Christian Jeppsson Wins WPT Online Championship for $923,786 After Heads-up Deal

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May 21, 2020 3 min read

Sweden's Christian Jeppsson has become the latest WPT Champions Club member after winning the very first online WPT Main Event on partypoker. He wins $923,786 after topping a field of 2,130 players.

Jeppsson defeated Russia's Viktor Ustimov heads-up after an entertaining final table streamed live on partypoker's Twitch channel.

After doubling up early, Ustimov was responsible for five eliminations at the final table, but it wasn't enough to break free at the top of the counts. Both he and Jeppsson tracked one other throughout the contest, before making a heads-up deal leaving $10,000 for the eventual winner.

Ustimov even took the lead heads-up, but it was Jeppsson who emerged triumphant, taking home over $920,000.

WPT Online Championship Final Table Results

_{*denotes heads-up deal. Countries are according to partypoker client}

Final Table Recap

Christian Jeppsson was the man to beat coming into the final day, but an early double for Viktor Ustimov through Sam Greenwood saw him move into the lead after queens held against ace-king.

Jeppsson and Ustimov would battle at the top of the counts before Pascal Teekens became the first elimination of the final table, shoving with ace-queen only to be called in the big blind by the pocket aces of Ustimov.

Since the early double, Greenwood's stack had been in a steady decline and he was eliminated next, shoving blind on blind for less than two big blinds, with Ustimov sending him to the rail in seventh.

By this stage, two hours into the final table, both Jeppsson and Ustimov held half of the 85 million chips in play between them and the other players were scrabbling for position behind them.

Pascal Hartmann was best placed of all of them, but called all in with jacks against Jeppsson's ace-queen, only for his opponent to flop a queen and eliminate Hartmann. Next to go was Alexander Clark who shoved with ace-queen blind on blind, with Ustimov calling with ace-five in the big blind. The Russian spiked a five on the flop and Clark was eliminated.

Ustimov finished of Nikolay Ponomarev in fourth place and Jukka Koskela in third place bringing the tournament to heads-up.

Check Out the partypoker Defection Party

Heads-Up Play

Jeppsson held the chip lead heading into heads-up play, and the pair played a couple of hands before agreeing to look at the numbers.

Eventually the pair agreed to the following deal, with $10,001 left for the eventual winner.

When play resumed, Ustimov (pictured) briefly took the lead in what was a back-and-forth affair. However, with the size of the pots steadily increasing, Jeppsson regained the lead after scooping a 28 million pot. From then on, Ustimov's stack began to slide falling below ten million as Jeppsson seemingly closed in on victory.

However, Ustimov wasn't done. He chipped back up to 13 million and then doubled on a ten-high flop after both players had flopped a pair of tens.

The stacks leveled off once more before the final hand came.

The Final Hand

Ustimov raised to 1 million (Blinds 250,000/500,000) and Jeppsson called. The flop came Q♦5♥6♦ and Jeppsson check-called 1.4 million. The turn was the 7♦ and Jeppsson checked. Ustimov bet 5 million and Jeppsson check-raised all in. Ustimov called with K♣K♠ but was drawing dead against the J♦9♦ of Jeppsson.

The river was the 2♥ and Jeppsson secured victory.

Based in the United Kingdom, Will started working for PokerNews as a freelance live reporter in 2015 and joined the full-time staff in 2019. He now works as Managing Editor. He graduated from the University of Kent in 2017 with a B.A. in German. He also holds an NCTJ Diploma in Sports Journalism.

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