Christian Jeppsson Wins Inaugural World Poker Tour Online Championship Main Event

The first player to ever win an official World Poker Tour main event online has been decided. Christian Jeppsson defeated a field of 2,130 entries to win the $3,200 buy-in WPT Online Championship no-limit hold’em main event on partypoker. The Swedish player struck a deal heads-up that saw him earn $923,786 and a place in the history books as the first player to put his name on the WPT Champions Cup by winning an online event after he defeated Viktor Ustimov to secure the win.

This event featured four starting flights, which collectively drew a total of 2,130 entries to blow away the $5 million guarantee and create a final prize pool of $6.39 million to be paid out among the top 312 finishers. Plenty of big names made deep runs in this event, but ultimately fell short of the final table, including the World Poker Tour’s first-ever female champion of a main tour event Ema Zajmovic (25th – $21,151), 2014 World Series of Poker main event champion Martin Jacobson (23rd – $28,755), high roller regular Matthias Eibinger (20th – $28,755), 2014 Aussie Millions main event champion Ami Barer (12th – $51,120), three-time WSOP bracelet winner Benny Glaser (11th – $51,120), and WSOP bracelet winner Dmitry Yurasov (9th – $51,120).

By the time final table of eight was set, Jeppsson had taken the lead, with high-stakes regular Sam Greenwood hot on his heels. Greenwood got off to the worst possible start, though, losing a massive preflop race for one of the largest pots of the tournament just moments after play resumed. Pascal Hartmann raised to 550,00 from the button with blinds at 125,000-250,000 with a 40,000 ante. Greenwood three-bet to 2.2 million with AK from the small blind. Viktor Ustimov, who won preliminary events during this series, moved all-in for 9,048,972 with QQ. Greenwood called and the pocket queens held to earn Ustimov the double up and the chip lead. Greenwood still had nearly 6.7 million in chips leftover, but it was still a huge blow to his chances at his first WPT title.

Pascal Teekens was the first to hit the rail when he ran A-Q into the pocket aces of Ustimov and failed to come from behind. He earned $66,776 as the eighth-place finisher. Greenwood was the next to be eliminated. After falling down to less than 3 big blinds, he got his last chips in with K6 in the small blind up against Ustimov’s 87 in the big blind. Ustimov flopped a pair of sevens against Greenwood and held from there to knock him out in 7th place ($103,838).

Jeppsson earned his first elimination of the day by busting Pascal Hartmann, who began the day in third chip position. Hartmann got all of his chips in with JJ u against the AQ of Jeppsson. A queen on the flop gave Jeppsson the lead and he held from there to narrow the field to five. Hartmann earned $151,443 as the sixth-place finisher.

Alex Clark’s run in this event came to an end when he limp-called all-in with A-Q in a battle of the blinds. Ustimov had shoved with A-5 from the big blind and was dominated, but a five on the flop gave him a lead that he never relinquished from there on out. Clark secured for $221,733 for his fifth-place showing.

Nikolay Ponomarev was left as the shortest stack after Clark’s exit. Like many that had come before him at this final table, he was sent packing by Ustimov. The chip leader raised with AK on the button and Ponomarev shoved holding K8 from the big blind for around 25 big blinds. Ustimov flopped an ace and that was enough to send Ponomarev packing in fourth place ($317,583).

Jukka Koskela fell below 13 big blinds after losing a sizable pot without showdown to Christian Jeppsson. He got the last of his stack in from the button with A6 and was called by Ustimov’s A10. Ustimov made tens and sevens by the river to eliminate Koskela in third place ($477,333).

With that the final two players struck up negotiations for a deal, with Jeppsson holding 50,389,668 to Ustimov’s 34,752,558 in chips. The two agreed to lock up $913,784 for Jeppsson and $865,542 for Ustimov, leaving $10,000 in additional prize money, the title, and a $15,000 seat in the WPT Tournament of Champions.

The two battled it out for a while, and by the time the final hand arose, Jeppsson had built roughly a 4:1 chip lead. The hand began with Ustimov min-raising from the button with KK. Jeppsson called from the big blind with J9. The flop came down Q65 and Jeppsson checked. Ustimov bet 1,399,200 with his overpaid and Jeppsson made the call with his flush draw. The 7 on the turn completed Jeppsson’s draw and he checked a second time. Ustimov bet 5,000,000 and Jeppsson dipped into his time bank before shoving with his flush. Ustimov quickly called and found that he was drawing dead. Ustimov had to settle for the $865,542 he negotiated for. Check out a video clip of the final hand below in a tweet from the World Poker Tour.

We have a #WPTOnline winner! Christian Jeppsson beats the largest field in WPT history to win $923,786 on partypoker</a> and a $15,000 seat to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WPTTOC?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WPTTOC</a> presented by <a href="https://twitter.com/Baccarat?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">Baccarat Crystal

Congrats, Christian!

https://t.co/9KoaQ3kKVa pic.twitter.com/mGKlTkPnXu

— World Poker Tour (@WPT) May 20, 2020

Here is a look at the payouts awarded at the final table:

Jeppsson image via PokerStars.com / Lina Olofsson.

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