Thursday, 28th March 2024 22:21
Home / News / Stadium Series Thursday update: Estonia’s NeedBeat denies Fintan Hand

Bad beats and coolers were flying around Stadium Series last night as Fintan Hand went for a title. How did he — and thousands of others — fare? It’s all in today’s Stadium Series bulletin…


STADIUM SERIES NEWS BULLETIN

Third Hand: Fintan “easywithaces” Hand did not quite get the victory in Stadium Series last night, but the Malta-based Irish PokerStars streamer gave his Twitch viewers real value for money as he made it all the way to third. That earned Hand a brilliant $57,299.20 payday, and it also gave viewers all the thrills and agony of playing the deep stages of a tournament like this. His final hand — an absolutely grim spot where he had to decide whether to call all-in against Estonia’s “NeedBeat” — was absolutely gripping, viewed both from Hand’s viewpoint…

…and the PokerStars Central Twitch channel, where James Hartigan and Joe Stapleton were joined by Benjamin “bencb789” Rolle to talk it through:

NeedBeat wraps it up: After winning the huge pot to knock out Fintan Hand, Estonia’s “NeedBeat” took a narrow lead in the heads up battle against “gorodski”, based in Monaco. It was a long battle, swinging this way and that, but NeedBeat eventually came out on top, picking up the $96,613.80 first prize and leaving gorodski with $74,403.55.

Spinaczq spinning up: All the way back in 2013, Poland’s “Spinaczq” entered a competition on PokerStars Blog where the task was to guess how many entries there would be in the upcoming 7th Anniversary Sunday Million. Spinaczq was one of the 20 people who got closest to the 49,287 actual total, and so won a ticket to the Micro Millions Main Event, worth $22. It’s a nice story, but it’s hardly the kind of thing you put on your poker resume — which is why last night’s Stadium Series results were so good for this Polish player. Seven years since that last mention on PokerStars Blog, Spinaczq is back and this time it’s because he or she beat a field of 1,601 players to win the $215 Heat 18-M, worth $53,372.04. That’s a lot of Micro Millions entries.


LATEST RESULTS

NAME ENTRIES PRIZE POOL WINNER COUNTRY PRIZE
Heat 18-L: $22, $200K Gtd 8,378 $200,000.00 10p4uk Russia $21,749.57*
Heat 18-M: $215, $400K Gtd 1,601 $400,000.00 Spinaczq Poland $53,372.04*
Heat 18-H: $2,100, $500K Gtd 226 $500,000.00 NeedBeat Estonia $96,613.80

STAT TRACKER

Sixty tournaments are now in the books, with 42 still to come. Here’s the latest stats:

Tournaments completed: 60
Tournaments ongoing: 3
Entries so far: 488,197
Prize pools so far: $23,059,394.50
First place prizes so far: $3,031,908.91

*Data includes completed tournaments only


TWITCH WATCH

As noted above, Fintan “easywithaces” Hand’s run in the $2K Stadium Series Heat 18 ended in third, with a grim beat. But it’s not half as grim as the beat he put on “GM_VALTER” for an enormous pot earlier in the day. River cards just don’t come any better than this. (This hand also notable for a brilliant cameo from Fintan’s dog):

Most eyes might have been on Fintan last night, but Lex Veldhuis was still making big calls and getting them right:


AS IT STANDS

Heat 19 — a six-max event — is now at its half-way stage. Here are the important stats from those three tournaments:

Heat 19-L: $22 No Limit Hold’em 6-Max
Entries: 6,597 (inc. 3,186 re-entries)
Prize pool: $200,000
Leader: Alvys64 (Lithuania) | 48 players left

Heat 19-M: $215 No Limit Hold’em 6-Max
Entries: 1,238 (inc. 743 re-entries)
Prize pool: $400,000
Leader: Jacob Schindler (Mexico) | 48 players left

Heat 19-H: $2,100 No Limit Hold’em 6-Max
Entries: 164 (inc. 78 re-entries)
Prize pool: $500,000
Leader: DaanOss (Austria) | 29 players left


STARTING TODAY

Heat 20: No Limit Hold’em PKO
Starting time: 1:05pm ET (18:05 BST)
Buy-ins: $22, $215, $2,100
Guarantees: $300,000, $750,000, $1,000,000

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