EPT Online Day 11: Stakelis Becomes an EPT Online Champion

The 2021 European Poker Tour (EPT) Online series completed its 11th day on December 18, with two more champions crowned and plenty of big names putting themselves in contention in a third event.

They say you never remember who finishes second, which is a shame because Russia’s "Ebaaa11" finished as runner-up in both the $1,050 NLHE 8-Max PKO and the $1,050 NLHE 8-Max Turbo. Their name may not be in PokerStars’ record books, but almost $75,000 in combined prizes is definitely something for the Russian to be happy about.

Want to know what went down on Day 11 of the EPT Online series? Then kee on ready to discover exactly that.

Stakelis Secures EPT Online Title

Lithuania’s Audrius "Stakelis24" Stakelis took down EPT Online 24: $1,050 NLHE [8-Max, Progressive KO] on December 18. The tournament drew in a crowd of 425 players, each with a bounty of at least $500 on their heads. B the time Stakelis found himself as the last man standing, his bounty payment tipped the scales at a cool $48,148. Add this to the $33,200 first-place prize, and the Lithuanian walked away with $81,348 for a couple of day’s grinding; nice work if you can get it.

$1,050 buy-in tournaments are never easy to triumph in, and this event was no different. Event after Ilya "Leqenden" Anatsky, "nsmirov", and "LuckyBet101" had fallen by the wayside, there were still four top players standing between Stakelis and the victory.

Those four became three when "wolfofwallst" crashed out, before Marius "DEX888" Gierse and Timothy "TruthBeTold7" Rutherford became casualties.

Rutherford’s exit left Stakelis heads-up against Russian rising star "Ebaaa11." The Russian had accumulated $10,523 in bounties but would not get their hands on any more because Stakelis sent them to the rail in second place, thus earning an EPT Online title for Lithuania.

EPT Online 24: $1,050 NLHE [8-Max, Progressive KO] Final Table Results

DrawingDead Defeats 8-Max Turbo Field

Take a $1,050 No-Limit Hold’em tournament, stick a turbo blind structure on it, and what do you get? Explosive action that saw 197 players reduced to one after a shade more than two hours!

Players crashed and burned thick and fast, but t was the elimination of Patrick "pads1161" Leonard in 24th that was key because it popped the all-important money bubble. One by one the field reduced in size, with the in-form Mike "SirWatts" Watson falling short of the final table, busting in tenth and "Kraskata85" heading home on the final table bubble.

Alessandro "HaKiD93" Pichierri and "carbunn" were the first two players heading for the exits after taking their final table seats. Jonah "RaiseUpBlind" Silverstein busted in sixth and collected $11,155, the first five-figure prize of the tournament.

"aminolast" and "Pablos701" were the next pair of grinders falling short of victory; they banked $14,378 and $18,531 respectively.

Heads-up was set when "L_Cesk" of Greece ran out of steam. Heads-up saw "DrawingDead" take on "Ebaaa11" who earlier finished second in another $1,050 buy-in event. They had to make do with another bridesmaid finish in this tournament, which came with $30,783 in prize money. DrawingDead, obviously wasn’t drawing dead, and is now $39,675 richer than a couple of hours previous.

EPT Online 29: $1,050 NLHE [8-Max, Turbo] Final Table Results

Oliver Leads $530 NLHE PKO Going Into Day 2

Chris "ImDaNuts" Oliver is the man to catch going into Day 2 of the EPT Online 27: $530 NLHE [8-Max, Progressive KO] where only 91 of the 750 starters remain in contention for the title.

Oliver fired three bullets, and it proved to be third time lucky because he finished Day 1 with a 3,166,676 stack plus $1,718 worth of bounties. Those bounty payments mean he is now freerolling towards the tournament’s $31,920 top prize.

The Costa Rica-based American will not have matters his own way on Day 2 because the chasing pack contains some elite poker tournament grinders.

Such luminaries as Jens "Fresh_oO_D" Lakemeier (1,463,486), Andreas "mrAndreeew" Berggren (1,405,151), and Tomi "elmerixx" Brouk (1,084,683) and in the hunt, as are the likes of Jonah "RaiseUpBlind" Silverstein (1,064,903), Christian "WATnlos" Rudolph (994,207), and Team PokerStars’ Benjamin "Spraggy" Spragg (475,435).

Play resumes at 5:05 p.m. GMT on December 19 and continues until only one player has all the 75,000,000 chips in play in their stack. Each returning player is guaranteed $602 plus whatever they claim in bounties, but the champion receives $31,920 plus a bounty payment that will be as large, if not bigger.

EPT Online 27: $530 NLHE [8-Max, Progressive KO] Top 10 Chip Counts