Sunday Briefing: Viktor Blom Wins PokerStars Sunday Grand PLO
Viktor “Isildur1” Blom may be better known for his high stakes cash game exploits, but the Swedish sensation continued to prove that he knows his way around a poker tournament by taking down one of the toughest tournaments found online.
Blom was one of 149 entrants in the $1,050 Sunday Grand PLO tournament at PokerStars on Oct. 8, a six-max event that saw $149,000 paid out to the top 19 finishers. Greece’s “MITS 304” was the unfortunate bubble boy and his exit cleared the way for the likes of Jason “jakoon1985” Koon, Joao “IneedMassari” Simao, Alex “Ahhh Is It?” Lindoff and Brian “brianm15” England to make it into the money, the latter falling in seventh place to narrowly miss out on a final table spot.
Brazil’s Yuri “theNERDguy” Martins was the first casualty of the official final table and he was followed to the rail by Canada’s “ruthless848,” Russia’s Vladimir “vovtroy” Troyanovskiy and then Macao-based Australian Martin “nizmo jiz” Kozlov.
Heads-up saw “YOUYOU777” of Lebanon take on Blom and it was the hyper-aggressive Swede who eventually emerged victorious to get his hands on the $30,199 first place prize, resigning his final opponent to the $22,542 runner-up prize.
$1,050 Sunday Grand PLO Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Viktor “Isi8ldur1” Blom” | Sweden | $30,199 |
| 2 | YOUYOU777 | Lebanon | $22,524 |
| 3 | Martin “nizmo jiz” Kozlov | Macao | $16,826 |
| 4 | Vladimir “vovtroy” Troyanovskiy | Russia | $12,559 |
| 5 | ruthless848 | Canada | $9,375 |
| 6 | Yuri “theNERDguy” Martins | Brazil | $6,998 |
The biggest online poker tournament cash of the weekend went to Finland’s “Kesjan” courtesy of him taking down the $215 Sunday Million. The Finn outlasted 5,831 opponents to secure a $157,485 payout while his heads-up opponent, “enigma2018”, banked $110,514 for finishing second.
Some of the other notable victories at PokerStars this weekend included:
| Tournament | Winner | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| $700 Super-Sized Sunday | Laurynas “LaurisL91” Levinskas | $66,801* |
| $215 Sunday Warm-Up | SENSIMIL1 | $43,357 |
| $1,050 Sunday Grand NLHE | Brian “brianm15” England | $43,234 |
| $215 Sunday Supersonic | soufian-070 | $34,597 |
| $215 Bounty Builder | Diego “Mr.Bittar” Bittar | $28,392* |
| $109 Bounty Builder | gronnegronn | $25,106* |
| $109 Sunday Cooldown | Bjorn “kleath” Kleathersson | $21,033 |
| Big $215 | BuddyAces2 | $17,963 |
| Hot $215 | RhoNin9 | $16,909 |
| Hot $109 | Daniel “ShippityShip” Nielson | $16,309 |
| $109 Sunday Kickoff | misi814 | $14,446 |
| Hot $162 | KNLv | $14,412 |
| Big $109 | Rodrigo “Terao90” Terao | $12,485 |
| $109 Sunday Wrap-Up | brianjk | $7,466 |
| $109 Bubble Rush | ProBelgian | $7,363 |
| Hot $162 | allin62760 | $6,945 |
| $109 Sunday Starter | Durrden | $5,860 |
| Big $162 | Alexander “Schildy1984” Debus | $4,959 |
*Includes bounty payouts
Over to 888poker where Ireland’s “callylally” walked away with the $26,819 first place prize in the $100,000 Baby Whale. The tournament attracted 293 players who all paid $320 to create a $138,600 prize pool. The United Kingdom had four players at the final table, including the UK-based German star Dominik “888Dominik” Nitsche who finished fifth for $7,900.
This victory comes almost exactly a month after "callylally" reached the final table of the $100,000 Mega Deep. On that occasion, the Irish grinder busted in fifth place for a $5,880 score.
Check out these other 888poker victories from Oct. 8:
| Tournament | Winner | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| $100,000 Mega Deep | Streusalz | $19,731 |
| $60,000 Sunday Challenge | SkallePer58 | $12,361 |
| $40,000 Turbo Mega Deep | Ti0373 | $8,700 |
| $30,000 Sunday Crocodile | NEONTIGER | $6,450 |
| $20,000 Sunday Lightning 6-Max | Matas “SeRG3nT” Cimbolas | $6,168 |
| $20,000 Sunday Tornado | MechaREcorta | $4,600 |
Over at partypoker, the $215 Title Fight, which recently saw its guarantee doubled to $500,000, missed the guarantee by almost $55,000, and Dimitri “Gringenkov” Gringenkov took full advantage of the added cash. Gringenkov, who hails from Brazil, usually plays mid-stakes tournaments but took a shot at the Title Fight and what a decision that was. After almost 13 hours of play, Gringenkov got his hands on the $83,500 first place prize, with “Alien_Army” collecting $58,850 for his runner-up finish.
$215 Title Fight Final Table Results
| ”Place | Player | Prize* |
| 1 | Dimitri “Gringenkov” Gringenkov | $83,500 |
| 2 | Alien_Army | $58,850 |
| 3 | barrm111 | $38,000 |
| 4 | josef_shvejk | $25,250 |
| 5 | Rez-P12 | $17,725 |
| 6 | P0L4R1C3 | $12,200 |
| 7 | Stuey987 | $8,380 |
| 8 | k23Temujin | $5,375 |
Some of the other big wins at partypoker included:
| Tournament | Winner | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| $100K Gtd Super High Roller | Stikeeez | $51,725 |
| $150K Gtd High Roller | RingelStink | $34,190 |
| $150K Gtd Main Event | Derek Dumpster | $31,452 |
| $100K Gtd High Roller | madridgalaxy | $29,877 |
| $100K Gtd Title Fight Warm Up | mateee | $29,452 |
| $50K Gtd Weigh-In | needplacebo1 | $11,088 |
| $40K Gtd Drago | BogdanCapitan | $8,972 |
| $30K Gtd Title Fight II | Ractigons7 | $8,188 |
| $30K Gtd Main Event II | josef_Shvejk | $6,248 |
| $25K Gtd Clubber | MommyTosier | $4,715 |
