One of the biggest online poker tournament series of the year is underway on CoinPoker. The site kicked off the Global Online Poker Championship last weekend. One of the biggest tournaments on opening weekend was the $5,200 high roller, and top live tournament regular Jesse ‘DangerousGorilla22’ Lonis emerged as the victor for $153,400.
Lonis’ path to the win involved some typical good luck and big hands at the final table. He used his trademark aggression to bully the opposition several times with a big stack. But even some of those hands that ended early involved some close, tough decisions that Lonis executed under final-table pressure.
Lonis Piles it in Preflop With King High
With three players remaining and blinds of 80,000/160,000 (24,000 ante), ‘IloveMyHand’ raised to 352,000 on the button off of a stack of just over 3 million. Small blind ‘Pushlightyear’ (5.7 million) folded, and Lonis shoved from the big blind with a stack of 8.84 million.
IloveMyHand called and showed J♥J♠, dominating the K♣10♣ shown by Lonis.
Unfortunately for IloveMyHand, the board ran K♠9♥5♥4♣Q♦, pairing Lonis’ king to eliminate them.
High-stakes tournament poker action featuring reigning Card Player Player of the Year Jesse Lonis. pic.twitter.com/qG2l9vzidr
— CoinPokerAction (@CoinPokerAction) August 24, 2026
Hand Analysis
This is a simple hand, but even simple hands can teach strategy lessons that are useful.
Under most circumstances, K-10 suited is going to be a defend from the big blind against a button open. It’s too middling to be used as value or a bluff. In other words, most of the time, shoving with K-10 against a button open will result in the opponent folding worse hands and calling with better ones. Isolating against a stronger range is generally a pretty poor idea, so the best course of action is just to call and play post flop with a hand that has a lot of playability.
However, this is a situation where the big blind does play a pretty wide shoving range comprised heavily of decent suited hands and many pocket pairs. It’s important to remember that the stack distribution allows Lonis to jam all in without fear of seriously compromising his tournament. Even if he were to go all in and lose to the short stack, it would result in essentially a three-way tie.
Meanwhile, if Lonis were to win an all-in hand against IloveMyHand, he would have a commanding heads-up lead. And very often, the button raiser will just fold to the jam, allowing Lonis to extend his lead.
The solver doesn’t love shoving K-10 suited in this spot, but it is the strongest suited combo that barely sneaks into the shoving range. Raising small and calling are both fine, too. Hands like suited queens and jacks are much more aggressive, since they fold out hands like K-10 and Q-10 offsuit that will raise on the button.
Lonis’s low-frequency shove works here, as he gets lucky and pairs up to set up heads-up play.
Lockdown Board Nudges Lonis Toward Slow Play
When this hand occurred, Lonis was in the small blind playing about 10.3 million at 140,000/280,000 (42,000 ante). Pushlightyear had about 7.2 million. Lonis opened to 616,000 on the button, and Pushlightyear called.
The flop came 8♣6♣4♣, and Lonis continued for 644,000. Pushlightyear called. Both players checked the 10♣, bringing a 3♣. Pushlightyear bet 840,000, and Lonis made it 2.93 million. Pushlightyear called.
Lonis showed A♣K♣ for the flopped nuts and took it down.
High-stakes tournament poker action featuring reigning Card Player Player of the Year Jesse Lonis. pic.twitter.com/qG2l9vzidr
— CoinPokerAction (@CoinPokerAction) August 24, 2026
Hand Analysis
Lonis gets dealt a premium holding here and opens, with Pushlightyear calling. Interestingly, the solver does a fair amount of calling with A-K suited as part of a balanced strategy, but it still raises more than it calls.
Lonis flops the nuts, but holding the K♣ makes the situation a little bit less exciting than normal, because if any more clubs fall, his opponent is less likely to have a good hand. Nonetheless, betting half-pot on the flop is fine. Using small sizes would also be acceptable.
Once Pushlightyear calls, the turn brings an interesting situation. The big blind has the equity edge in the pairs region, but the small blind has more strong flushes here after raising preflop. Thus, Lonis should bet the turn fairly often, but he opts for a sneaky check, understanding that his blockers make it difficult to get paid off here. Hands like A♣2♣ and A♣3♣ are more aggressive on this turn, because they make it easier for the opponent to have a big flush.
In any case, the river brings home yet another club, and Lonis faces a block. At this point, raising is mandatory, but an all-in size isn’t likely to get called because of blocker effects. So, Lonis doesn’t get too greedy and goes for half of his opponent’s stack.
It works out perfectly, as Lonis gets paid off, leaving Pushlightyear with 11 big blinds, and Lonis would close it out shortly thereafter.
Hungry for more high-stakes poker content? Check out the CoinPoker YouTube channel and Bobby James’ YouTube channel for more action.
