WSOP Online 2020: Finnish Poker Legend Juha Helppi Wins Event #35 on GGPoker For 2nd Gold Bracelet & $290,286

Despite the early hiccups, the 2020 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Online on the GGPoker Network is starting to gain momentum. The series crowned its second champion on Tuesday after the high stakes poker icon from Finland, Juha Helppi rose atop a 328-player field to win Event #35 $5,000 PLO Championship. The victory brought Helppi his second WSOP gold bracelet and a hefty $290,286 paycheque.

The final table had representation from Canada, Serbia, Brazil, and Spain. Helppi came up against Spain’s Jesus Cortes in the heads-up play. Cortes, who has a runner-up finish at EPT Barcelona to his name, was denied the title yet again.

The registration closed at the start of Level 10, and, with 328 players collecting a prize pool of $1,558,000, the top 47 finishers were assured at least $10,745.

The money bubble burst with Maxi Lehmanski and Brian Green hitting the rail simultaneously on separate tables. Green got tagged as the unfortunate bubble boy.

India’s ‘SammyP’ was among the players in the tournament. Early in Level 8, ‘SammyP’ clashed with Sean Winter and scooped the pot after his hit a superior two-pair on the runout to dominate Winter’s . He was eliminated by ‘MPEW299’ one level later, and even though he fired another bullet, he was unable to make it past the money bubble.

GGPoker Ambassador Felipe Ramos made it as far as Level 11 but was another prominent player to fall out before the bubble. Ramos managed to spin up by doubling up twice after losing the majority of his stack, but it still wasn’t enough to earn him a payday. The end came when he shoved into ‘Convertible’s that improved to the nut flush on the board .

Natural8 Ambassador Thai Ha (11th for $20,872), Gavin Cochrane (15th for $17,680), Anson ‘Tara@0z’ Tsang (19th for $14,976), George Wolff (22nd for $14,976), partypoker Ambassador Isaac Haxton (33rd for $12,685) and former bracelet champion’s Dario Alioto (37th for $10,745), and Stephen Chidwick (44th for $10,745) were the other notable scorers.

The final table was set following the elimination of Shyngis ‘somebodyelse’ Satubayev in 10th place for $20,872.

Final Table Chip Counts

1. Mike Watson – 1,844,554
2. Jesus Cortes – 1,701,882
3. Jens ‘98snaeJ’ Kyllonen – 1,573,036
4. Juha Helppi – 983,706
5. Sergi Reixach – 623,274
6. Yuri Dzivielevski – 607,889
7. Belarmino ‘Iseey0urcard’ De Souza – 503,452
8. Alex ‘rubbherducky’ Difelice – 423,518
9. Marija ‘Maj Chenzie’ Andrijasevic – 240,236

Final Table Recap

Early on the final table, Sergi Reixach won a big pot off Juha Helppi. The latter made up for the loss by scooping a pot off fellow countryman Jens Kyllonen.

Kyllonen was also responsible for the first two eliminations on the final table – Alex ‘rubbherducky’ Difelice in ninth and Marija ‘Maj Chenzie’ Andrijasevic at eighth place.

Less than five minutes later, Sergi Reixach lost all his chips to Mike Watson after his pair of kings came up short against the latter’s turned two-pair of queens and eights.

Kyllonen went on to take down a third player on the FT, Yuri Dzivielevski in sixth place, the latter’s two-pair of aces and treys cracked by Kyllonen’s flush.

Kyllonen was dominating the final table before Helppi won three pots in a row to pull ahead into the chip lead.

Play slowed down for a while. Around 30 minutes later, Jens ‘98snaeJ’ Kyllonen was eliminated by Belarmino ‘Iseey0urcard’ De Souza in fifth place. Kyllonen pitted his against De Souza’s . The rundown brought De Souza a superior straight on the river.

Nearly an hour later, Mike Watson was shown the door by Cortes in fourth place.

It came down to the heads-up five minutes later after Helppi knocked out Belarmino ‘Iseey0urcard’ De Souza in third place.

Jesus Cortes was the player on top at the start of the heads-up with 4,544,404 in chips against Helppi’s 4,143,248. Helppi soon overcame that marginal disadvantage to take down the title. The final hand saw Helppi moving all-in on the flop , and Cortes made the call.

Jesus Cortes

Juha Helppi

The turn left Cortes drawing dead, and the made Helppi a two-time bracelet winner.

Final Table Results (USD)

1. Juha Helppi – $290,286
2. Jesus Cortes – $213,270
3. Belarmino ‘Iseey0urcard’ De Souza – $156,688
4. Mike Watson – $115,117
5. Jens ‘98snaeJ’ Kyllonen – $84,576
6. Yuri Dzivielevski – $62,137
7. Sergi Reixach – $45,651
8. Marija ‘Maj Chenzie’ Andrijasevic – $33,540
9. Alex ‘rubbherducky’ Difelice – $24,641

Content & Images Courtesy: WSOP.com and PokerNews.com

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