Ben Tollerene Wins 2015 PokerStars WCOOP $51,000 Buy-In Super High Roller

The PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker featured an exciting new tournament in 2015: a $51,000 super high roller no-limit hold’em event, the largest buy-in tournament in online poker history. In the end Ben “Ben86” Tollerene emerged victorious, taking home $616,518.34.

A total of 46 entries were made, building a prize pool of $2.3 million that was distributed among the top six finishers. David Peters was the bubble boy in this historic event, getting all in with the AK againstNikita “fish2013” Bodyakovskiy’s AQ only to lose after the board ran out K109K6 to give him trips and his opponent the winning flush.

Peters’ elimination on the $126,500-bubble was surely brutal, but it’s worth noting that this year he finished fifth in the $500,000 Super High Roller Bowl for $1,505,000 and won a €10,300 high roller at the European Poker Tour Malta for another $651,895.

Fedor “CrownUpGuy” Holz and Mike McDonald were the first players to fall inside the money, earning $126,500 and $172,500 for their sixth and fifth place finishes. When Russian player “Nopaleva” hit the virtual rail in fourth place with $230,000 the final three players agreed to a deal based on ICM numbers which would have the remaining players battle for the title and $20,000 extra on top of the following guaranteed payouts:

Ben “Ben86” Tollerene: $596,518.34
Nikita “fish2013” Bodyakovskiy: $594,069.53
José Ángel “Cejakas14” Latorre: $560,412.13

Tollerene was able to further his chip lead to the point that even after Latorre eliminated Bodyakovskiy in third place Tollerene still held the advantage with 665,280 to 484,720. Only a few minutes after heads-up play began the final hand came down.

Latorre raised to 13,500 from the button with blinds of 3,000 / 6,000 and Tollerene made it 42,000 total. Latorre called and the flop came down 1097. Tollerene check-called 42,000 and the turn brought the J. After both players checked the 6 completed the board. Tollerene moved all in and Latorre called with the 99 for a set. Tollerene had turned the straight with the 87 however, securing the pot and the title.

Here is a look at the payouts awarded in this event: