prize pool. The champion-elect held a near two-to-one chip lead going into heads-up. Cheong triple barrelled with Jx-4x on a 9x-4x-2x-8x-9x board, only for Kornuth to check-call all the way with 9x-3x.

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Chance Kornuth	United States	$80,640
2	Joseph Cheong	United States	$51,120
3	Nathan Zimnik	United States	$40,320
4	Mitchell Halverson	United States	$30,240
5	Daniel Wienand	Canada	$23,520
6	Jesse Lonis	United States	$20,160

Admon Bags Event #4 Title

Fifty-six players turned out for the fourth Stairway to Millions event. The $8,400 buy-in tournament saw a $448,000 prize pool created. Only the top eight finishers won a slice of the pie, with Salim Admon walking away with the $138,880 top prize.

Admon won his seat in this tournament after cashing in Event #3. Admon is best known for a fourth-place finish in last year’s Wynn Millions. He banked $619,160 that day as Andrew Moreno scooped $1,460,106.

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Salim Admon	United States	$138,880
2	Jesse Lonis	United States	$89,600
3	Chris Brewer	United States	$58,240
4	Jeremy Ausmus	United States	$44,800
5	Nick Petrangelo	United States	$35,840
6	Bill Klein	United States	$31,360

Brad Johnson

You name the game, and you can bet your bottom dollar that Brad has either played it or placed a wager on it! Brad calls himself a natural gambler, and someone who gains as much enjoyment from writing about the crazy game of poker as he does playing it.

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