Sunday Briefing: Sami Kelopuro Banks $730K From Two Events

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Sep 09, 2019 7 min read Last updated Dec 19, 2019

Sunday 8th September was a huge day for online poker tournament grinders thanks to a trio of sites hosting huge festival. PokerStars’ $75 million guaranteed World Championship Of Online Poker (WCOOP) continued, while the $50 million GG Series at Natural8 and $30 million guaranteed KO Series kicked off in style at partypoker.

Let’s check out the biggest results from these events; there are some huge scores to read about.

GGS #007:$500K Gtd

The GG Series kicked off at Natural8 and Finland’s Sami “MiMosa1” Kelopuro got off to a flying start, triumphing in the GGS #007:$500K Gtd event.

Kelopuro recently revealed he’d won $1.3 million during an eight-hour PLO cash game session at partypoker. The same blog article also said he’d been running hot in high roller tournaments. That run continued on Sep. 8.

The Finn came out on top of a 49-strong field in this $25,000 buy-in affair. $500,000 was guaranteed to be won, but $1,200,500 was shared among the top six finishers, with Kelopuro banking the massive $458,770 top prize.

Sixth-place and $57,415 went to another Finn in the shape of “HectorHermano” before “ImLividBuddy”, a Natural8 regular, busted in fifth-place for $875,480. Everyone else locked up six-figures with “PyramidOfSkulls” securing the $127,265 fourth-place prize and “pihler13” from Ukraine netting $189,474.

Heads-up saw Kelopuro brush aside Malaysia’s “ilsy168” resigning the runner-up to a $282,093 consolation prize.

GGS #22: $500K Gtd

Kelopuro came close to winning two $25,000 buy-in GG Series events in one day when he reached the final table of the GGS #22: $500K Gtd event. A more compact field of 30 entries created a $735,000 prize pool shared among the top four finishers.

“Chun Lei Zhou” of Russia was the first player to lock up some cash, namely $76,706. They were joined on the rail by “NOMAMES” who is now showing as living in Poland instead of Mexico. Third-place in this event was worth a cool $124,807.

Heads-up was contested by Kelopuro and Hungarian superstar Andras “PokerBluff1” Nemeth. The two online poker Goliath’s locked horns but then struck a deal for the remaining prize pool. Kelopuro took home $271,851 with Nemeth being the last player standing to scoop $261,633.

*reflects a heads-up deal

WCOOP-16-H: $2,100 NLHE 8-Max PKO Turbo at PokerStars

The WCOOP-16-H: $2,100 NLHE 8-Max PKO Turbo event at PokerStars attracted 270 entries who created a $540,000 prize pool. Half of this sum went on the heads of each entrant, with the remaining 50 percent being shared among the top 34 finishers.

Any of the nine finalists would have made a worthy champion, but only one player could get their hands on the crown.

“DotComRicher” busted in ninth-place and won a combined $8,905 before former EPT champion Aliaksei “ale6ka” Boika saw his tournament end in eighth-place for $9,829. Boika was joined in the role of a spectator by “cantstopmeAA” of Canada who won $16,708, before Paul “pochi” Cukier crashed out in sixth-place for a $19,228 addition to his bankroll.

Now the prizes and potential bounty payments were increasing fast. “Wildace_hun” of Hungary finished in fifth place and won $16,238 plus $9,000 worth of bounty payments. Former World Series of Poker Main Event champion Ryan “MrMaximize” Riess ran out of steam to fall in fifth-place, a finish worth a total of $3,478.

The penultimate elimination was that of Fabrizio “Tomatee” Gonzalez who collected $42,163. This left Stefan “mindgamer” Jedlicka and Sweden’s “WhatIfGod” to battle heads-up for the title. It was Austria’s Jedlicka who emerged victoriously and with his hands on $108,172. The Swede had to make do with $48,451 for their second-place exit.

$2,100 Sunday High Roller at PokerStars

This week’s $2,100 Sunday High Roller ended in a heads-up chip between “imluckbox” and 888poker pro Domink “Bounatriou” Nitsche. The winner, who resides in Thailand, won $43,028 as part of that deal with four-time WSOP bracelet winner Nitsche padding his bankroll with $38,453.

The rest of the final table read like a who’s who of online poker. Andras “probirs” Nemeth and Simon “C.Darwin2” Mattsson were the first casualties of the final table, winning $5,579 and $7,264 respectively. They were joined on the rail by “Remi Lebo_10” of Ukraine and “masatota” of Japan, the latter winning $12,315, the first five-figure prize of the tournament.

Next to bust was Sweden’s Johannes Greenstone25 “Korsar who is currently ranked 13th in the world for online poker tournaments. Korsar added $16,035 to his lifetime winnings of over $13 million.

Sam “Str8$$$$Homey” Greenwood took some time away from grinding at the British Poker Open to finish fourth in this online tournament for $20,878 and it was Romania’s “mandan1979” who was the second to last player to bust, their third-place exit locking up a $27,184 score.

*reflects a heads-up deal

KO Series #03-HR: $750K Gtd 8-Max at partypoker

The first 16 of 283 KO Series events shuffled up and dealt on Sep. 8 and the $2,100 buy-in KO Series #03-HR: $750K Gtd 8-Max was one of the biggest. It will be remembered fondly by partypoker’s Team Online member and streamer extraordinaire Jaime “jaimestaples” Staples because it resulted in his largest online cash ever.

Staples was streaming his KO Series play on his Twitch channel and an army of fans railed him all the way to the final table. With five players remaining, Staples saw “WorshipMe_7” move all-in from the button. Having being dealt pocket kings in the small blind, Staples called all in and found himself against ace-eight. A timely double-up looked likely but WorshipMe_7 improved to an unlikely jack-high straight by the river.

This result saw Staples win $35,276 in total, his largest cash to date. At least Staples could sleep easy knowing WorshipMe_7 put his chips to good use because they went on to be the last player standing, winning the tournament for a $129,525 prize. “Nicky_Larson90” was the runner-up and went to bed with $70,808 more in their partypoker account than a few hours earlier.

KO Series #02-SHR: $750K Gtd 8-Max at partypoker

Jaime Staples’ teammate Anatoly “NL_Profit” Filatov also reached the final table of a KO Series event, the Russian navigating his way to the last eight of the $5,200 buy-in KO Series #02-SHR: $750K Gtd 8-Max tournament.

Filatov had to make do with the sixth-place prize of $19,556 which was bolstered by $11,700 worth of bounty payments for a combined prize of $31,256.

Bounty payments in this event made a huge difference to the prizes players secured. For example, fourth-place was worth $34,996 but “fers223” walked away with an additional $17,956. Third-place was “PayAndPlay” win a cool $49,406 plus $35,099 from the bounty prize pool for $84,505 in total.

Heads-up saw Johannes “Greenstone26” Korsar and “Jackychannnn” lock horns for the title. Korsar busted in second-place for a haul worth $72,932 leaving Jackychannnn to reel in a massive $162,384; more than $94,000 of that prize stemmed from bounties!

$20,000 Sunday Sale Whale at 888poker

888poker ran its Sunday Sale promotion again this week, slashing the buy-ins of some of its biggest tournaments. It was a popular move because 108 players entered the $20,000 Sunday Sale Whale to smash the guarantee by more than 50 percent.

Chris “888Moorman” Moorman reached the final table but his time in the limelight was cut short by a ninth-place finish for $972. Moorman was followed by “jahlabastide” who won $1,134 from their home in the beautiful country of Mauritius, which is not exactly the first place that springs to mind when you think about playing online poker!

By the time the United Kingdoms Jareth “hteraaj2001” East fell in fourth-place, the prize money weighed in at $3,078. Denmark’s “N33dCoaching” can now comfortably pay for coaching courtesy of the $4,536 they won.

The final exit was that of three-time PokerStars Sunday Million champion Artem “veeea” Vezhenkov who collected $5,994 for second-place. Congratulations to Canada’s “IBDave” who is this week’s champion, an accolade that came with $8,910.

$100,000 Sunday Sale Mega Deep at 888poker

A bumper field of 1,006 players bought into the $109 Sunday Sale Mega Deep, which was reduced from $215, to ensure the $100,000 guarantee was hit. It was a tournament that ended in a heads-up chop with the last standing duo sharing more than $31,500 between them.

“Maedhros” of Russia is credited with being the runner-up. This saw $15,219 added to their 888poker account as part of the aforementioned deal. The champion was none other than Germany’s “Grozzorg” who turned their $109 into an impressive $16,418.

The heads-up duo were the only two players to bank five-figures, although “Streusalz” of Germany came close with the $9,959 they collected after being eliminated in third-place.

*reflects a heads-up deal

_{The Stars Group is a majority shareholder in iBus Media}

Matthew Pitt hails from Leeds, West Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom, and has worked in the poker industry since 2008, and worked for PokerNews since 2010. In September 2010, he became the editor of PokerNews. Matthew stepped away from live reporting duties in 2015, and now concentrates on his role of Senior Editor for the PokerNews.

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