"pilaa" Wins the PokerStars Blowout Series: $109 NLHE – The Big Blowout! for $381,174
After almost six hours, the PokerStars Blowout Series: $109 NLHE – The Big Blowout! has crowned a winner in "pilaa" from the Netherlands who collected $381,174 after agreeing to a four-way deal with "n3kt", "leonardoc01", and Jack "JBHInfinity" Hardcastle. The tournament attracted 37,673 entries on Day 1 to not surpass the $5,000,000 guaranteed prize pool.
The Dutchman's previous best result on PokerStars hails from a win in the Winter Series 45-L: $22 NLHE [6-Max], $150K Gtd at the start of the year for $21,247, and with this result here today, they are closing the year off with an amazing new record. "n3kt" also achieved a new personal best as their previous best score was for $8,565.
PokerStars Blowout Series: $109 NLHE – The Big Blowout! Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "pilaa" | The Netherlands | $381,174* |
| 2 | "n3kt" | Canada | $260,165* |
| 3 | "leonardoc01" | Brazil | $342,876* |
| 4 | Jack "JBHInfinity" Hardcastle | United Kingdom | $270,764* |
| 5 | "gab0120" | Hungary | $125,440 |
| 6 | "cram66" | Germany | $89,418 |
| 7 | "Eldarion90" | The Netherlands | $63,740 |
| 8 | Andreas "derbegott" Ponath | Germany | $45,436 |
| 9 | "gurgleberry2" | United Kingdom | $32,389 |
* denotes a four-way deal
Race to the Final Table
"x_GusHansen_" started the day as the shortest stack and would also become the first player to bust today when they ran their ace-five into the tens of Andreas "derbegott" Ponath. "Cecaka15" followed immediately after but it would then take almost 25 minutes before Rodrigo "rodrigorpv" Valente would fall to "leonardoc01".
This would be the start of a slew of eliminations with "CoolBadBeat", "NessV", "Dvp92", "madiite", and "FAT3333" falling before the first break of the day. Forty minutes later, Day 2 chip leader, Patrick "pads1161" Leonard was eliminated by "pilaa" for a chip lead pot when he four-bet shoved with ace-king and was looked up by the latter who held pocket queens. The two queens on the flop immediately dashed any hopes Leonard held to double up and to see him bust in fifteenth place.
Egor "Egor699" Boriskin fell to "cram66" before Cesar "cautiioN" Antenore was eliminated by "gab0120". In the end, it would be "Dannywilbier" who would bubble the final table when they put their tournament life at risk with ace-eight and was called by by Ponath who held pocket eights.
From Nine Players to One Winner
"pilaa" started the final table with the chip lead and held on for the most part. "gurgleberry2" was on the other side of the counts and was also first to leave the final table stage. The chips kept going back and forth for a while before Ponath was pushed out of the tournament by "n3kt". Ten minutes later, "Eldarion90" also fell to the hand of "n3kt".
"cram66" was halted by Hardcastle with "gab0120" following after thanks to "pilaa". The four remaining players discussed a deal in the chat before opting to pause the tournament and canceling the deal as they couldn't adjust the ICM numbers. They continued play for a bit and then looked at the numbers again before agreeing to things. $50,000 was set aside for the eventual winner with "leonardoc01" with a small chip lead at that point.
"pilaa" doubled up to a huge chip lead through "leonardoc01" with several more double-ups following. In the end, it would take 30 minutes before Hardcastle was taken out by "leonardoc01". But they couldn't keep the good run going as they busted in the very next hand to "pilaa".
Heads-up play would end up lasting an hour with "n3kt" doubling up once for the chip lead but "pilaa" recovered easily before putting more pressure on their opponent. At the end of the day, "n3kt" called the shove of "pilaa" for their last nine big blinds with ace-nine. They were ahead against the four-trey of "pilaa" but the jack-four-trey flop didn't help "n3kt". The king on the turn meant "n3kt" was drawing dead as the king on the river completed the board to formalize things.
This concludes the PokerNews coverage of this event but the live reporting team will be back on Sunday, January 3 to bring you all the action of the Blowout Series: $215 NLHE [8-Max, The Big Blowout!], $5M Gtd. so make sure to return then.