EPT Online main event won by Swedish player ‘WhatIfGod’ for $1 million

The European Poker Tour has its first Online Main Event winner, and that winner is Swedish player ‘WhatIfGod’ from Sweden. A former winner in other EPT in live tournaments at Prague, ‘WhatIfGod’ sealed the deal with an outstanding heads-up victory against Canadian player Timothy Adams, who incidentally holds the current record for live earnings in 2020.  

With a total of 1,304 entries comprising 924 unique players and 380 re-entries, the prizepool of $5,000,000 guaranteed was well and truly overtaken, with the eventual pot on offer as prizes totalling $6.52 million. That meant a million-dollar top prize and the action on the final day was worthy of such a title and prize money.  

The first player to leave the final table, Kazakhstani player ‘vip25459’ barely got past the velvet rope. With a short-stack and king-jack, they were all-in, but succumbed to the pocket aces of Jon Van Fleet, who came into the final table with real momentum, having made Day 2 of the partypoker Caribbean Poker Party Main Event at the weekend.  

Despite that hand, Van Fleet would be next to go, his ace-king unable to improve against the pocket jacks of Russian pro Viacheslav Buldygin. Three players had gone in less than 40 minutes when Cypriot Andreas Christoforou was busted by David Yan as Christoforou’s pocket aces were agonisingly overtaken by Yan’s ace-king. Yan, hailing from New Zealand, was running hot and his queens then cracked Brazilian player Enio Bozzano’s pocket kings to reduce the field to five.  

While the lead then changed hands several times, it would eventually be Buldygin who departed in 5th place, losing a coinflip before Finnish player ‘tikidiii’ followed him from the table, a failed bluff picked off by the eventual winner.  

With two WCOOP victories to his name, ‘WhatIfGod’ started to run up his tournament-winning stack and couldn’t be stopped. Yan busted in 3rd place when he ran out of luck, his pocket tens cracked by Timothy Adams’ ace-four, leaving the Kiwi to cash for $520,966 but meaning he missed out on heads-up.  

Timothy Adams was not steamrollered, and even used his slim lead early days in the duel. But he won just two hands thereafter as ‘WhatIfGod’ ran well, eventually flopping top pair and rivering trips to end the event in his favour.  

You can watch the final as it played out across five hours right here, with commentary from Joe ‘Stapes’ Stapleton and James Hartigan courtesy of the PokerStars YouTube channel. 

EPT Online 2020 Main Event Final Table Results: