A further 49 tournaments have been completed in Winter Series since we last caught up. Where have all the titles been going? Here’s the latest…

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Mattsson bags hat-trick:

The irrepressible Simon “C. Darwin2” Mattsson became a three-time champion for Winter Series on Friday night when he won the Thursday Thrill Special Edition, here otherwise known as Winter Series Event 82-H, a $2,100 buy-in PKO event.

This particular tournament came with a prize of $35,768, which Mattsson complemented with $38,516 in bounty payments, for a near $75K total haul. In this series alone, Mattsson has also won the $2K Sunday High Roller and a $1K six-max tournament. Three wins in a series is roughly par for the course for the brilliant Swede.

Click for Winter Series results so far and schedule to come

Canadian crusher makes it two:

Close observers of major PokerStars series will be familiar now with the name of “Camilancefieldg”, who challenged for Player of the Year honours throughout WCOOP last autumn. This player from Canada is back for more during Winter Series and on Saturday night won a second title of this series, beating the 42-strong field in the $530 Stud.

It was worth $7,672, which was slightly less than the defeated heads-up opponent “h3pp4p01k4”, of Finland, took after the pair arranged a deal. But it’s the Canadian who finds themselves back on the winner’s list, a place they must be feeling pretty comfortable now.

Magwitch delivers on great expectations:

There were two other double Winter Series champions crowned over the weekend, one on Friday night/Saturday morning and the other on Saturday night/Sunday morning. The first was the UK’s “magwitch78”, who won the $55 buy-in Stud event, picking up $3,850 for defeating a 329-entry field.

magwitch78 also won the $11 8-Max NLHE Turbo, which concluded the previous night/morning, winning two titles in two days. Obviously, the NLHE event, with a smaller buy-in and an infinitely more popular variant, attracted many more entries — the field was 10,400 strong — but magwitch78 demonstrated skills to win in both and is surely one to watch. The other double winner was Slovenia’s “MQTR11”, who added victory in the $22 PLO 5-Max PKO Turbo to victory in the $109 PLO 5-Max Hyper. Clearly five-handed PLO plays into MQTR11’s hands.

NEWFlat continues to add to mortgage pot:

Buying a new house with a poker win is the kind of extravagance dreamed about by amateurs entering a huge live tourney. But a Russian player named “NEWFlat” suggests such a purchase might be on their mind — and they’ve gone a long way to achieving it thanks to performances in Winter Series.

During the series’ first weekend, NEWFlat won $27K along with the title in a $55 8-Max event, beating a field of 4,297 entries. And then on Sunday night, NEWFlat was top of the podium again, this time in a $109 buy-in PKO freezout, which had 3,354 players. That’s two huge fields, two huge wins, the second of which was worth another $36,673. Who knows what property costs in the part of Russia this player is from, but the combined haul could certainly buy a new flat in plenty of places.

Main Events beat guarantees; ensure huge winners:

The three Winter Series Main Events got started on Sunday night and played past their bubble. In the $5,200 buy-in high event, 429 entries ensured a prize pool of $2.14 million, which will mean $384K for the winner.

There are 55 players and two days left in that one. The $530 buy-in medium event has 331 players left, from a starting field of 3,936. That means a scheduled first prize of $281K. And as for the “low” buy-in event, there’s $1.27 million in the prize pool there, from 25,414 entries. When the 734 players remaining find their champion, that player will turn $55 into $129K.

WINTER SERIES 2021-22 STAT TRACKER

The latest stats on the series so far. More than 1.1 million, not including Main Events.

Tournaments completed: 251
Entries: 1,171,583 (inc. 364,473 re-entries)
Prize pools: $47,046,087
First-place prizes: $6,853,395 (inc. $1,580,210 in bounties)

Note: Stats represent completed tournaments only

COUNTRIES LEADER BOARD

There have been winners from 35 different nations in this Winter Series, and some standout performances from developing poker nations. Romania has secured 14 titles, as many as the UK, while Slovenia’s five also represents a high water mark for the European nation.

40 titles – Brazil
29 – Russia
21 – Canada
17 – Sweden
15 – Germany
14 – Romania, UK
10 – Ukraine
8 – Austria, Finland, Ireland
7 – Lithuania
6 – Poland
5 – Hungary, Malta, Slovenia
4 – Czech Republic
3 – Argentina, Belarus, Belgium, Mexico, Norway
2 – Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Georgia, Greece
1 – Armenia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Peru, Uruguay, Vietnam.

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