Big news on Day 17 of the World Championship of Poker (WCOOP). Twitch streamers and Team Pro players Parker “tonkaaaa” Talbot and Benjamin “Spraggy” Spragg both won their first titles of the series and second of their careers. Plus, two experienced players get long overdue wins and Brazil continue to dominate. All this and more…

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TODAY’S HEADLINES

• Parker “tonkaaaa” Talbot earns WCOOP 2021 title
• And so does Spraggy!
• Smiljkovic and Kelopuro get overdue wins
• Brazil claim four titles to pull away on country leaderboards

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BEHIND THE HEADLINES

Parker “tonkaaaa” Talbot is a WCOOP 2021 champion: Last night, streaming live to a peak audience of over 8,000 viewers on Twitch, tonkaaaa grabbed his first WCOOP title of 2021, the second of his career, with a first place finish in the WCOOP 75-H: Midweek Freeze. Final table runners included fellow Canadian “Camilalancefieldg”, who finished third, boosting their leaderboard run in the process. Ramiro “ramastar88” Petrone of Uruguay held the lead when the final table commenced and continued to hold strong to earn second place, bested only by Talbot, who pulled through to earn the title and $108,729. Parker “tonkaaaa” Talbot earned his first WCOOP in 2020, and the recently initiated member of Team Pro now has two to his name.

And Spraggy too!: As if it wasn’t enough to see one PokerStars Ambassador in his element, we were treated to a rare victory from a second Team Pro player. Spraggy’s first career WCOOP title came in 2020 with a win in the 05-L: Mini Sunday Cooldown worth $4,344; a relatively humble sum for the not-so-humble Twitch streamer. This time was bigger, better, and more intense. After dealing with the competition and dispatching second place “Wildace_hun” of Hungary, Spraggy took down the 83-H: PKO Freezeout. for a total of $67,968 ($37k coming by way of knockouts) to earn a well deserved second of his career. Well done Spraggs. We always believed in you.

Daniel Smiljkovic finally gets maiden title: There are certain players who we see time and again in WCOOP, such as Patrick “pads1161” Leonard, who is nearly always in hot pursuit of the top leaderboard spots. And there are other players who we’re always expecting to see win a title, but who somehow miss out. Austrian pro Daniel “SmilleThHero” Smiljkovic falls into the latter category. But with two SCOOP titles earlier this year, it seemed almost inevitable that Smiljkovic would make some sort of impact in WCOOP 2021. He came close in the 42-H earlier in the series, claiming second for $113,745. On Day 17, after a back and forth heads-up battle against “xaneta7777” of the Netherlands in the 75-M, Smiljkovic took first place for $61,090 and finally earned his maiden title.

Sami Kelopuro returns: Fast and furious action in the 82-H: 6-max turbo meant that one player was destined to be a significant sum richer in a matter of hours. On a final table full of pros, including Jonathan “apestyles” Van Fleet (7th place) and Simon “C. Darwin2” Mattsson (4th place), two experienced Finnish players prevailed. “zerodeda” and Sami “Lrzlzk” Kelopuro were left to battle it out heads-up. Zerodeda, already a runner-up twice this year, finished second once again, narrowly missing out on their elusive first WCOOP title. Kelopuro, who earned his first title way back in 2014 and now has $21.9 million in online winnings to his name (along with nearly every poker accolade under the sun), came first for $82,808, bagging his second career title after eight long years. Is this a sign of resurgence from the former world number one? We’d like to think so. 

Four more for Brazil: Brazil have certainly proved themselves a poker nation in WCOOP 2021. A few days ago, they claimed the record for most WCOOP titles in a series by any country, ever, and since then they’ve been adding more and more to that record. On Day 17, Brazilian players picked up four more titles and increased their lead over Russia: “MAIRONFO” won the 75-L for $30,918; “marcelr0x” won the 79-L for $2,890; “Giant_Santos” won the 82-M for $42,775; and “JefersonBonfirm” won the 83-L for $9,774.

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MORE ABOUT WCOOP:
SCHEDULE & RESULTS | SATELLITE GUIDE | SERIES HIGHLIGHTS
RESULTS 2002-2020 | 20 YEARS OF WCOOP | YEAR-BY-YEAR | MULTIPLE CHAMPIONS
OFFICIAL WCOOP PAGE | ALL BLOG REPORTS | DOWNLOAD AND PLAY!

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TODAY’S RESULTS

*denotes deal
†inc. bounties

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STAT TRACKER

WCOOP 2021 events have now paid out a touch under $79 million, including over $12 million to first place finishers. The Main Events are coming, and they’re about to add at least $16 million to the already impressive prize pool stats. We’re also edging closer to the millionth entry this series, a milestone that’s sure to be breached as we enter the final weekend.

Tournaments completed: 235
Entries: 931,721 (inc. 218,296 re-entries)
Prize pools: $78,998,932
First-place prizes: $12,120,689 (inc. $2,196,591 in bounties)
Tournaments ongoing: 11
Tournaments starting today: 0

Stats refer to completed tournaments only

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STATES OF PLAY

A look at what’s happening in the events paused overnight:

The 80-H: $10k High Roller event is on break with an elite final table of players awaiting a potentially lifechanging result when the tournament resumes. Lex Veldhuis is hanging on in ninth place, and right now Austrian pro Christian “WATnlos” Rudolph has the chip lead. The bounties are already huge in this one, and second place Thomas “MarToMchat” Boivin has already scored $40k in knockouts. First place is set for a payout of $107k plus bounties. With such stiff competition and huge payouts, this is definitely one to keep an eye on.

The $1,050 version, the 81-M, will also payout lucrative sums in both prizes and bounties. Brazilian “Breno2728” holds the chip lead with 78 players remaining.

In the 81-H: HORSE event, “NicoBoko” has a solid chip lead, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be an easy run.”FONBET_RULIT”, Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi, and the enigmatic “Camilancefieldg” are still in, and each will be looking to improve their leaderboard position with a top place finish.

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TWITCH WATCH

With two of our Ambassadors winning WCOOP 2021 titles on Day 17, and both streaming live on Twitch, we couldn’t pick just one clip. Instead, let’s compare reactions.

First, here’s Parker “tonkaaaa” Talbot the moment he takes down the 75-H:

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COUNTRIES LEADER BOARD

Brazil bagged four more titles on Day 12, pulling ever further away from Russia, who failed to make their mark. Poland earned two more, and Switzerland’s first title of the series puts them on the winner’s map.

Current standings:

43 titles — Brazil
30 — Russia
20 — UK
15 – Netherlands
14 — Austria
11 —Canada
10 — Sweden
8 — Poland
7 — Finland
6 — Germany, Norway
5 – Belarus, Hungary, Mexico, Ukraine
4 — Argentina, Czech Republic, Latvia
3 — Bulgaria, Lithuania
2 — Costa Rica, Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, Japan, Moldova, Peru, Romania
1 — Andorra, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Croatia, Georgia, New Zealand, Panama, San Marino, Slovenia, Switzerland, Uzbekistan.

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PLAYER OF THE SERIES UPDATE

The Canadian player who has been taking WCOOP 2021 by storm, “Camilancefieldg” earned enough points from a third place finish and two further cashes to take the top spot on the Overall leaderboard, joint with Patrick “pads1161” Leonard, pushing “FONBET_RULIT” down to third in what is becoming a very tight race indeed.

OVERALL

1 – Camilancefieldg (Canada) – 1,350 points
2 – Patrick “pads1161” Leonard (UK) – 1,350
3 – FONBET_RULIT (Russia) – 1,320
4 – Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi (UK) – 1,275
5 – Konstantin “krakukra” Maslak (Russia) – 1,165
Prize: $25,000 to the winner

HIGH

1 – Joao “Naza114” Vieira (Netherlands) – 735 points
2 – Patrick “pads1161” Leonard (UK) – 700
3 – Yuri “theNERDguy” Martins (Brazil) – 625
4 – Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi (UK) – 575
5 – Jussi “calvin7v” Nevanlinna (Finland) – 545
Prizes: 1st — $15,000; 2nd — $10,000; 3rd — $5,000

MEDIUM

1 – FONBET_RULIT (Russia) – 580 points
2 – Matt “OLD TIME GIN” Stone (Canada) – 535
3 – Camilancefieldg (Canada) – 525
4 – Bernando “bedias” Dias (Brazil) – 410
5 – Jerry “Perrymejsen” Odeen (Sweden) – 430
Prizes: 1st — $10,000; 2nd — $7,500; 3rd — $5,000; 4th — $2,500; 5th — $1,500; 6th-10th — $1,000

LOW

1 – ekvilibryst (Ukraine) – 585 points
2 – ILoveScarfGuy (Croatia) – 565
3 – Camilancefieldg (Canada) – 545
4 – renemastermi (Germany) – 500
5 – WTFOMFGOAO (Russia) – 495
Prizes: 1st — $5,000; 2nd — $2,500; 3rd — $1,500; 4th — $1,000; 5th — $500; 6th-10th — $300; 11th-20th — $150

Read a full explanation of this year’s promotions.

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TODAY’S ACTION

Today is rest day, so they’ll be no events starting and tournaments that are currently on break will resume on Saturday. For those who can’t wait, there are three interesting Side Events happening. They won’t count towards titles or leaderboard points, but the prizes are still real.

WCOOP SIDE EVENT: PL Fusion, 6-max
Buy-ins: $2.20, $22, $215
Guarantees: $2K, $7.5K, $20K

WCOOP SIDE EVENT: 8-Game, 6-max (Chat pros choice)
Buy-ins: $5.50, $22, $215
Guarantees: $10K, $20K, $25K

WCOOP SIDE EVENT: PKO, 6-max, turbo, 25BB stacks
Buy-ins: $11, $55, $215
Guarantees: $20K, $30K, $40K

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WATCH THE ACTION ON TWITCH AND YOUTUBE

Live broadcasts of WCOOP 2021 go out every Monday through Wednesday featuring cards up coverage of the biggest final tables and expert commentary from James Hartigan, Joe Stapleton and a host of special guests. Click for full details.

You can watch on the PokerStars YouTube channel, the PokerStars YouTube UK channel, or PokerStars’ Twitch channel.

Broadcast schedule:

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POKER NEWS LIVE UPDATES

Our friends at Poker News will be bringing you live updates from a number of events during WCOOP. Head to their Live Reporting pages to see the action unfold in real time.

Poker News WCOOP reporting schedule:

WCOOP 80-H: $10,300 NLHE [8-Max, Progressive KO, High Roller], $750K Gtd
WCOOP 91-L: $55 NLHE [8-Max, NLHE Main Event], $1.5M Gtd
WCOOP 91-M: $530 NLHE [8-Max, NLHE Main Event], $2.5M Gtd
WCOOP 91-H: $5,200 NLHE [8-Max, NLHE Main Event], $10M Gtd
WCOOP 92-M: $1,050 PLO [6-Max, PLO Main Event], $750K Gtd
WCOOP 92-H: $10,300 PLO [6-Max, PLO Main Event], $1M Gtd
WCOOP 94-H: $1,050 NLHE [8-Max, Progressive KO, Series Saver], $1.25M Gtd
WCOOP 01-H: $109 NLHE [Phase 2], $1M Gtd

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PREVIOUS REPORTS

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