Blowout Series: All the news from Day 3
The first Big Blowout! of Blowout Series concluded, while one of the game’s fiercest sharks made his mark. All the latest from the PokerStars tables…
BLOWOUT BULLETIN
Final results in the first Big Blowout!
“pilaa” wins piles in first Big Blowout!: The first Big Blowout! of this new Blowout Series concluded on Tuesday night and it provided an amazing bookend to the year of the player known as “pilaa” from the Netherlands. Back in January, when we still used to call it the Winter Series, pilaa won a $22 buy-in tournament, earning $21,247, and it was the biggest victory of his or her career. Flash forward 12 months and pilaa was the largest stack when the last four of a 37,673-entry field decided to do a deal, and negotiated a guaranteed payout of $331,174. This tournament cost only $109 to enter and had a $5 million guarantee. Not long after the negotiations, pilaa had seen off all three of the others, claiming the $50,000 they had left on the side after the deal, and finishing 2020 with an additional $381,174 in the bank. Canada’s “n3kt” finished second, taking the agreed $260,165, while Brazil’s “leonardoc01” took $342,876 for third and Jack “JBHInfinity” Hardcastle, who officially ended fourth, won $270,763. Those four did the deal after “gab0120” from Hungary departed in fifth. Congratudolances to gab0120, but when you learn that he qualified for $1, and won $125,440, you’ll realise that this was a brilliant spin up for him or her too.
Back-to-back for “Stiffler8818”: We’re only four days in to the Blowout Series, but we already have a double champion. And what a brilliant couple of days it’s been for “Stiffler8818”. Last night the German player won the $215 PKO Turbo (Event #3-H), good for $58,536 including bounties, and while he or she was doing so also played through the first day of the $530 NLHE 8-Max (Event #4-H). Stiffler8818’s amazing form continued all the way through a second night in succession until only Belgium’s “karimmae” was also left. The two players did a heads up deal, with Stiffler8818 then going on to win again, claiming $45,600.81 this time. That’s an incredible back-to-back double in high buy-in tournaments, beating fields of 2,949 and 601 respectively. One hopes his mom is proud.
THE SERIES EXPLAINED | SCHEDULE & RESULTS | ALL BLOG REPORTS
Astedt makes early mark: No Limit Omaha Hi/Lo made an appearance in the Blowout Series last night which might have meant a few names at the final table we didn’t know. But no. The $1,050 “high” buy-in version went to one of the best known players stalking the PokerStars tables: Niklas “Lena900” Astedt, who demonstrated once again that he is one of the most skilled tournament poker players in the world. Astedt bettered a field of 109 entries (inc. 43 re-entries) and beat a typically Finn-heavy final. Jussi “calvin7v” Nevanlinna was fourth, with his countrymen “Fabahaba” and “wnbgambler” in fifth and sixth, respectively. But one had to look west across the Gulf of Bothnia for the Nordic champion this time as Astedt closed the whole thing out in about seven hours. Astedt has won during just about every other PokerStars series, and he’s already off the mark in the Blowout.
Niklas “Lena900” Astedt (left): A Blowout Series champ
Should have been following KennedyPK97: The first Zoom event also took place in Blowout Series last night, with buy-ins at $5.50, $55 and $530. There were 381 entries to the high buy-in version, with the UK’s “KennedyPK97” taking close to three times as much as anybody else in this “Total PKO” format, where all of the money goes into the bounty pool. KennedyPK97 won $27,706 for being there at the end, while the fourth-placed finisher, “omgitsdad” took $11,921.88 in bounty payments. (Argentina’s “pampa27” officially finished second but his bounty tally was only $3,612.30.) Not much is known about KennedyPK97, although he does have a Twitter account, on which there’s a boast of another outright victory on PokerStars, in the High Roller Club, from February. But nobody will have seen that either, since the account has zero followers. That’s surely a mistake. Time to get following our latest Blowout Series champ.
LATEST RESULTS
| Event | Entries | Prize pool | Winner | Country | Total prize |
| Big Blowout!: $109 NLHE, 8-Max | 37,673 | $5,000,000 | pilaa | Netherlands | $381,174* |
| Event #04-L: $5.50 NLHE, 8-Max | 28,294 | $138,641 | purga222 | Brazil | $10,333* |
| Event #04-M: $55 NLHE, 8-Max | 10,364 | $518,200 | johnnny ka$h | UK | $55,802* |
| Event #04-H: $530 NLHE, 8-Max | 601 | $300,500 | Stiffler8818 | Germany | $45,601* |
| Event #07-L: $5.50 NLHE, PKO | 14,569 | $71,388 | pkrmaniaz | Greece | $5,002†* |
| Event #07-M: $55 NLHE, PKO | 6,117 | $305,850 | F10ba | Brazil | $27,777†|
| Event #07-H: $530 NLHE, PKO | 676 | $338,000 | jipvis | Netherlands | $55,146†|
| Event #09-L: $11 NLO8, 8-Max | 3,160 | $30,968 | TheTwicthPsych | Ireland | $3,835* |
| Event #09-M: $109 NLO8, 8-Max | 698 | $69,800 | Vovan7778 | Russia | $12,039 |
| Event #09-H: $1,050 NLO8, 8-Max | 109 | $109,000 | Lena900 | Sweden | $25,117 |
| Event #10-L: $5.50 NLHE, Heads-Up, Zoom, Total PKO | 16,343 | $80,081 | 777luckyalex | Canada | $3,072†|
| Event #10-M: $55 NLHE, Heads-Up, Zoom, Total PKO | 5,302 | $265,100 | ZeeWhyZeeZee | Bulgaria | $15,770†|
| Event #10-H: $530 NLHE, Heads-Up, Zoom, Total PKO | 381 | $190,500 | KennedyPK97 | UK | $27,706†|
| Daily totals | 124,287 | $7,418,027 | $668,375 |
*denotes deal
†inc. bounties
STAT TRACKER
Tournaments completed: 28
Total entries: 204,908 (inc. 42,658 re-entries)
Total prize pools: $11,641,229
First-place prizes: $1,282,105 (inc. bounties)
Events ongoing: 3
Note: Stats refer to completed tournaments only
TWITCH WATCH
Patrick “pads1161” Leonard has recently started experimenting with live streaming his poker play, and last night he had such a great opportunity when he was leading the last 27 of the Big Blowout! heading into its final day. Leonard streamed the whole thing on YouTube and gave so many excellent tips along the way that everybody can learn something from watching this. Spoiler: Leonard didn’t win the tournament (“Death by quads!”), but there’s also a lesson in how he accepted his fate. Here’s the whole broadcast:
COUNTRIES LEADER BOARD
Thirteen tournaments finished on Tuesday night and there were two titles apiece for players from the Netherlands, Brazil and the UK. It keeps the Dutch on top of the leader board, though all the others remain in sight. Russia and Canada finally got off the mark too, so things are starting to take a familiar shape.
Latest standings:
5 titles – Netherlands
4 – Brazil
3 – UK
2 – Estonia, Germany, Mexico, Sweden
1 – Argentina, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Greece, Ireland, Romania, Russia.
STARTING TODAY
Event #11: 8-Max, Midweek Freeze
Buy-ins: $11, $109, $1,050
Guarantees: $80,000, $175,000, $175,000
Event #12: PLO, 6-Max
Buy-ins: $2.20, $22, $215
Guarantees: $10,000, $40,000, $60,000
Event #13: NLHE, 8-Max, Turbo, PKO
Buy-ins: $11, $109, $1,050
Guarantees: $100,000, $200,000, $150,000
