In 2014, plucky German upstart Fedor Holz put his permanent stamp on the online poker world by winning the WCOOP Main Event for $1.3m.
Two years later, fellow German grinder Jonas "llJaYJaYll" Lauck has taken his turn at the top of the online podium.
Lauck put the icing on three long days of online play late tonight by finally topping all 1,772 entries to claim the 2016 WCOOP Main Event title and $1,517,541.
With no deal agreed upon (despite a couple of attempts), Lauck collected the entire first-place prize - although he alluded to sharing the proceeds with his backer Doug "WCGRider" Polk in the chat.
After a lengthy stretch of heads-up play, runner-up 0409479 eventually had a slight lead but 5-bet shoved with AQ and got caught by llJaYJaYll's AK. It was all over on the next hand and 0409479 settled for $1,101,279 and second place.
$5m+ Shared by Final Table
The $1.5m score is Lauck's career best and actually exceeds his total career live earnings by $200k.
Whatever percentage he'll get to keep, he'll also sleep well with a very supportive tweet from one of the best players in the world in Polk:
Congratulations @jownzpownz on his win in the $5,000 #WCOOP. Amazing poker player and couldn't think of a more deserving guy. pic.twitter.com/QITfqshfMQ
— gN Doug Polk (@DougPolkPoker) September 27, 2016Lauck isn't the only happy online grinder tonight either as most if not all of the final table likely came away with career-best scores.
Third-place R_Scientist from the UK hauled in just under $800k while fourth-place Gambler4444 from Austria scooped $580k. Complete final-table results and payouts below:
WCOOP-78 ($5,000 NL Hold'em Main Event) results
Total entries: 2,091 (1,772 entries, 319 re-entries)
Prize pool: $10,052,879.79
Places paid: 224
1. llJaYJaYll (Germany) $1,517,541.25
2. 0409479 (United Kingdom) $1,101,278.90
3. R_Scientist (United Kingdom) $799,196.90
4. Gambler4444 (Austria) $579,976.77
5. axtipitos_86 (Austria) $420,888.94
6. Olorionek (Poland) $305,439.66
7. uknowProsky* (Netherlands) $221,656.95
8. gorodski (Malta) $160,856.12
9. deadfizh (Finland) $116,733.03
The entire final table was live streamed on the PokerStars Twitch channel with commentary from PokerStars Team Pro Celina Lin and Kevin Martin. Watch the full replay below!
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