Eelis "EEE27" Pärssinen Wins the EPT Online Event #10 $25,000 Super High Roller ($539,819)
Another champion has been crowned in the 2020 PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Online and it was Finnish high stakes PLO cash game player Eelis "EEE27" Pärssinen that took down the EPT Online Event 10: $25,000 NLHE [8-Max, Super High Roller] after coming out on top of a field of 81 entries. Pärssinen claimed the lion's share of the $2,000,000 prize pool after defeating Christian "WATnlos" Rudolph in a short-lived heads-up duel and added $539,819 to his bankroll, whereas Rudolph had to settle for $404,324.
Pärssinen is no stranger to MTT action either and has even made rare live poker occurrences, for example during the 2018 Kings of Tallinn where he won a High Roller event and participated in live-streamed PLO cash game action. The Finn is also arguably the biggest winner in PLO cash games on PokerStars in 2018-2019 and finished 9th in the 2020 SCOOP Main Event. During the ongoing 2020 EPT Online, he finished 3rd in the EPT Online 02: $10,300 PLO [6-Max, PLO High Roller] for $105,574 and has now added a PokerStars trophy to his cabinet at home.
Runner-up Rudolph comes fresh off a third place in the EPT Online 06: $10,300 NLHE [8-Max, High Roller] and third-place finisher Benjamin "bencb789" Rolle pledged 10% of his profit in the event to the charity efforts of Lex Veldhuis after busting the Dutchman on Day 1.
David "MonkeyBausss" Laka had the chance to become the first two-time champion of the online festival but came up short in 4th place. Start-of-the-day chip leader Andrei "ragAAAila19" Boghean had to settle for fifth place and the remaining finalists included Joao "Naza114" Vieira, Juan "Malaka$tyle" Pardo, Jamie "jamienixon90" Nixon, and Artur "mararthur1" Martirosian.
Final Result EPT Online Event 10: $25,000 NLHE [8-Max, Super High Roller]
| Place | Winner | Country | Payout (in USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eelis "EEE27" Pärssinen | Finland | $539,819 |
| 2 | Christian "WATnlos" Rudolph | Austria | $404,324 |
| 3 | Benjamin "bencb789" Rolle | Austria | $302,837 |
| 4 | David "MonkeyBausss" Laka | Spain | $222,826 |
| 5 | Andrei "ragAAAila19" Boghean | Romania | $169,893 |
| 6 | Joao "Naza114" Vieira | Portugal | $127,249 |
| 7 | Juan "Malaka$tyle" Pardo | Spain | $95,310 |
| 8 | Jamie "jamienixon90" Nixon | United Kingdom | $71,387 |
| 9 | Artur "mararthur1" Martirosian | Russia | $62,353 |
The Action of the Final Day
With many similar stack sizes in the middle of the pack and at the bottom of the leaderboard, it became a tense affair. Andrei "ragAAAila19" Boghean profited the most from that as he pulled into a commanding lead and the Romanian was also responsible for the first elimination of the day. Artur "mararthur1" Martirosian committed his stack with king-ten on a ten-high flop but Boghean remained ahead with pocket jacks to reduce the field by one.
In quick succession, three of the shorter stacks doubled and instead it was the UK's Jamie "jamienixon90" Nixon who was eliminated next. Having made it through the minefields of Day 1 in his biggest ever buy-in thanks to qualifying in a winner-takes-all $75 Spin & Go, Nixon bowed out in a battle of the blinds with Joao "Naza114" Vieira when his jack-eight was only ahead on the flop versus ace-nine to take home $71,387.
Juan "Malaka$tyle" Pardo busted in a battle of the blinds against fellow countryman David "MonkeyBausss" Laka and Joao "Naza114" Vieira hero-called at the wrong time when Benjamin "bencb789" Rolle had flopped trips treys.
As decent as the start had been for Boghean, he continued to bleed chips and doubled several shorter stacks to eventually become the 5th place finisher. Shortly after it was all over for Laka and the field was reduced to the final three. Christian "WATnlos" Rudolph once again doubled through Rolle with a superior pocket pair and suddenly the trio was nearly even in chips.
There were no deal discussions, however, and another Rudolph double left Rolle very short. It was all over moments later for the online poker coach and streamer when king-seven failed to come from behind against the king-jack of Eelis "EEE27" Pärssinen. Ten percent of Rolle's profit will be donated to the charity efforts of Lex Veldhuis, which the PokerStars ambassador confirmed on Twitter:
Special shoutout to @bencb789 today. After busting me in the $25k he pledged 10% of his profit from that tournament… https://t.co/FmxOVld04Z
— Lex Veldhuis (@LexVeldhuis)
Heads-up was a brief affair and Rudolph was not able to overcome the chip advantage of Pärssinen. They eventually got it in after a ten-high flop on which Rudolph's king-ten made top pair only for Pärssinen to flip over pocket jacks. Two blanks later, the Super High Roller champion was crowned.
The Final Table was broadcasted on the PokerStars YouTube and Twitch channel with cards-up coverage and commentary on a security delay of half an hour. The PokerNews team is providing updates from all trophy events of the 2020 PokerStars EPT Online and you can check out all results and the progress of ongoing tournaments right here.
Winner picture courtesy of Rene Velli / Kings of Tallinn