Hat trick

Parker “tonkaaaa” Talbot is having one hell of a week. He cracked out two six-figure first place finishes in the PokerStars Stadium Series. There was a cool $151,916 in the Heat 29-H $5,200 Progressive Knockout event. A few days before that there was a career best of $261,489 for first in the Stadium Series Weekly Final – High.

Now, barely a day later and he has managed to polish off the last few players in the weekly $1M Guaranteed $5,200 WPT Big Game on PartyPoker.

This win failed to top out the heady heights of the Weekly Final – High. Talbot had to make do with just $200,650 and another gold medal for the trophy cabinet.

Breaking off half a mill in a matter of days must feel pretty good for Talbot. His lifetime IRL tourney takings are only at $750,620 at the time of writing. Most of that comes from a pair of deep runs in EPT events. Including a 6th place final table appearance at the 2018 EPT Prague Main Event.

Big, mini, micro

The Mini Big Game ($530 buy in) and Micro Big Game ($55 buy in) were playing out in parallel down the same fibre optics. But players in the smaller events couldn’t have imagined the thrill with which the rail watched Talbot ploughing through yet another field.

195 entries from 151 players didn't quite match the $1M Guarantee and made for a touch of overlay for the field.

Despite the large guarantee and the added benefit of a little dead money from the house, the Big Game series is not getting the live streaming treatment of the one-off WPT events.

Not that there was a great deal to watch. The entire final table took an hour forty-five from “shuffle up and deal” to Talbot fist-pumping for victory.

No time at all

Talbot came in with a sizable chip lead. He barely had to worry about losing that lead the whole way through.

First out from the final table was Pavel Plesuv, the number one Moldovan player by total live tourney wins. He won $20,800 for his 9th place finish. Next up was Victor Begara (8th - $25,000), Andrii Novac (7th - $32,500) and Aleksejs Meless (6th - $40,000).

Finish online pro, Sami Kelopuro took 5th and $55k, to go with two other deep runs on the same day. He was followed out the door by Timothy Ryan Kelly (4th - $78,000) and Andre Gonzalez De Agustin, cracking six figures with $104,200 for third. Last but one was William Aruda who takes $146,050 for second.

At almost no point in the comically quick dispatching of his foes did “tonkaaaa” seem in any great danger.

Somewhere out there is a rabbit with a limp, and Parker “tonkaaaa” Talbot owes them one hell of a prosthetic.