Online Poker Crusher Simon Mattsson Wins WSOP Online Main Event For $2.8 Million

The International-facing segment of the 2022 World Series of Poker Online is now officially in the books, with nearly 131,200 entries made and more than $86.1 million paid out through the 33 bracelet events held on GGPoker.

The largest prize pool of the entire series was created in the festival-ending WSOPO $5,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event. A total of 4,984 entries were made across nine starting flights, creating a massive prize pool of $23,674,000.

In the end, it was 29-year-old Swedish online tournament superstar Simon Mattsson who emerged victorious with his first bracelet and the top prize of $2,793,574. He now has more than $4.4 million in recorded tournament earnings. He also has more than $27 million in total online cashes under the screen name ‘C. Darwin2’ according to PocketFives, which is the most of any player on that leaderboard.

The top 500 finishers made the money in this event, with plenty of big names running deep including Linus Loeliger (287th), two-time bracelet winner Joao Simao (230th), 2013 WSOP main event champion Ryan Riess (147th), two-time bracelet winner Chris Moorman (105th), 2020 WSOP main event champion Damian Salas (96th), three-time bracelet winner Justin Bonomo (64th), Niklas Astedt (29th), Paulina ‘poker bunny’ Loeliger (27th), bracelet winner Patrick Leonard (22nd), and bracelet winner Joseph Cheong (11th).

Mattsson came into the final table with the chip lead, with fellow online tournament star Samuel ‘€urop€an’ Vousden sitting on the second-largest stack. Vousden ultimately finished fourth, earning $1,178,040 for his deep run.

Mattsson stayed patient, not scoring his first knockout at the final table until the field had been narrowed to three. He won a big pot with queens full to leave Feng Zhao short. He then took the rest of Zhao’s remaining few blinds to enter heads-up play with roughly a 3:2 chip lead over Kannapong Thanarattrakul, a Thai player who recently made three in-the-money finishes at the Triton Mediterranean Poker Party high-stakes festival.

Mattson had extended that advantage to more than 3:1 by the time the final hand of the series was dealt.

He limped from the button with 6 5 and Thanarattrakul raised with J 10 from the big blind. Mattsson called and the flop came down 10 7 4. Thanarattrakul bet his top pair and Mattsson called with his open-ended straight draw. The 3 gave him the seven-high straight, while also giving both players a flush draw.

Thanarattrakul bet again and Mattsson just called. The 7 on the river paired the board. Thanarattrakul moved all in with his top pair and Mattsson quickly called to lock up the pot and the title. Thanarattrakul earned $2,094,884 as the runner-up finisher.

Final Table Results

Player Payout
1 Simon Mattsson $2,793,575
2 Kannapong Thanarattrakul $2,094,885
3 Feng Zhao $1,570,941
4 Samuel Vousden $1,178,041
5 Istvan Briski $883,404
6 Chi Yanfei $662,460
7 Jordan Spurlin $496,774
8 Oliver Sprason $372,530
9 Tim Rutherford $279,358

WSOP Online – GGPoker.com Events 21-32

Events 20-32 on the GGPoker schedule accounted for roughly $18.5 million of the $86.1 million in total prize money that was paid out during the series. For more on the first 19 events on the schedule, check out the past couple of issues of Card Player.

We pick up the action with event no. 21, the $500 buy-in ladies’ no-limit hold’em championship. The tournament drew 362 entries, creating a prize pool of $171,950. The top 62 finishers came away with some portion of the prize pool, with the largest payout ($31,326) and the bracelet going to Long Huanhua.

This was just Huanhua’s third recorded cash, all coming in WSOPO events in recent years. PokerStars Sunday Million champion Vanessa Kade fell just one spot shy of winning her first bracelet, settling for $23,491 as the runner-up.

The $2 million guaranteed $1,050 buy-in no-limit hold’em freezeout saw Mario Navarro emerge victorious in the end, securing $288,507 and his first gold bracelet for defeating the 2,372-entry field.

This was the largest recorded score yet for the Spanish player, whose previous top payday came when he placed 30th in the 2019 WSOP main event for $261,430. He now has more than $965,000 in lifetime cashes to his name.

The $400 buy-in pot-limit Omaha ‘PLOssus’ bounty featured a $1 million guarantee. With 3,850 entries made by the time registration closed, the final prize pool swelled to $1,144,287. When the dust settled, the last four-card warrior standing was Jose Castillo. He earned his first bracelet and a total of $144,286 for the win.

A total of 985 entries were made in the $2,100 buy-in bounty no-limit hold’em championship, building a total prize pool of $1,970,000. Colombia’s Hernan Restrepo secured the final bounty up for grabs, locking up his first bracelet and $171,122 in total prize money as a result.

The $315 buy-in no-limit hold’em ‘Superstack’ turbo bounty event drew 3,015 entries, pooling $904,500 in prize money. Jonathan Therme came out on top in the end, earning his first gold bracelet and $75,620 in total prize money. The French player now has more than $520,000 in recorded tournament earnings to his name, with his biggest payday yet being a seventh-place showing in a European Poker Tour Monte Carlo €2,200 side event for $43,218 earlier this year.

Jans Arends came out on top in the $600 buy-in no-limit hold’em ‘Double Chance’ event, topping a field of 1,777 total entries to earn the largest share of the $1,012,890 and his first bracelet. The poker pro from the Netherlands now has more than $900,000 in recorded tournament earnings to his name. This was his second-largest score in an event with full real-name results reported, trailing only the $181,174 he secured as the fourth-place finisher in the 2019 EPT Prague €25,000 high roller.

The $1,500 ‘FIFTY STACK’ no-limit hold’em bounty event attracted a sizable field of 1,597 entries. Canadian poker pro Mark Radoja scored the final knockout to become a three-time bracelet winner.

Radoja first struck gold back in 2011, taking down the $5,000 no-limit hold’em shootout for $436,568. In 2013, he won the $10,000 heads-up no-limit hold’em championship for another $331,190 and his second piece of WSOP hardware. Radoja earned $214,509 in total prize money for his latest win, increasing his earnings to more than $4.2 million in the process.

The $400 buy-in Colossus event lived up to its name, drawing a gigantic field of 10,090 total entries to easily surpass the $3 million guarantee. In the end, $3,793,840 was paid out among the top 1,100 finishers.

The largest share of that money, and of course the gold bracelet, were eventually captured by Greece’s Ourania Zarkantzia. The $378,508 top prize was by far the largest recorded score for Zarkantzia, whose five previous logged cashes were all smaller four-figure payouts earned earlier on in this year’s WSOPO festival.

The $5,000 buy-in short deck event drew 145 online high rollers, building a prize pool of $688,750 that was ultimately carved up by the top 20 finishers. The biggest chunk was secured by American Benjamin Miner, who earned $172,678 and his first gold bracelet for the win. This was Miner’s third final-table showing of the series, having placed third in the $1,111 kickoff charity event and sixth in the $5,000 six-max no-limit hold’em event.

Finnish poker pro Joni Jouhkimainen has fallen one spot short of winning a WSOP bracelet twice, finishing runner-up in a pair of WSOP Europe events during the 2021 running of that series. The Helsinki resident finally closed out a win during this year’s WSOPO, coming out on top of a 2,024-entry field in the $840 buy-in no-limit hold’em six-max bounty event to earn his first gold bracelet and $146,067 in total prize money. He now has more than $5 million in recorded tournament earnings to his name.

Claas Eyke Segebrecht won the second event of this series, taking down the $1,111 charity tournament to get his series off to a strong start by earning his first bracelet. Nearly six weeks later, in the final days of the festival, Segebrecht once again emerged victorious with the gold.

The second time around the German topped a field of 1,318 total entries in the $1,050 ‘beat the pros’ no-limit hold’em bounty event for his second bracelet and the $161,985 in prize money, increasing his career total to $3.5 million.

The penultimate event of the GGPoker segment of the 2022 WSOPO was the $500 buy-in tournament known as The Closer. A total of 3,403 entries were made by the time registration came to an end, building a prize pool of $1,279,528.

Germany’s Marc Radgen came out on top, earning his first bracelet and $147,983 for the win. This was by far the largest score ever for Radgen, whose previous top payout came when he finished fifth in a €770 buy-in event at the UKIPT Isle of Man Poker Festival for $31,073.

WSOP Online – WSOP.com Events 9-15

While the International-facing part of the series has wrapped up, the domestic segment of the WSOP Online being held stateside on WSOP.com is still going strong. By the time this magazine went to press, results had been released for the first 15 tournaments of the 33 bracelet events to be held for players located inside Nevada and New Jersey. The winners from events 1-8 can be found in last issue.

The $600 buy-in no-limit hold’em ‘Deepstack Championship’ event attracted a total of 515 entries, building a prize pool of $279,100 that was paid out among the top 72 finishers. At the end of the long night, it was Timothy Faro who came away with the bracelet and the top prize of $50,864. This was the second-largest score on Faro’s tournament résumé, trailing the $54,851 he secured as the 147th-place finisher in the 2011 WSOP main event.

The $2,500 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament ended up with a field of 153 total entries. Las Vegas resident William Romaine took home $79,754 and his second gold bracelet as the eventual champion. Romaine now has $987,186 in recorded tournament earnings. His first bracelet victory came when he took down a $1,000 buy-in Omaha eight-or-better six-max event during the 2020 WSOPO festival.

Tanner Bibat came out on top in the $400 buy-in pot-limit Omaha event, topping a field of 365 entries to earn his first bracelet and the top prize of $29,459. Bibat had previously won a WSOPC ring in a six-max event, taking down an online $1,000 high roller no-limit hold’em event back in 2019 for $50,161. While this was Bibat’s first bracelet win, it turned out to not be his last. For more on that, continue reading.

Jesse Yaginuma recorded his first tournament cash in the summer of 2008, eeking into the money in a $1,000 buy-in event at Borgata. Since then he has gone on to make 228 total in-the-money finishes in live and real-name online events, accumulating more than $2.6 million along the way.

More than 14 years after his first cash, Yaginuma finally broke through to win his first gold bracelet during this year’s WSOPO. Yaginuma emerged victorious from a field of 763 total entries to secure the title and the top prize of $47,520. His newly won bracelet will join his two circuit rings in his trophy case.

The $1,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em event drew 365 entries, but only one could come away with the gold. That player was Nathan Zimnik, who earned his first bracelet and the top prize of $69,740. The win saw his lifetime tournament earnings surpass the half-million-dollar mark. Prior to this victory, Zimnik’s largest recorded score came when he won the $25,500 buy-in high roller at this year’s L.A. Poker Classic for $150,000.

Jeremiah Williams has been making it deep quite often during this series, with two final tables through the first 13 events. Williams managed to make a third final table in event 15, the $500 buy-in no-limit hold’em six-max event.

The third time was the charm, as he managed to top the field of 561 entries to secure his second gold bracelet and $48,697. This was the second-largest score of Williams’ career, trailing only the $139,600 he secured as the champion of a $1,000 buy-in event during last year’s WSOPO.

Less than a week removed from securing his first bracelet, Tanner Bibat managed to make his way back to the winner’s circle a second time as the champion of the $365 no-limit hold’em turbo deepstack event. Bibat outlasted 701 total entries on his way to capturing his second bracelet and the top prize of $42,053. he now has more than $366,000 in recorded tournament earnings to his name.