Blowout Series: All the news from Day 22
A win for a popular streamer in Blowout Series, plus three more doubles and some huge, huge prizes. All the latest…
BLOWOUT BULLETIN
Arlie Shaban living the Day 2 dream at the WSOP
And for your latest challenge Arlie… … you need to win a title on the Blowout Series. Challenge accepted! Yes, last night Arlie “Prince Pablo” Shaban, one of PokerStars most enthusiastic poker streamers, enjoyed the kind of tournament he could only once have dreamed of, back when he was a clerk at a car rental firm and trudging through thick snow for another tedious eight hours at an office desk. If you don’t know Shaban’s origin story, check it out, because it stands testament to the power of deciding on a goal and committing to it, breaking out of whatever slump you might find yourself. Shaban has been playing and streaming poker professionally for a good few years now, but last night will have been a major highlight as he steam-rollered his way to the late stages of the $22 buy-in Sunday Cooldown Special Edition (Event #84-M). He took the most from a three-way chop in this 15,572-entry tournament, and then beat Brazil’s “cuco.sebas” into third, and overcame his fellow Canadian “joshdur” heads-up to seal the victory. The title was worth $19,707, including bounties, but it’s the kudos that will spur Shaban onto even greater things. Congratulations Arlie!
Ole Schemion
DoubleDouble for “wizowizo” SchemionSchemion: It’s long been the case that if you want to win a high-stakes tournament on PokerStars, you’ll need to beat Ole “wizowizo” Schemion to do so — and sometimes it’s just not possible. It was proven true again on Sunday night as Schemion picked up his second title during Blowout Series, winning the $2,100 buy-in PKO (Event #82-H), the “high” version of the Sunday Warm-Up. Schemion and Croatia’s “zufo16”, the final two players, each took $46K from the main prize pool and battled for the last bounty. Schemion won the heads-up duel, giving him a bounty haul of $67,906, which dwarfed the $18,625 of zufo16 and indicated that Schemion had been knocking out players left and right through the tournament. His total prize was $114,817, which he added to the $55K he picked up for winning a $215 6-Max event earlier in the series.
Wakil continues exceptional run: There’s not an official leader board for players during this Blowout Series, but Jamil “Jamil11” Wakil would likely be sitting at the top of it if there was. Wakil last night won his second title of the series, and also has at least one runner-up and one third-place finish in other tournaments, as well as another seventh place. Yesterday’s score was the biggest of them all, coming in the $215 buy-in version of the Sunday Cooldown (Event #84-H) and earning the Canadian $72,653, including bounties. Wakil earlier won the $1,050 buy-in Saturday KO. According to Pocket Fives, Wakil now has more than $2.3 million in documented tournament scores, with the vast majority coming on PokerStars. He also won on the Winter Series last time, before its rebrand, so he’s a big fan of tournaments at this time of year.
THE SERIES EXPLAINED | SCHEDULE & RESULTS | ALL BLOG REPORTS
Double Dutch too: On Sunday afternoon, the list of double champions in the Blowout Series had eight names on it. Now, on Monday morning, there are 11. In addition to Ole Schemion and Jamil Wakil, the Dutch player known as “vanEs2k11” also won a second title, taking top spot in the $530 Sunday Supersonic Special Edition (Event #85-H). This is a cracking tournament — a hyper-turbo for high stakes, rounding off the Sunday grind — and this time attracting 812 entries (inc. 193 re-entries). The tournament took two-and-a-half hours to go from start to finish and handed vanEs2k11 $70,227, which represents an exceptional hourly rate. His or her first title during the Blowout Series came on the opening weekend. Victory in the $215 NLHE Turbo was worth $32,946 back then, so this was was more than twice as nice. The full list of double champions during this series is: B4NKR0LL3R (UK), Gwolde (Netherlands), Jamil11 (Canada), Lena900 (Sweden), PIPON777 (Latvia), Serebity_p (Romania), Stiffler8818 (Germany), thx4urm0n3y (Canada), Tr!pleeeee (Poland), vanEs2k11 (Netherlands) and wizowizo (Austria).
Christopher “lissi stinkt” Frank
Frank among candle-burners in Omaha: It was a very long night for Omaha players last night, with tournaments at each of the three buy-in levels of Event #83 only finishing in the very early hours. Christopher “lissi stinkt” Frank won the $1,050 buy-in version, for $59,582, at what would have been 6.25am in Austria, where he’s based. The clock had ticked to 6.30am in Ireland when “GET IN IN !!” won the $109 buy-in event, for $23,148 (after a three-way deal). And it was 8.28am in Belgium when “anouchka.v” completed victory in the $11 tournament, after chopping four ways, and finishing with $10,062. Of course, the amounts of money make it all worthwhile — that and the fact that online poker players are programmed to not need sleep anyhow.
Two more for Lithuania: The Saturday KO, which finished on Sunday evening, turned into a cakewalk for Lithuania. “efkinis24” won the medium tournament (Event #78-M: $109 NLHE, 8-Max, PKO), banking $65,279, including bounties, about 90 minutes after countryman Audrius “Stakelis24” Stakelis picked up the high buy-in version, for $63,364 including bounties. Stakelis has won during SCOOP, made a final table during last year’s EPT Online, and is a regular in the deep stages of the Sunday Million. He is now a Blowout Series champion too, secured during its very first series. Lithuanians have now won four titles this series, half of which came last night.
An incredible side event final table (click to enlarge)
Who cares about a side event? Nobody cares about a side event, right? Wrong. Plain wrong. The Blowout Series hosted a $5K buy-in side event on Sunday night, with a $1 million guarantee. All the usual suspects were in town for it, but none attracted quite so much attention as Lex Veldhuis, PokerStars streamer, and all round sensation. With thousands of people watching the stream, as ever, Veldhuis made it to the last nine and will come back today to play for the title, with $220K up top. Veldhuis is third in chips and up against an incredibly tough line up, led at this stage by Estonia’s “DingeBrinker” and Conor “1_conor_b_1” Beresford. The final table also features Mikita “fish2013” Badziakouski, Teun “tinnoemulder” Mulder, Sam “Str8$$$Homey” Greenwood and “B4NKR0LL3R”, who is looking for a third title in this series.
Still time in the final Big Blowout!: The Blowout Series is edging to its conclusion, but registration is still open in the last Big Blowout! event, which got under way on Sunday. This one has a $1,050 buy-in, but there are satellites running all day that will help you get in on the cheap. It’s going to be worth it. So far, the tournament has attracted 6,526 entries, building the prize pool to $6.5 million and counting. It seems highly likely that the first prize will be more than $1 million. Registration closes at 1.05pm ET.
LATEST RESULTS
| Event | Entries | Prize pool | Winner | Country | Total prize |
| Event #78-L: $11 NLHE, 8-Max, PKO, Mini Saturday KO SE | 31,590 | $309,582 | BoyVn99 | Czech Republic | $19,438†|
| Event #78-M: $109 NLHE, 8-Max, PKO, Saturday KO SE | 6,341 | $634,100 | efkinis24 | Lithuania | $65,279†|
| Event #78-H: $1,050 NLHE, 8-Max, PKO, HRC Saturday KO SE | 338 | $338,000 | Stakelis24 | Lithuania | $63,364†|
| Event #81-L: $5.50 NLHE, 6-Max, Mini Sunday Kickoff SE | 9,455 | $46,330 | export8585 | Sweden | $6,392 |
| Event #81-M: $55 NLHE, 6-Max, Sunday Kickoff SE | 3,730 | $186,500 | mjeg1410 | UK | $26,675 |
| Event #81-H: $530 NLHE, 6-Max | 624 | $312,000 | Tom_Poker_NL | Netherlands | $54,856 |
| Event #82-L: $22 NLHE, PKO | 20,618 | $412,360 | Maty25 | Argentina | $24,895†|
| Event #82-M: $215 NLHE, PKO, Sunday Warm-Up SE | 4,405 | $881,000 | dasslo007 | Luxembourg | $87,727†|
| Event #82-H: $2,100 NLHE, PKO | 281 | $562,000 | wizowizo | Austria | $114,817†|
| Event #83-L: $11 PLO, 6-Max | 8,062 | $100,000 | anouchka.v | Belgium | $10,062* |
| Event #83-M: $109 PLO, 6-Max | 1,850 | $185,000 | GET IN IN !! | Ireland | $23,148* |
| Event #83-H: $1,050 PLO, 6-Max | 318 | $318,000 | lissi stinkt | Austria | $59,582 |
| Event #84-L: $2.20 NLHE, 8-Max, Turbo, PKO | 21,820 | $50,000 | ADRIANOARHS | Greece | $3,562†|
| Event #84-M: $22 NLHE, 8-Max, Turbo, PKO, Mini Sunday Cooldown SE | 15,572 | $311,400 | Prince Pablo | Canada | $19,707*†|
| Event #84-H: $215 NLHE, 8-Max, Turbo, PKO, Sunday Cooldown SE | 3,178 | $635,600 | Jamil11 | Canada | $72,653†|
| Event #85-L: $5.50 NLHE, 6-Max, Hyper-Turbo, Mini Sunday Supersonic SE | 12,573 | $65,000 | Gnik86 | Germany | $8,292 |
| Event #85-M: $55 NLHE, 6-Max, Hyper-Turbo, Sunday Supersonic SE | 5,572 | $291,861 | mbos92 | Netherlands | $37,814 |
| Event #85-H: $530 NLHE, 6-Max, Hyper-Turbo, HRC Sunday Supersonic SE | 812 | $413,730 | vanEs2k11 | Netherlands | $70,228 |
STAT TRACKER
Tournaments completed: 255
Total entries: 1,997,306 (inc. 310,159 re-entries)
Total prize pools: $81,630,471
First-place prizes: $9,954,486 (inc. bounties)
Tournaments ongoing: 1
Starting today: 6
Note: Stats refer to completed tournaments only and do not include side events
TWITCH WATCH
Spraggy made it to 10th place in the $55 buy-in Sunday Kickoff, getting his long grind under way with a $1,481.76 cash. It was a six-max tournament so he was down to the last two tables, and there was a $600 pay jump if he’d managed to inch one place further up the ladder. But…
COUNTRIES LEADER BOARD
There were three titles for Dutch players on Sunday night, as well as two for Canada. That means those two nations remain neck-and-neck in third place overall, still some way back from the leaders Brazil, with the UK in second. There’s not a lot of time left for anyone to change it significantly. Luxembourg won its first title on Sunday, though, and we’re up to 40 different flags for Blowout Series now.
26 titles – Brazil
22 – UK
19 – Canada, Netherlands, Russia
16 – Germany
11 – Austria
10 – Romania, Sweden
8 – Greece
7 – Bulgaria, Poland, Ukraine
6 – Ireland
5 – Argentina, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Mexico
4 – Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania
3 – Croatia, New Zealand, Norway
2 – Belgium, Japan
1 – Belarus, Chile, Guernsey, Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, Mongolia, Panama, Phillipines, Slovenia, Turkmenistan, Uruguay, Vietnam.
STARTING TODAY
Does your series need saving? If so, we have just the event for you. With Blowout Series nearing its conclusion, the Series Saver PKO event starts today, promising prize pools of $500K and $1 million at its higher two price points. Win either of those, and that could pull any bankroll back from the brink.
Event #86: NLHE, 8-Max, Progressive KO, Series Saver
Buy-ins: $11, $109, $1,050
Guarantees: $175,000, $500,000, $1 million
Event #87: NLHE, Turbo
Buy-ins: $2.20, $22, $215
Guarantees: $10,000, $100,000, $150,000
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