Parker “tonkaaaa” Talbot had been living up to his “Team NeverLucky” reputation during this PokerStars WCOOP series, with over a month of play without a Day 2 in a COOP event. Talbot broke out of his Day 2 slump by advancing to the final table of the $5,200 WCOOP 75-H event on Wednesday, and he made the most of his Day 2 appearance by winning the event and its top prize of $108,730.
Talbot started the nine-handed final table sitting at fifth in chips with 1,057,823. He streamed the action on his popular Twitch channel, which has over 115,000 followers and has averaged 1,507 viewers per stream over the last 30 days.
tonkaaaa’s first big hand of the final table came with seven players left. Talbot raised with A♠Q♦️ UTG+1 and was called by the big blind. The flop came J♠ 10♦️6♦️ and both players checked. The gin card came on the turn when the Kc fell. tonkaaaa called an overbet on the turn, and an all-in on the river (5h) with the nuts, as his opponent’s turned two-pair with K♠10❤️ was no good.
tonkaaaa got the job done heads up
Talbot hovered in the 2 million to 3 million chip range for over an hour as players around him were eliminated. He eventually worked his way to heads-up with 2,607,360 chips against the 6,492,640 chips of Ramiro “ramastar88” Petrone. Petrone was able to extend his lead to a 5-to-1 chip advantage before tonkaaaa began mounting a comeback. Talbot took his first lead in heads-up play when his pocket eights held up against Petrone’s pocket threes after both players moved all-in preflop to build a 5.4 million chip pot.
Over 8,000 viewers were watching on Twitch when the final hand played out in Talbot’s favor. Talbot raised with 4❤️3❤️ on the button and called a three-bet to 490,000. The flop came 9♦️3♦️ 3♣ to give tonkaaaa trip threes. Talbot called a smalls bet on the flop and on the turn (J♣) before the 9♣ fell on the river. Petrone checked, and Talbot moved all in to put Petrone to the test for his last 1,473,530 in chips.
When Petrone didn’t snap call, tonkaaaa knew he was good. “Call me bro, come on,” Talbot pleaded on his Twitch stream. “It’s been a great heads up battle. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time. But it is time for it to be done, good sir.”
Petrone made the call with A♦️J❤️ and Talbot threw his arms into the air in celebration. “Ship me the trophy! Send me the trophy now PokerStars! Ship it to my house!” With the victory, the Team PokerStars Pro adds another win to an impressive resume that includes over $7 million in online tournament earnings.
Featured Image Credit: Flickr - World Poker Tour
