The first-ever World Series of Poker Online series held in Pennsylvania came to its conclusion earlier this week. The final event of the series was the $3,200 buy-in no-limit hold’em high roller. The tournament, which was originally scheduled to be the third event of the festival but was postponed due to technical issues, ultimately attracted a field of 86 entries, with 66 unique players and 20 re-entries. Shankar ‘DerekHarper’ Pillai emerged victorious in the end, defeating Brandon ‘UpOnly’ Hall heads-up to secure the $66,641 top prize and his third career bracelet.
Pillai’s first bracelet win came at the 2007 WSOP. He defeated a field of 827 players in the $3,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em event to win $527,829. A dozen years later Pillai took down the 2019 ‘bracelet winners only’ event, topping 185 other champions from the series to earn $71,580 and his second bracelet.
Pillai now has nearly $3.5 million in tournament earnings to his name, with his largest career score coming in the 2020 WSOP Online $25,000 buy-in ‘Poker Players Championship’ no-limit hold’em high roller. He finished third from a field of 407 entries in that event to earn $979,138.
Pennsylvania native Zachary Gruneberg finished eighth in the $3,200 event, locking up his third cash ($5,882) of the WSOPO PA series. He had previously placed 10th in the $1,000 buy-in championship event ($3,247) and fifth in the $400 buy-in progressive knockout event ($3,953).
Here is a look at the payouts awarded at the final table:
| Place | Player | Earnings |
| 1 | Shankar ‘DerekHarper’ Pillai | $66,641 |
| 2 | Brandon ‘UpOnly’ Hall | $41,177 |
| 3 | Orson ‘PICASOoPOKER’ Young | $28,314 |
| 4 | Christopher ‘AFA5671’ O’Neil | $19,843 |
| 5 | Michael ‘ArnoldSlick’ McNeil | $14,196 |
| 6 | Michael ‘Bullish’ Bees | $10,510 |
| 7 | Anthony ‘McEye’ Mcie | $7,869 |
| 8 | Zachary ‘CaptainLevi’ Gruneberg | $5,882 |
| 9 | Brett ‘H0mie_Sr’ Freiler | $4,575 |
Photo credit: PokerGO.
