Blowout Series: All the news from Day 24
The PokerStars Blowout Series reaches its conclusion with some ROI fairytales and a brilliant Brazilian taking the cake. All the details…
BLOWOUT BULLETIN
Viana locks up biggest prize as title heads to Lithuania: The final Big Blowout! tournament of this Blowout Series brought down the curtain in exhilarating style last night, crowning a new champion who was in on the cheap, while also rewarding two established bosses. The official winner was “arbaarba” of Lithuania, who qualified for the event via a $109 satellite and took home $739,976 for an exceptional ROI. However, it came about only after a three-way deal in which Fernando “fviana” Viana of Brazil locked up $771,416, which was the biggest single payout of the entire series.
Fernando Viana: Biggest winner in both Stadium Series and Blowout Series
Canada’s Lonnie “thx4urm0n3y” Hallett also secured $646,189 in the negotiations and finished third, mainly because of an enormous cooler against arbaarba when he rivered trips to arbaarba’s flush. That enormous pot put arbaarba back into the lead he had enjoyed at the beginning of the final, and allowed him to defeat the much-decorated Viana heads-up. Viana, who won the Grand Final in Stadium Series a few months ago, couldn’t get the second outright title, and lost a final flip, with A♣ 9♣ to arbaarba’s 7♣ 7♦ . The other major storyline from the final was Brazil’s “Mr. Havener“, who finished sixth for $167,361. Mr. Havener was in the event after winning a freeroll satellite and so banked pure profit.
Late night series saving: Anyone who needed their series saving had to put the hours in over the past couple of nights as the official “Series Saver” went late into the early hours of Wednesday. There were 1,397 entries into the $1K version (Event #86-H), which ended in a win for “paxantho” of Greece, who earned $145,027, including bounties. That was after “altzera” of Brazil had turned an $11 buy-in into $16,014, including bounties, in the low version. The “medium” level, which had a $109 buy-in, lasted longest, however, and it was past 5am in Austria when “JustTrappedU” beat the 9,757-strong field to win $85,113, including $28K in bounties. Consider the series saved for those guys.
THE SERIES EXPLAINED | SCHEDULE & RESULTS | ALL BLOG REPORTS
Speedy end wraps it up: The very opposite was true of the event billed as the Series Wrap-Up, which was played as a six-max hyper-turbo on the Blowout Series’ final night and, in the case of the $530 buy-in version (Event #88-H), went from start to finish in two hours eight minutes. That was all it took for Russia’s “zinkAA” to lock up the title and $48,597, with Omar “omar layck” Layseca Aguirre in second. There were 540 entries to that one, while the $5.50 version attracted 13,317 and ended in a win for Argentina’s “Badbomen” ($6,354). “gotheapsofeh” of Germany won $25,753 after a deal at the end of the $55 tournament, beating a field of 3,947.
How Arlie did it: The PokerStars Twitch streamer Arlie “Prince Pablo” Shaban won a Blowout Series event on Monday night, but wasn’t actually streaming at the time. But we caught up with him to find out How Arlie did it…
LATEST RESULTS
| Event | Entries | Prize pool | Winner | Country | Total prize |
| BIG BLOWOUT!: $1,050 NLHE, 8-Max | 6,922 | $6,922,000 | arbaarba | Lithuania | $739,976* |
| Event #86-L: $11 NLHE, 8-Max, PKO, Series Saver | 30,858 | $302,408 | altzera | Brazil | $16,014 |
| Event #86-M: $109 NLHE, 8-Max, PKO, Series Saver | 9,757 | $975,700 | JustTrappedU | Austria | $85,113 |
| Event #86-H: $1,050 NLHE, 8-Max, PKO, Series Saver | 1,397 | $1,397,000 | paxantho | Greece | $145,027 |
| Event #88-L: $5.50 NLHE, 6-Max, Hyper-Turbo, Series Wrap-Up | 13,317 | $67,251 | Badbomen | Argentina | $6,354* |
| Event #88-M: $55 NLHE, 6-Max, Hyper-Turbo, Series Wrap-Up | 3,947 | $206,744 | gotheapsofeh | Germany | $25,753* |
| Event #88-H: $530 NLHE, 6-Max, Hyper-Turbo, Series Wrap-Up | 540 | $275,141 | zinkAA | Russia | $48,597 |
STAT TRACKER
Was the Blowout Series a success? These stats kind of speak for themselves. Prize pools, which were guaranteed to be $65 million, were closer to $100 million, and there were more than 2 million entries across the 265 tournaments, not including side events (or the three events that were cancelled).
Tournaments completed: 265
Total entries: 2,091,423 (inc. 333,813 re-entries)
Total prize pools: $92,358,073
First-place prizes: $11,087,793 (inc. bounties)
Note: Stats refer to completed tournaments only and do not include side events
Look out on the Blog today for a more complete statistical analysis of the Blowout Series.
TWITCH WATCH
Here’s the moment the whole thing ended, with a huge flip and a seven on the flop:
COUNTRIES LEADER BOARD
Once again, it’s time to bow down to the all-round dominance of Brazilian players in a major PokerStars series. There is always the most of them and they always seem to come out on top. This time, 28 titles went to Brazil, five more than was managed by the representatives of the various nations who play their online poker from the UK. Canada and Russia ended in a tie for third, with neighbours Germany and the Netherlands tied for fifth.
Final standings:
28 titles – Brazil
23 – UK
20 – Canada, Russia
19 – Germany, Netherlands
12 – Austria
10 – Romania, Sweden
9 – Greece
7 – Bulgaria, Poland, Ukraine
6 – Argentina, Ireland
5 – Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Lithuania, Mexico
4 – Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia
3 – Croatia, New Zealand, Norway
2 – Belgium, Japan
1 – Belarus, Chile, Guernsey, Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, Mongolia, Panama, Phillipines, Slovenia, Turkmenistan, Uruguay, Vietnam.
STARTING TODAY
It’s all over folks. Until next year!
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