Pedro "PadiLhA SP" Padilha Wins Second WCOOP Title in the $10K High Roller ($192,548)
Brazil's Pedro "PadiLhA SP" Padilha emerged victorious in the WCOOP-14-H: $10,300 NLHE High Roller at PokerStars after agreeing to a heads-up deal with fellow countrymate Pablo "pabritz" Brito, awarding the duo $208,311 and $203,118 respectively.
The High Roller featured the biggest buy-in event thus far in the 2021 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) and didn't disappoint with 101 entries generating a $1,010,000 prize pool to squeak past the $1,000,000 guarantee.
This was the second career WCOOP title for Padilha after previously winning the WCOOP-17-H: $1,050 NLHE PKO in 2019 for $192,548.
Padilha entered the final table near the top of the back in an up-and-down battle en route to victory.
2021 WCOOP-14-H: $10,300 NLHE High Roller Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pedro "PadiLhA SP" Padilha | Brazil | $208,311* |
| 2 | Pablo "pabritz" Brito | Brazil | $203,118* |
| 3 | Alexandros "Pwndidi" Theologis | Greece | $137,191 |
| 4 | Alexandros "mexican222" Kolonias | Greece | $105,330 |
| 5 | Mark "AceSpades11" Radoja | Canada | $80,869 |
| 6 | "Darwinsfish" | Netherlands | $62,088 |
| 7 | Thomas "WushuTM" Muehloecker | Austria | $47,669 |
| 8 | Teun "tinnoemulder" Mulder | Netherlands | $36,599 |
| 9 | "kZhh" | Hungary | $30,610 |
*Reflects heads-up deal.
Final Table Action
The final table was a deep-stacked affair with players starting with an average stack of 46 big blinds and blinds increasing slowly at 30 minutes each with Alexandros "mexican222" Kolonias kicking the action off with the lead.
The chip lead was quickly passed around like a hot potato between Kolonias, Brito, and Alexandros "Pwndidi" Theologis, while at the same time Teun "tinnoemulder" Mulder and "kZhh" hit the rail for the first casualties of the day.
Padilha got his first taste as the table captain at the expense of a huge cooler for Thomas "WushuTM" Muehloecker to send him packing in seventh place. Padilha jammed the river with a full house holding trey-deuce suited and Muehloecker called off with a flush holding queen-eight suited.
The Brazilian steamrolled ahead and eliminated both Mark "AceSpades11" Radoja and "Darwinsfish" and at one point during four-handed play Padilha had triple the chips of his nearest competitor.
It appeared that things may have fallen apart for Padilha as he doubled up Theologis before doubling up Brito twice to give the latter the chip lead. Padilha got the lead back and eliminated Kolonias in fourth place.
Brito took the lead back before heads-up play when his snowmen improved to a full house to eliminate Theologis who held ace-jack for trips with two jacks and an eight on the board.
Deal Agreed Heads-Up
Brito entered heads-up play with a marginal chip-lead against Padilha when the duo quickly agreed to a heads-up deal leaving $10,000 to play for to even out the payouts.
The chip lead quickly went back-and-forth between the duo before Padilha won a crucial hand to double-up with queen-ten for broadway against Brito's ace-ten for top pair. Soon after that, Brito jammed his top pair on the turn with king-nine and was out of chips after Padilha called with two pair holding nine-eight.
Thanks to the deal that was made, Brito walked away with $203,118 instead of the scheduled $178,689, while Padilha won $208,311 for his second WCOOP title instead of the $232,739 top prize.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be here to bring you coverage throughout the 2020 WCOOP so make sure to stick around.