Blowout Series: All the news from Day 4
More big names are taking the cake in the Blowout Series, where prize pools have now surpassed $14 million. Here’s the latest bulletin from the PokerStars tables.
BLOWOUT BULLETIN
Robin “robinho” Ylitalo: First Blowout victory
Swedes running hot: Hot on the heels of Niklas “Lena900” Astedt’s victory in Blowout Series yesterday, another Tier 1 Swedish pro hit the high notes on Wednesday night. Robin “robinho” Ylitalo, who won a SCOOP title in May and made the final table of the WCOOP Main Event in September, took down the Blowout Series $109 NLHE 8-Max (Event #08-M) last night, banking $66,529. According to Pocket Fives, that pushes Ylitalo’s lifetime total tournament wins past $13.1 million, of which $7.8 million has come on PokerStars. Ylitalo is also a former EPT London champion, who has been as high as ranked No 2 in the world online. This victory came over a field of 4,669 entries.
Palma builds on WCOOP success: Another player who broke out during WCOOP has continued some fine form into Blowout Series: Jeiko “JEIK0” Palma won the $1,050 NLHE 8-Max (Event #08-H) last night a couple of months after chopping the WCOOP Sunday Slam, for the biggest win of his career. Palma prevailed after some ridiculously tough final stages, where his last three opponents were Konstantin “krakukra” Maslak, Bruno “botteonpoker” Botteon and Pascal “Päffchen” Hartmann. During his WCOOP win, Palma had been happy to chop with Rinat “zapazahmaki” Lyapin and Eduardo “Eduardo850” Silva, but there was no such agreement this time. Instead they played all the way to the end, with Palma beating Maslak heads-up and taking the $65,045 prize. It was a first Blowout Series win for Panama.
THE SERIES EXPLAINED | SCHEDULE & RESULTS | ALL BLOG REPORTS
Freezes go to UK, Estonia and Finland The $1,050 high buy-in Midweek Freeze went to the UK’s “tryckymartin“, who beat a field of 164 to the $35,281 first prize. tryckymartin last month won the $215 “Fat Sunday” turbo for $14,447, but more than doubled that haul in the Blowout Series. There was an even bigger prize pool in the $109 buy-in “medium” version of this event, however, and another champion from Estonia. This time “vlp22” bagged $40,786.37 for winning that one, beating Greece’s “jimbigboss” heads up and earning a third title of this series for the northern European nation. It was only appropriate that the third Midweek Freeze title went to another freezing place: Finland’s “tikidiii” won the $11 version, for $16,845.
Two-time Milly, one time Blowout: We’re still no nearer applying a real name to the Canadian crusher who plays on PokerStars as “thx4urm0n3y“, but we can now say this: he or she is also a Blowout Series champion, in addition to a two-time Sunday Million winner. There aren’t many people who have done the double in the Milly, but thx4urm0n3y did it in August and February of 2017 (following a runner-up finish in 2014). Last night, the game was PLO, with a $215 buy-in, and thx4urm0n3y beat a field of 55 entries, after chopping heads up with “_pauL€FauL_” of Austria.
Romanian PKO double: Two of the three tournaments comprising Event #13 went to Romanian players as “powermuv” won the $11 “low” buy-in version and “Serebity_p” won the $1,050 “high”. Of course, the former had to beat far more players to secure the win, prevailing from a field of 15,343 to earn $11,276, including bounties, while Serebity_p steered through a 189-entry field, winning $42,513, including bounties. It was certainly tough for Serebity_p though, whose final two opponents were the very familiar German “nilsef” and Markku “markovitsus” Koplimaa, of Estonia, who was seeking a second Blowout Series title. But Serebity_p took both their scalps and their bounties, finishing with $9K more in bounty payments than what he earned from the regular prize pool. (The split was $16,646 from the main prize pool and $25,867 from bounties).
LATEST RESULTS
| Event | Entries | Prize pool | Winner | Country | Total prize |
| Event #08-L: $11 NLHE, 8-Max | 21,966 | $215,267 | vandir4rek | Russia | $19,270* |
| Event #08-M: $109 NLHE, 8-Max | 4,669 | $466,900 | robinho | Sweden | $66,529 |
| Event #08-H: $1,050 NLHE, 8-Max | 326 | $350,000 | JEIK0 | Panama | $65,046 |
| Event #11-L: $11 NLHE, 8-Max, Midweek Freeze | 14,518 | $142,276 | tikidiii | Finland | $16,845 |
| Event #11-M: $109 NLHE, 8-Max, Midweek Freeze | 2,807 | $280,700 | vlp22 | Estonia | $40,786 |
| Event #11-H: $1,050 NLHE, 8-Max, Midweek Freeze | 164 | $175,000 | tryckmartin | UK | $35,281 |
| Event #12-L: $2.20 PLO, 6-Max | 7,039 | $13,796 | lucksomuch77 | Russia | $1,781* |
| Event #12-M: $22 PLO, 6-Max | 4,305 | $10,820 | Golf9797 | Ireland | $10,820* |
| Event #12-H: $215 PLO, 6-Max | 550 | $110,000 | thx4urm0n3y | Canada | $18,408* |
| Event #13-L: $11 NLHE, 8-Max, Turbo, PKO | 15,343 | $150,361 | powermuv | Romania | $11,276†|
| Event #13-M: $109 NLHE, 8-Max, Turbo, PKO | 3,270 | $327,000 | pruebaprueba | Mexico | $36,634†|
| Event #13-H: $1,050 NLHE, 8-Max, Turbo, PKO | 189 | $189,000 | Serebity_p | Romania | $42,513†|
| Daily totals | 75,146 | $2,431,121 | $365,191 |
†inc. bounties
*denotes deal
STAT TRACKER
Events completed: 40
Total entries: 223,884 (inc. 56,170 re-entries)
Total prize pools: $14,072,350
First-place prizes: $1,647,296 (inc. bounties)
COUNTRIES LEADER BOARD
After a first win for Finland and Panama, 17 nations are now represented on the Blowout Series leader board.
Latest standings:
5 titles – Netherlands
4 – Brazil, UK
3 – Estonia, Mexico, Romania, Russia, Sweden
2 – Canada, Germany, Ireland
1 – Argentina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Panama.
TWITCH WATCH
It’s been a relatively quiet week on Twitch, at least as far as the people who clip sections out for embedding on websites are concerned. But that’s OK because Spraggy is doing their work for them. Here’s his highlights of the week:
STARTING TODAY
It’s New Years Eve today, just in case you hadn’t noticed, and we’re keeping it brief in the Blowout Series in case you have other plans. Only two events are starting and they’re both turbos — one, in fact, is a hyper.
Event #14: NLHE, Turbo
Buy-ins: $5.50, $55, $530
Guarantees: $30,000, $75,000, $50,000
Event #15: NLHE, 6-Max, Hyper-Turbo, Progressive KO
Buy-ins: $2.20, $22, $215
Guarantees: $25,000, $85,000, $125,000
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