Two wins in two days: Niklas Astedt chases the all-time WCOOP record

But one person who’s often unfairly overlooked is Niklas Astedt or, as he is known in the online streets, ‘Lena900’.

If you see that username at your table, buckle up. As an online specialist, Astedt is arguably unmatched. Believed to have the most online tournament winnings of anyone in the world — over $50 million, by most estimates — Astedt would be in the top 20 of the all-time money list if those winnings had come in brick-and-mortar tourneys.

And by the way, he’s done it there too, and on the biggest stage imaginable. Two years ago he fought his way to the final 3 in the WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas, banking $4M for his troubles.

But the player from Sweden is most at home when he’s, well, at home. And this week he’s shown once again why he is so feared and revered, winning not one but two tournaments in PokerStars’ World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP).

Astedt, right, in the final 3 of the 2024 WSOP Main Event.

Good week at work?

The two titles came literally back-to-back, as Astedt first won the $1K PLO event on Wednesday for $20K, followed by the $5,200 Thursday Thrill on — you guessed it — Thursday for another $103K.

That double has moved Astedt up to joint second place on the all-time WCOOP winners list with 14 overall, just two wins behind the 16 of Benny ‘RunGodlike’ Glaser. The only other player with more than 13 WCOOP wins is Denis ‘aDrENalin710’ Strebkov.

Incredibly, he has won multiple titles in 6 of the past 8 WCOOP series, and even won two events within an hour in 2024.

Niklas Astedt’s 14 WCOOP titles

• 2018: 1 (PLO, $58K)
• 2020: 2 (NLH PKO, $201K / NLH, $80K)
• 2022: 2 (NLO8, $6K / NLH, $94K)
• 2023: 2 (NLH PKO, $113K / NLO8, $22K)
• 2024: 4 (NLH, $47K / PLO5, $51K / NLH PKO, $188K / NLH PKO, $83K)
• 2025: 1 (PLO5, $22K)
• 2026: 2 (PLO, $20K / NLH PKO, $103K)

The fields he defeats aren’t always huge; this week’s wins came in an 86-entry and a 58-entry tournament. But make no mistake, these are no lay-ups. At the expensive end of the WCOOP schedule the competition is generally experienced, studied and fierce.

To illustrate this point, the final tables Astedt has defeated this week included the likes of Patrick ‘pads1161’ Leonard, Renan ‘Internett93o’ Bruschi, Ole ‘wizowizo’ Schemion, Ilya ‘Leqenden’ Anatski and Joao ‘Naza114’ Vieira, who Astedt defeated heads-up for his latest crown.

Now just two wins away from Glaser’s all-time record, the question is less whether Astedt has what it takes to catch him, and more how long it might take him.

After all, it takes barely two days to win two WCOOP titles.

(For some)

WCOOP runs through to September 30 on PokerStars global platform. Head here to join in.