Estonia's Ranno Sootla Wins Event #41: COLOSSUS for $595,930
Ranno Sootla has Estonia's first WSOP bracelet in Event #41: COLOSSUS after defeating start-of-day chip leader Paraskevas Tsokaridis heads-up. Sootla takes home $595,930 and a WSOP Europe Package after topping the 12,747-player field, and finished off proceedings with a lightning-fast 90-minute final table.
Runner-up Tsokaridis had dominated large portions of the final table; he was responsible for half of all the eliminations and came into heads-up with a close to 2:1 chip lead.
However, Sootla bided his time and dominated the early proceedings heads-up, winning 12 of the first 15 hands to move into the lead. Tsokaridis would double heads-up, but failed to mount any comeback, eventually succumbing to the Estonian's pocket kings and having to settle for second place.
Event #41: COLOSSUS Final Table Results
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize (USD) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ranno Sootla | Estonia | $595,930 | |
| 2 | Paraskevas Tsokaridis | Greece | $433,345 | |
| 3 | Joni Jouhkimainen | Finland | $308,904 | |
| 4 | Andre Figueiredo | Brazil | $220,198 | |
| 5 | Arunas Sapitavicius | Lithuania | $156,964 | |
| 6 | Agate Ose | Austria | $111,890 | |
| 7 | Tom Delaine | Malta | $79,759 | |
| 8 | Lai Sisheng | Singapore | $56,885 | |
| 9 | Ajay Chabra | Canada | $40,529 |
Sootla has just two career WSOP cashes, both coming in 2018. They include a runner-up finish in Event #51: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Bounty to Ryan Leng for $168,464.
He can now take pride in becoming Estonia's first WSOP bracelet winner.
Final Table Recap
From a starting field of 12,757, the final day resumed with nine players remaining and just 155 big blinds between them. Short-stacked Ajay Chabra was always going to look for a spot to get his chips in, and that came in the first hand when he shoved with kings only to get called by Tsokaridis with ace-king. However, an ace on the river sent Chabra to the rail in ninth.
Lai Sisheng also started the day with fewer than ten big blinds and he went next, falling at the hands of Andre Figueiredo.
There was still time for one more elimination before the first break of the day, with Joni Jouhkimainen's queens making light work of Tom Delaine's ace-jack to bring play six-handed.
Tsokaridis into the Driving Seat
Tsokaridis had managed to hold onto his chip lead up until now, and extended it with the elimination of Agate Ose in sixth. On the very next hand he moved well clear, sending Arunas Sapitavicius to the rail to move above 360 million chips, almost triple second in chips.
Figueiredo would fall next at the hands of Jouhkimainen, before the first of just two doubles at the final table as Sootla doubled back into contention after falling to the bottom of the chip counts three-handed.
Both Sootla and Jouhkimainen attempted to reel in Tsokaridis at the head of proceedings but to no avail. And Jouhkimainen was eliminated by the Greek player, Tsokaridis held practically a 2:1 chip lead heads-up.
Heads-up Play
However, this was where Sootla impressed. He dominated the early stages, restricting Tsokaridis to just three of the first 15 pots as he turned the tables on his opponent. A standout moment came when, after checking both flop and turn, Sootla overbet river and was called, only for the Estonian to have flopped a flush.
Sootla moved further ahead; winning with queen-high and cracking kings to move within touching distance of 500 million of the 635 million in play. Tsokaridis would double once heads-up, but remained a distant second, and he was eliminated after shoving into the pocket kings of Sootla, and receiving no help.
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