"arbaarba" Takes Down the PokerStars Blowout Series: $1,050 NLHE [8-Max, The Big Blowout!] for $739,976
In less than three hours, the PokerStars Blowout Series: $1,050 NLHE [8-Max, The Big Blowout!] played down from nine players to a champion and it would be the Day 2 chip leader "arbaarba" who would come out on top after a three-way deal was agreed upon with Fernando "fviana" Viana and Lonnie "thx4urm0n3y" Hallett.
"arbaarba" claimed the extra $50,000 for the winner to add $739,976 to their bank roll. The tournament attracted 5,292 unique players who reentered 1,630 times to get to a prize pool of $6,922,000 with the lion-share being handed out on the final table.
"arbaarba" has had many deep runs in several tournaments which also includes a win in the Big $55 for example. Viana held the chip lead during the deal discussion and also got to claim the biggest prize in this tournament and the series on PokerStars. Viana has won more than $5,600,000 in online tournaments with notable scores during the SCOOP but more recently in the Stadium Series Freezeout Grand Final - High $5,200 NLHE for $721,235.
Hallett was the third player involved in the deal and has already won a title in the past weeks but might sound familiar to the readers who follow the Sunday Million results as he has won two of them in the past. The three players were joined on the final table by "milanov888", Vlad "dariepoker" Darie, Eike "Mr. Havener" Onodera, "adkaf", "xMFPx", and "Gordon_dReid".
PokerStars Blowout Series: $1,050 NLHE [8-Max, The Big Blowout!] Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "arbaarba" | Lithuania | $739,976* |
| 2 | Fernando "fviana" Viana | Brazil | $771,416* |
| 3 | Lonnie "thx4urm0n3y" Hallett | Canada | $646,189* |
| 4 | "milanov888" | Bulgaria | $339,831 |
| 5 | Vlad "dariepoker" Darie | Romania | $238,483 |
| 6 | Eike "Mr. Havener" Onodera | Brazil | $167,361 |
| 7 | "adkaf" | Austria | $117,448 |
| 8 | "xMFPx" | United Kingdom | $82,422 |
| 9 | "Gordon_dReid" | Canada | $57,841 |
*denotes a 3-way deal
Final Table Action
"Gordon_dReid" started as the short stack at the start of the day and would be the first to go too when their aces got cracked by the pocket tens of "arbaarba" who flopped a set. Viana doubled through "xMFPx" to take a small chip lead and then dealt the final blow to the latter with ace-king. Forty-five minutes later, "adkaf" fell with pocket queens to the ace-king of "arbaarba". With Onodera following them a few minutes later when "milanov888" flopped trips.
It would then take almost 50 minutes before Darie was sent to the rail after getting shorter and shorter for a while. His queen-eight failed to connect with anything on the board for him to see his chips go to Viana for an even bigger chip lead. Viana held onto the chip lead for most of the night as he also took out "milanov888" with pocket treys with the flopped set.
The three remaining players agreed to a deal with Viana holding almost 50% of all the chips in play but Hallett doubled up to the lead with pocket fours while Viana held the ace-king. "arbaarba" took the lead back when they scored a big double with the flush they had rivered against the trip aces of Hallett. The latter was left with just over 3 big blinds and lost the rest to Viana who held with the higher kicker.
Heads-up play only lasted for two hands, Viana called the four-bet shove of "arbaarba" with ace-nine suited. The pocket sevens of "arbaarba" found another seven on the flop to hit for the set and the win as the rest of the board didn't bring enough help to Viana.
This concludes the PokerNews coverage for the four Big Blowout events of the first-ever PokerStars Blowout Series and we'll see you at the next exciting tournament festival!