PokerStars WCOOP Day 18: Viktor Blom, 'Tankanza' Claim First Titles

September 21, 2017

Matthew Pitt Senior Editor

The 2017 PokerStars World Championship Of Online Poker continued on Sep. 20 with Day 18 of the $60 million guaranteed online poker festival. Viktor "Isildur1" Blom was the biggest name to capture a title — his first ever in a WCOOP event — while one the biggest prizes of the series was awarded in Event #57.

WCOOP-57-H: $2,100 NLHE Super Tuesday Final Table Results

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Tankanza	Austria	$230,740*
2	Pimmss	Netjerlands	$206,776*
3	malinga	Norway	$137,416
4	GotURead	Netherlands	$101,559
5	molda79	Canada	$75,058
6	Ivan “hurrrrican3” Gabrieli	Malta	$55,472
7	Sanderssi	Finland	$40,997
8	Picasso 2	United Kingdom	$30,299
9	anteen	Sweden	$22,393

*reflects a heads-up deal

The 57th high-stakes event of the 2017 WCOOP was a $2,100 edition of the ever-popular Super Tuesday. PokerStars set the guarantee at $1,250,000 so when 726 players headed to the virtual felt, that guarantee was smashed by $202,000.

Sixty-four players made it through to Day 2 of the event and each was guaranteed at least $5,101 in cash for their efforts. The likes of Dylan “ImaLucSac” Linde, “girafganger7,” and “bencb789” were among those to bust during Day 2.

Hailing from the United Kingdom, “Gandalf MR,” was the final table bubble boy, busting in 10th place for $17,500 when he pushed his suited king-jack into the pocket kings of “anteen” and couldn’t suck out.

Ninth-place went to anteen who found himself short stacked and moving all-in with ace-nine only to be called by “GotURead” who held the dominating ace-queen. Both players caught an ace on the river but the rest of the board was low, which brought the queen-kicker in GotURead hand into play. Game over for anteen.

Many players’ tournaments end on a coinflip and that is what happened to the UK’s “Picasso 2” when he was eliminated in eighth-place. Picasso 2 went all in with ace-king and “Tankanza” called with a pair of queens. Neither player improved on the nine-high board, but Tankaza didn’t need to and thus busted Picasso 2.

Tankanza then reduced the player count by one when he min-raised with pocket aces then had an easy call when “Sanderssi” three-bet all-in with what turned out to be pocket fours. The aces remained the best hand throughout the hand and with that there were only six players left in the tournament.

Those six became five when Ivan “hurrrrican3” Gabrieli of Malta was sent to the showers. Again, it was Tankanza who did the damage, raising then calling an all-in with ace-jack and besting the pocket jacks of his opponent courtesy of the ace of diamonds on the turn.

With only five players remaining, the tournament was paused so the finalists could discuss a deal. A lengthy discussion ensued but no deal was struck and play continued as originally planned.

Another short stack in “molda79” exited in fifth place when his shove with king-nine was called by “Pimmss” of the Netherlands with a pair of sevens. The sevens held, molda79 bust and the four players with chips in front of them were now guaranteed a six-figure score.

The first player to get their hands on more than $100,000 was GotURead. A raise to 360,000 by Pimmss was three-bet all-in for 3,012,052 by GotUrRead and Pimmss called. The Dutchman held ace-eight of spades and was against the queen-ten of spades of GotURead. Both players improved to a flush on the turn but it was Pimmss who had the nut flush and GotURead who had to leave the tournament.

Three-handed play only spanned three hands and ended when all the chips went in on the turn of the jack-eight-five-two board, “malinga” holding eight-six and Pimmss holding king-jack. Malinga couldn’t find one of his outs on the river and the tournament progress to the heads-up stage.

At this point, Tankanza was trailing 13,290,754 to 23,009,246 chips and the players struck a deal that locked up $201,700 for Tankanza, $206,776 for Pimmss and left $29,040 for the eventual champion.

It took 30-minuts for Tankanza to claw himself back in front and from there he never looked back. The final hand of the tournament saw Pimmss leading by almost five-to-one in chips and Pimmss’ stack went into the middle on the turn of the 10♠6♠5♣4♣ board with 6♥4♦ and Tankanza holding the 3♣2♣ for a straight and a flush draw. The J♣ river gifted Tankanza a flush and the title.

WCOOP NEWS AND NOTES

Viktor “Isildur1” Blom took down the WCOOP-58-H: $2,100 HORSE for a cool $60,760, defeating Finland’s “GlassOfBeer” heads-up in the process.
Finnish pro “miikka84” triumphed in WCOOP-56-H: $530 NL Courchevel Hi/Lo 6-Max to bank $26,798 after a heads-up chops.
The popular Win the Button tournament (WCOOP-55-H: $3215 NLHE Win the Button 8-Max) saw a 1,466-strong field outlasted by “extnl01” of the Netherlands, a result that netted him $45,190.
Bulgaria's Viliyan "PSMozak" Petleshkov extended his lead in the WCOOP leaderboard and now has 650 points with “ImluckNuts” of Russia occupying second place on 620 points. The winner at the end of the series will receive a trophy, $20,000 in cash and a PokerStars Caribbean Adventure package.

Day 18 WCOOP Winners

Event	Buy-In	Prize Pool	Champion	Prize
#53 NLHE-L	$27	$305,254	odessit1982	$39,181
#54 NLHE-L PKO 6-Max	$11	$117,520	38bf46	$10,177*
#55 NLHE-H Win the Button 8-Max	$215	$293,200	etxnl01	$45,190
#56 NL Courchevel HL 6-Max	$530	$149,000	miikka84	$26,798
#57 NLHE-H	$2,100	$1,452,000	Tankanza	$230,740
#58 HORSE-H	$2,100	$248,000	Viktor “Isildur1” Blom	$60,760