SCOOP 2020: Tapio ‘PikkuHUMPPA’ Vihakas works on a Sunday, wins #47-H
Tapio “PikkuHUMPPA” Vihakas has been playing poker more or less full time for the last 15 years or so. “As some kind of a professional,” he says, though self-deprecatingly refers to himself as lacking the sort of ambition we might associate with hardcore poker pros.
“I’m as lazy as a human can be,” he jokes.
But it was hardly a lazy Sunday for Vihakas a couple of days ago. In less than six hours the Finnish player powered through a 1,425-entry field to win 2020 Spring Championship of Online Poker Event #47-H, a $530 buy-in no-limit hold’em turbo tournament played as a progressive knockout.
The event was nicknamed the “Sunday Cooldown.” And well, as Vihakas recalls, just about everything that happened was pretty cool to him.
“I guess I won like nine out of 10 preflop all-ins before the final table,” says Vihakas. “So mainly I was lucky… :D… nothing special there!”
It wasn’t as though the pots went his way without any work at all, though.
“My timing on bluffs was good,” he explains. “Most of the time when I got chips in the middle I was in a very good position, but I didn’t make big mistakes, either.”
Once at the final table, things continued to go well for Vihakas, both in terms of the cards and situations as well as his overall decision-making.
“I felt comfortable pretty much the whole way,” he explains. “The final table went a lot like it did earlier in the tournament. I was in the zone and the game what going the way I wanted.”
It hadn’t been the easiest set of opponents to get through at the end, either, with tough foes like “SBastin” (runner-up), “T-Macha” (third-place finisher), “Ässnacke” (fourth), “silentm0de” (fifth), and Sam “SamSquid” Grafton (sixth) the last he had to overcome to take the title.
Adding up the first prize to all the bounties collected, and Vihakas walked away with a handsome $90,828.67 altogether for working on a Sunday.
And it was work. After all, he had Velmu alongside him — his “work pal,” he says — who also features in his avatar.
Tapio “PikkuHUMPPA” Vihakas
“I have been trying to adjust my play and fix my biggest leaks over the last two years,” explains Vihakas, suggesting that he might just be a little more industrious than he claims.
“This year the scores have been very good, though I’m still struggling with some of the same problems,” he continues. “My A-game is good, but I play that too rarely. It takes a lot of work to stay focused, too.”
“I haven’t studied the game as much as I need to, though,” he says before identifying a prime motive to put in that effort. “I still have to catch up… or get a ‘real job,'” he says.
“But you know how it is… the leopard doesn’t change his spots!”
I think we can agree that after that Sunday performance, the leopard has earned the right to relax a bit. “Now I can rest a little and focus on my loved ones even more,” he says.
Congratulations to Vihakas for taking down #47-H! Enjoy the down time, and… nice work!
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