$5 million guaranteed Blowout Series events rebounding after record-setting overlay
The PokerStars Blowout Series didn’t get off to the best start for the world’s biggest online poker site. The three-week online festival put out an ambitious slate of four different $5 million guaranteed events, with the series playing out from Dec. 27 through Jan. 17.
The first of those $5 million events, however, resulted in the biggest overlay in the history of online poker. The $109 Big Blowout needed 50,000 entries to reach the guarantee but only drew 37,363 entries.
That shortfall in attendance caused the tournament to post a more than $1.2 million overlay. Since then, however, the PokerStars Big Blowout events have bounced back in a big way.
The third of four Big Blowout events finished up Tuesday, with Netherlands-based player ‘Gwolde’ taking down the event for a $721,692 payday.
PokerStars Blowout Series $530 NLHE 8-Max Big Blowout final table results
| Place | Player Name* | Playing From | Prize |
| 1 | ‘Gwolde’ | Netherlands | $721,692** |
| 2 | ‘Escapemissio’ | United Kingdom | $680,231** |
| 3 | Mathias ‘mdf92’ Duarte | Uruguay | $415,895 |
| 4 | ‘end2end17’ | Canada | $296,465 |
| 5 | ‘DrawindDead’ | Poland | $211,331 |
| 6 | Andrew ‘dawhiteninja’ Wool | United Kingdom | $150,644 |
| 7 | ‘Kudgel’ | Germany | $107,385 |
| 8 | Andras ‘probirs’ Nemeth | Hungary | $76,548 |
| 9 | ‘Uivelo’ | Finland | $54,566 |
Big turnout, big money for latest Big Blowout event
While the $109 Big Blowout missed the guarantee by a large margin, the pair of higher buy-in events following it have gone well past the advertised $5 million prize pool. Last week’s $215 Big Blowout drew 31,855 entries, adding up to $6,371,000 awarded.
This week’s $530 Big Blowout kept the positive trend going for the big-money PokerStars events. A total of 12,938 entries registered for the three-day tournament and the final prize pool ended up at $6,469,000.
The field trimmed down to 16 players that returned for Tuesday’s Day 3 finale. It only took about four hours of play for a champion to be crowned, as ‘Gwolde’ took down what appears to be a career-high score for the player, whose real-life identity is unknown.
‘Gwolde’ started Day 3 second in the chip counts, staying at or near the top of the chip leaderboard throughout final day action.
Heads-up play came down to ‘Gwolde’ and UK-based ‘Escapemissio’ as the final two battling for the original first-place prize of $818,484. The two players decided to make a heads-up deal, however.
‘Gwolde’ emerged as the champion at the end of that battle, taking home $721,692 per the terms of the deal. ‘Escapemissio’ came away with $680,231 as both of the final two players ended up cashing big.
One more $5 million guaranteed event awaits in the PokerStars Blowout Series. The $1,050 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Max Big Blowout plays out Jan. 17-19, needing 5,000 entries for the PLO tournament to meet the guarantee.
The Big Blowout events make up just a part of the overall PokerStars Blowout Series. The festival schedule offered $60 million guaranteed across 88 tournaments.
Featured image source: Twitter
