The month of May has been a big occasion for poker enthusiasts all over the world with major name brands in the industry holding esteemed series one after the other. Just this week, the first ever World Poker Tour (WPT) concluded its highlighting event, the $3,200 buy-in $5 million guaranteed WPT Online Championship. The flagship series taking place on the partypoker platform is scheduled to run until the 31st with the WPTDeepStacks events currently underway. As six other trophies were awarded during the flagship event, the most prestigious title was of the Championship finale wherein online crusher Christian Jeppsson secured the coveted prize.
Christian Jeppsson Crowned First WPT Online Champion ($923,786)
Swedish player Christian Jeppsson took the internet by storm as he bagged the first WPT Online Main Event title along with a massive $923,786 in top prize. The impressive player likewise received a seat to next season’s $15,000 Tournament of Champions aside from having his name etched on the legendary WPT Champion’s Cup.
“You feel like you won something more like a sporting event. You have so much adrenaline pumping and then you won. That feeling, I can feel. [The money] is so hard to take in.“, Jeppsson commented.
Astonished by his win, the online shark bested a total of 2,130 entries drawn through four starting flights. The high traffic met by the renowned event has now ultimately become the largest recorded field in WPT Main Tour history as to which generated a generous prize pool of $6.39 million, surpassing the initial $5 million guarantee. Welcoming the success of the inaugural series, notable players joined in on the action and were a few spots short of making the final table. 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) were among the big names spotted making deep runs in the first ever WPT Online Championship.
Entering the final table, Jeppsson was already at the top of his game bringing in one of the biggest stacks with seven players left to bust. High stakes regular Sam Greenwood who followed Jeppsson right after in rank, quickly lost a huge chunk of his stack to Russia’s Viktor Ustimov after missing to beat his opponent’s pocket queens with his ace-king. The heavy preflop race was enough to put Ustimov in the lead which he used much to his advantage as he eliminated five other players soon after and garnered himself a spot in the heads up battle against Jeppsson. Looking at the numbers, the pair eventually struck a deal to split the chunk of the prize pool as well as setting aside $10,000 for the winner. The final hand saw Ustimov sent to the rail with pocket kings as all the chips went in on the turn, only to reveal a 0% chance of winning against Jeppsson’s jack-nine of diamonds for a flush. The runner-up however, still turned a great profit walking away with $865,542 in his pocket.
Rewriting WPT history, Adam Pliska, CEO of the World Poker Tour said, “The World Poker Tour celebrates another remarkable milestone and congratulates Christian Jeppsson on his achievement of winning the WPT Online Championship,”
“The WPT Online Series is continuing to break records and the largest field in 18 seasons of the World Poker Tour is a testament to poker’s global popularity and the vibrant online poker economy.”
WPT Online Championship Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Payout |
| 1 | Christian Jeppsson | Sweden | $923,786* |
| 2 | Viktor Ustimov | Russia | $865,542* |
| 3 | Jukka Koskela | Finland | $477,333 |
| 4 | Nikolay Ponomarev | United Kingdom | $317,583 |
| 5 | Alexander Clark | United Kingdom | $221,733 |
| 6 | Pascal Hartmann | Austria | $151,443 |
| 7 | Sam Greenwood | Canada | $103,838 |
| 8 | Pascal Teekens | Netherlands | $66,776 |
Other highlights: $10,300 High Roller – David Peters ($247,450)
Making his third run of final tables for this series alone, David Peters finally earned himself a coveted WPT trophy after taking down the High Roller event. The $10,300 buy-in tournament attracted a total of 101 entries to push the prize pool into the seven figure mark of $1,010,000. Added to his collection of profits for the festival was a sweet $247,450 payout after successfully beating opponent David Gent in heads up battle. Former #1 PocketFiver Andras Nemeth also made a good run in the event securing a third place spot for $126,250.
Final Table Payouts:
1st: David Peters – $247,450
2nd: David Gent – $176,750
3rd: Andras Nemeth – $126,250
4th: Daniil Kiselev – $88,375
5th: Mark Davis – $65,650
6th: Jorma Nuttinen – $50,500
7th: Fabrizio Gonzalez – $40,400
8th: Daniel Steven Smith – $33,825
