2020 PokerStars EPT Online

It took a bit more than six hours on the fourth day of play for "DON JOHAN" to take down the win in the first event of the 2020 PokerStars EPT Online. They came into the final day with the second biggest stack, but they were well behind the start of day chip leader.

It wasn't an easy run for the eventual winner, even after they made it through 2,417 other players to make the final nine. More than once they were short stacked during three-handed play, and they were all in for their life with an under pair, but flopped a set to stay alive. That was the turning point, as they eliminated start of day leader Daniel “Kihlström” Kihlström a few hands later to take a big lead into heads up.

The Final Table

Tournament's Action

The epic EPT Online 01: $1,050 NLHE [Arena Championship] was the lead off event for the first ever 2020 PokerStars EPT Online. It was clear early the online edition of the EPT would be a success as the $1.5M guarantee was broken before the end of Level 6, and Day 1 topped out with $2,179,000 in the prize pool.

Players weren't done though. Just 622 players were left after Day 1 action, but with registration open till the start of Day 2, the Day 2 starting field swelled to nearly 900, putting the final prize pool at $2.426M. Day 2 was expected to play down to 72 players, but the final hand of the day saw two eliminations, which meant just 71 players came back for Day 3.

Kihlström emerged as the chip leader at the end of Day 3, taking almost twice as many chips into the final day as "DON JOHAN". Once the final table started, they played for about an hour before Audrius "Stakelis24" Stakelis was the first person eliminated, and another hour till Jeiko "JEIK0" Palma followed in 8th after his queens were cracked by the ace-queen of Kihlström.

"ImTheNuts1" was the next to go after getting coolered with ace-king into kings, but it took another hour or so for Guilherme "Guizãoo_" Carmo and Gustavo “MachadinhaRS” Rocha to bust one after the other. They battled four-handed for more than an hour before Andrey "drupa-lucker" Chernokoz lost a race in fourth.

Three handed was a raucous affair, with the lead changing several times before start of day leader Daniel “Kihlström” Kihlström busted in 3rd when "DON JOHAN" got there for a straight. That set up a quick heads up that saw "DON JOHAN" take it down over Canadian "smoothieg" who started the final table with the shortest stack, but managed to run that up to better than $250K for second place.

Action continues from the 2020 PokerStars EPT Online through the week, so check back daily at PokerNews to follow the action.

The final two players briefly talked about a deal, but decided to play on, but it didn't last long. A few hands in "smoothieg" raised to 17M, "DON JOHAN" reraised to 49M, and "smoothieg" shoved for more than 258M and got the call.

"smoothieg":
"DON JOHAN":

Board:

"DON JOHAN" had the best of it from the start, and held to bust "smoothieg" in 2nd for $254,316.

After being whittled down to under 100M, Daniel “Kihlström” Kihlström called off a small blind shove from "DON JOHAN".

"DON JOHAN":
Daniel “Kihlström” Kihlström:

Board:

Neither player had a club, but "DON JOHAN" had the eight for a straight and left Kihlström felted for $181,285.

It was limp-call before the flop of , and "DON JOHAN" check-called a bet of 6M. They check-called again for 18M on the 4c turn when Daniel “Kihlström” Kihlström bet and fired 31.125M on the river. Kihlström called, but mucked to the .

"smoothieg" raised to 14M from the small blind, and "DON JOHAN" called from the big. They called again for 18M on the flop, but when the turn came , "smoothieg" check-raised a bet of 33,125,000 to 78M, sending "DON JOHAN" deep into their time bank before they finally found a fold.

Twice in a row, "smoothieg" raised, then folded to shoves from "DON JOHAN", and that allowed "DON JOHAN" to chip up to almost 200M

There was a lot of chip movement right before the break. "DON JOHAN" took the lead briefly with a pot won on the flop, then doubled "smoothieg" up, before smoothieg gave some chips to Daniel “Kihlström” Kihlström on the last hand before the break.