Lithuanian 'arbaarba' Wins $739,976 In PokerStars Big Blowout Online Event

The PokerStars Blowout Series ‘Big Blowout’ $1,050 buy-in no-limit hold’em eight-max event drew a massive field of 6,922 total entries, blowing away the $5,000,000 guarantee to create a final prize pool of $6,922,000. In the end, it was Lithuanian-based ‘arbaarba’ who came out on top, earning $739,976 and the title after striking a deal during three-handed play.

The top 975 finishers made the money in this tournament, with a min-cash being worth $2,264. A number of notables made the money only to fall short of the final table, including Teun ‘tinnoemulder’ Mulder (37th – $9,845), Lex Veldhuis (30th – $14,029), and 2016 World Series of Poker main event sixth-place finisher Kenny ‘SpaceyFCB’ Hallaert (22nd – $19,991).

The final day began with ‘arbaarba’ holding the chip lead among the final nine players. They extended their advantage early by cracking the pocket aces of ‘Gordon_dReid’ with pocket tens to send their Canadian opponent packing in ninth place ($57,841).

Fernando ‘fviana’ Viana overtook the lead by knocking out ‘xMFPx’ in eighth place ($82,422), but ‘arbaarba’ won a flip soon after that with A-K against the pocket queens of ‘adkaf’ to regain the top spot. ‘adkaf’ earned $117,448 as the seventh-place finisher.

Viana earned two of the next three bustouts to take the lead again heading into three-handed action. After Eike ‘Mr. Havener’ Onodera fell in sixth place ($167,361), Viana eliminated Vlad ‘dariepoker’ Darie (5th – $238,483) and ‘milanov888’ (4th – $339,831) to chip up to 81,985,140. ‘arbaarba’ had the second-largest stack with 51,918,034, while Lonnie ‘thx4urm0n3y’ Hallett sat with 39,146,826.

The action was paused at that point for the final three to discuss a deal. They ultimately set aside $50,000 and the title for the winner, while dividing up the remaining prize pool based on ICM. Hallet doubled up through Viana with pocket fours beating A-K, overtaking the lead in the process. ‘arbaarba’ won a huge hand with a flush against Hallet’s trip aces, though, leaving Hallett on fumes. He was eliminated shortly after that in third place, earning $646,189 for his deep run.

Heads-up play began with ‘arbaarba’ holding roughly a 4.5:1 chip lead over Viana. In the final hand, ‘arbaarba’ four-bet shoved with 77 and Viana called for his tournament life with A9. The board ran out KJ7A3 and ‘arbaarba’ secured the pot and the title with a set of sevens. Viana earned $771,416 as the second-place finisher.

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

*Indicates a deal was made to re-distribute the prize pool

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