Blowout Series: All the news from Day 15
It was a very, very busy Sunday in the Blowout Series with top-ranking winners and millions of dollars changing hands. Without further ado…
BLOWOUT BULLETIN
Ole “wizowizo” Schemion: Heads-up twice
Schemion time: There was just that niggling feeling that something was missing from this Blowout Series so far. And then late last night, it became clear what it was: we hadn’t had a win yet for Ole “wizowizo” Schemion. But all of a sudden, we might have had two. The Austria-based crusher was heads up in two events on Sunday night: the $215 buy-in NLHE 6-Max (Event #53-M) and the $1,050 buy-in 8-Max (Event #54-M). He won one — the first, for $55,417 over a field of 1,835 entries — but had to make do with second in the other, when Erwin “Erdawi98” Wiechers of the Netherlands took it down. Wiechers took $85,785.61, which accounts for more than half his lifetime documented winnings, according to Pocket Fives. Schemion took $63,492.33 for second. In case you need reminding, Schemion has four SCOOP titles, one from WCOOP and countless other victories in major tournaments both live and online. The only surprising thing is that it took him more than two weeks to get on the board in Blowout Series.
Even bigger Big Blowout! Buy-ins in the Blowout Series are getting gradually larger, with the latest Big Blowout!, which started on Sunday, now costing $530 to play. That proved attractive to 9,633 players, who between them added a further 2,580 re-entries, to put $6.106 million in the prize pool already, with registration still open. The tournament resumes at 1.05pm ET, and you have until five minutes before that to sneak in. The winner is already guaranteed $781K, and it will only get bigger as the last minute registrants arrive.
THE SERIES EXPLAINED | SCHEDULE & RESULTS | ALL BLOG REPORTS
Ramiro “ramastar88” Petrone: A “low” win
Petrone takes down “low” high: It’s not only the Big Blowout! that had a huge buy-in on Sunday night. Event #54 was a High Roller, with even the “low” tournament demanding an entry fee of $109. That accounts for its top tier winner: Ramiro “ramastar88” Petrone, the Uruguayan tournament boss, who has victories across all the PokerStars ‘COOPs and in dozens of other major events. Petrone this time overcome a field of 5,838 entries — far bigger than the usual high roller fields — and picked up $82,972 for his troubles. The prize pool of $583,800 was nearly double the $300K guarantee.
Adams leads yet again: Falling off a log? ABC? As pie? There are a few proverbs in the English language to indicate something is easy, but how about “Easy as Tim Adams finds playing high stakes tournament poker”? The brilliant Canadian, who goes by “Tim0thee” on PokerStars is once again the chip leader in the $10K buy-in 8-Max High Roller (Event #54-H), sitting atop the final nine from this 119-entry field. Adams bought in only once but has a couple of big blind advantage over Sami “Lrslzk” Kelopuro at this stage, with the tournament playing to a winner tonight. Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira, Jon “apestyles” Van Fleet and Andras “probirs” Nemeth are also in the incredibly tough last nine. There’s $261K up top.
Andras “probirs” Nemeth: Three deep runs
On the subject of “probirs”… Yet another High Roller regular had a brilliant Sunday night as Andras “probirs” Nemeth took down his first title of the Blowout Series, and enjoyed two other excellent runs. As noted above, Nemeth is in the last nine of the $10K, which resumes today, and he is also currently placed second overall of the 2,973 left in the Big Blowout!. (There’s a long way to go in that one, but still.) In addition to all that, Nemeth was the outright winner of the $1K NLHE Event #55-H, banking $73,050 for beating a field of 401 entries. That’s yet another feather in his cap, with still plenty to play for tonight.
“Tr!pleeeee” becomes fourth double champ: The list of two-time Blowout Series champions grew overnight when Poland’s “Tr!pleeeee” took down a second title of the series. The last time we saw Tr!pleeeee in the winner’s enclosure, he was collecting a cheque for $32,191 having won the $1,050 buy-in Event #17-H, but his latest success was another notch higher. Tr!pleeeee won the $530 buy-in Sunday Cooldown (Event #56-H) which brought a total prize of $88,618, including $49,072 in bounties. Tr!pleeeee joins Niklas “Lena900” Astedt, “Stiffler8818” and “serebity_p” as double champions, with still more than a week to go.
Wakil walks over PKO field: Jamil “Jamil11” Wakil is a regular contender during major PokerStars series and has titles in both WCOOP and SCOOP. He now has one in the Blowout Series too, going one better than his second-place finish last week. Wakil lost heads up to Juanki “B4NKR0LL3R” Vecino in a $2K PKO event on Wednesday night, but bounced back to take down last night’s High Roller Club Saturday KO Special Edition, turning a $1,050 buy-in into $62,660. That included bounty payouts of $37,555, which was more than three times what anyone else managed, suggesting Wakil did almost all of the destruction himself.
Russians on the comeback trail: It’s been a relatively quiet series for players from Russia, who are more usually challenging Brazilians at the very top of the countries leader board at this stage. However, there are signs that the Russians are making a comeback, particularly thanks to Event #48. The $5.50 “low” tournament, which wrapped on Saturday night, gave a first title to Russia’s “scarface7745” (as well as $8,634) and then “$partan4ik” won the $55 buy-in edition a day later, picking up $31,712. The $530 “high” buy-in version ended in a heads-up deal between “RickyMorty10” of Ukraine and one of Russia’s most notable players, the EPT Sochi champion Arsenii “josef_shvejk” Karmatckii. Karmatckii negotiated his way to the bigger payday, earning $32,555, but on this occasion RickyMorty10 took the title. That came with a $31,712 pay cheque, and denied Russia the sweep of the event by the narrowest margins.
LATEST RESULTS
| Event | Entries | Prize pool | Winner | Country | Total prize |
| Event #48-M: $55 NLHE, Deep Stacks | 3,985 | $199,250 | $partan4ik | Russia | $25,611* |
| Event #48-H: $530 NLHE, Deep Stacks | 408 | $204,000 | RickyMorty10 | Ukraine | $31,712* |
| Event #49-L: $11 NLHE, 8-Max, PKO, Mini Saturday KO | 37,445 | $366,961 | Aurel 124 | Russia | $21,856† |
| Event #49-M: $109 NLHE, 8-Max, PKO, Saturday KO | 6,875 | $687,500 | |R2C2|92 | New Zealand | $57,140† |
| Event #49-H: $1,050 NLHE, 8-Max, PKO, HRC Saturday KO | 305 | $305,000 | Jamil11 | Canada | $62,660† |
| Event #52-L: $5.50 NLHE, PKO, Mini Sunday Kickoff SE | 15,294 | $74,941 | ARIAS335 | Greece | $5,182† |
| Event #52-M: $55 NLHE, PKO, Sunday Kickoff SE | 5,905 | $295,250 | Nethos | Czech Republic | $25,899† |
| Event #52-H: $530 NLHE, PKO | 658 | $329,000 | leocir25 | Brazil | $55,945† |
| Event #53-L: $22 NLHE, 6-Max | 10,261 | $205,220 | Lanttupoika | Finland | $23,012* |
| Event #53-M: $215 NLHE, 6-Max | 1,835 | $367,000 | wizowizo | Austria | $55,417 |
| Event #53-H: $2,100 NLHE, 6-Max | 206 | $412,000 | DEX888 | Austria | $67,896* |
| Event #54-L: $109 NLHE, 8-Max | 5,838 | $583,800 | ramastar88 | Uruguay | $82,972 |
| Event #54-M: $1,050 NLHE, 8-Max | 483 | $483,000 | Erdawi98 | Netherlands | $85,786 |
| Event #55-L: $11 NLHE | 20,585 | $201,733 | ac3play | Austria | $20,860 |
| Event #55-M: $109 NLHE | 4,785 | $478,500 | dadowiec | Poland | $55,495* |
| Event #55-H: $1,050 NLHE | 401 | $401,000 | probirs | Hungary | $73,050 |
| Event #56-L: $5.50 NLHE, 8-Max, Turbo, PKO, Mini Sunday Cooldown | 13,705 | $67,155 | cvaismann15 | Brazil | $5,402† |
| Event #56-M: $55 NLHE, 8-Max, Turbo, PKO, Sunday Cooldown | 7,204 | $360,200 | RFN1986 | Brazil | $33,036† |
| Event #56-H: $530 NLHE, 8-Max, Turbo, PKO, HRC Sunday Cooldown | 1,152 | $576,000 | Tr!pleeeee | Poland | $88,618† |
STAT TRACKER
Tournaments completed: 166
Total entries: 1,477,368 (inc. 224,713 re-entries)
Total prize pools: $56,091,509
First-place prizes: $6,615,240 (inc. bounties)
Tournaments ongoing: 2
Starting today: 9
Note: Stats refer to completed tournaments only
TWITCH WATCH
You can learn so much from watching top players on Twitch, and even Spraggy can show you a thing or two. Here’s the British pro jamming over a raise and a shove deep in the $530 PKO, making a calculation based on bounties and the money he can pick up if things go well. And did they go well? Watch to find out…
COUNTRIES LEADER BOARD
With 18 tournaments playing to a conclusion on Sunday night, this might have been the time for some of the underachieving countries to make a charge on the top slot. But it wasn’t to be. It’s not that Austria (three wins) and Russia (two) didn’t try, it’s just that Brazil also picked up another three victories to make it 24 in all, 10 more than anybody else.
24 titles – Brazil
14 – Netherlands
13 – UK
10 – Germany
9 – Canada, Romania, Russia
7 – Austria, Sweden
5 – Ukraine
4 – Argentina, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Poland
3 – Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, Mexico, Norway
2 – Croatia, Latvia
1 – Belarus, Chile, Guernsey, Japan, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Mongolia, New Zealand, Panama, Philippines, Slovenia, Uruguay.
STARTING TODAY
Event #57: NLHE, Progressive KO
Buy-ins: $11, $109, $1,050
Guarantees: $100,000, $350,000, $500,000
Event #58: NLHE, 8-Max
Buy-ins: $2.20, $22, $215
Guarantees: $7,500, $85,000, $175,000
Event #59: NLHE, Heads-Up, Zoom, Turbo, Progressive Total KO
Buy-ins: $5.50, $55, $530
Guarantees: $40,000, $150,000, $125,000
