The first-ever Mountain Series on PokerStars was a huge success. Most of the tournaments meet and beat the posted guarantees, and plenty of winners walked away large paydays.
The online poker series took place from April 7-10, 2016, with 10 exciting tournaments with mountain-themed names. Over $4 million was guaranteed across the prize pools, and, as the festival's name suggests, each tournament featured a higher buy-in than the last.
Australia's Matt "mjw006" Wakeman was the first player to win big in the festival taking by outlasting a huge field of 16,930 players in the Mountain Series — $11 Sugarloaf, NL Hold'em [Big $11 Special Edition], $100K Gtd to win $17,829 on April 7. Later in the day, Latvia's "GeorgeJGB" scored almost as big after taking down the Mountain Series — $33 Snaefell, NL Hold'em [Progressive Super-Knockout], $100K Gtd for $15,507 ($8,537 prize, $6,970 in bounties).
The following day, Canada's "shaolin0927" hauled in $23,404 by winning the Mountain Series — $55 Olympus, NL Hold'em, $100K Gtd after agreeing to a three-way deal with Norway's "Ezbn91" and Ireland's Shaun "silage89" Conroy who each collected $19,404 for their second- and third-place finishes. Also on April 8, Brazil's Fabiano "Kovalski1" Kovalski banked $27,531 for finishing on top of the Mountain Series — $109 Fuji, NL Hold'em [6-Max], $100K Gtd.
The next two days featured three tournaments each. To start things off on April 9, Romania's Vlad "dariepoker" Darie took down the only tournament that failed to meet its posted guarantee in the Mountain Series — $215 Matterhorn, PL Omaha [6-Max, 3-Stack], $150K Gtd to collect $26,445.
Estonia's Matthias "blueskyyM" Tikerpe managed to beat Ireland's Kevin "torino2000" Killeen during heads-up play to take down the Mountain Series — $320 Mont Blanc, NL Hold'em [Progressive Super-Knockout], $350K Gtd for $58,599 ($39,726 prize, $18,873.08 in bounties).
To wrap up the day, Canada's Jason "JayBokes" Bokor climbed his way to win the Mountain Series — $530 Elbrus, NL Hold'em [8-Max, Reentry, 2-Day Event], $500K Gtd for $99,616.
Sunday kicked off in a huge way with American poker refugee Doug "WCG|Rider" Polk snagging the top prize of $162,952 with a victory in the Mountain Series — $700 Kilimanjaro, NL Hold'em, $750K Gtd. Other notable players to score big in this tournament included Lithuania's Matas "bebaimis777" Cimbolas (2nd - $119,172), Canada's David "d.quang" Quang (5th - $47,669), and Sweden's Niklas "Lena900" Åstedt (8th - $18,484).
Also on Sunday, Brazil's Joao Paolo "IneedMassari" Simao outlasted a star-studded field in the Mountain Series — $1,050+R Denali, PL Omaha [6-Max], $500K Gtd to win $167,420. Other well-known players on the final table in this tournament included United Kingdom's Stephen "stevie444" Chidwick (3rd - $87,515), Norway's Ola "Odd_Oddsen" Amundsgaard (5th - $45,660), and Lebanon's Nicolas "niccc" Chouity (6th - $30,440).
The biggest tournament in the series, the Mountain Series — $2,100 Mount Everest, NL Hold'em [Reentry] began on Sunday, but ended on Monday. Costa Rica's "majagua69" was king of the hill in this tournament by outlasting a field of 973 entrants to haul in a huge payday of $350,280.
Three notable players to also appear on the final table in this tournament included Brazil's Rodrigo "rodckz" Motoki (6th - $77,840), Russia's Anton "unfrosya" Afanasiev (8th - $38,920), and United Kingdom's Stephen "woody1234321" Woodhead (9th - $23,352)
Here is a look at all of the final table results of the Mountain Series on PokerStars:
Mountain Series - $11 Sugarloaf, NL Hold'em [Big $11 Special Edition], $100K Gtd
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Doug "WCG|Rider" Polk ships the PokerStars Mountain Series $700 Kilimanjaro for $162,952!
Costa Rica's "majagua69" ships the PokerStars Mountain Series $2,100 Mount Everest for $350,280!
