GGPoker.com Event #35: $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha Championship

The 2020 GGPoker WSOP Online Bracelet Events have crowned their second champion of the festival and it was high stakes poker legend Juha Helppi that doubled his gold bracelet tally in Event #35 $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha Championship after defeating Jesus Cortes in heads-up. Both central Europeans seemed unfazed from fatigue despite their heads-up duel wrapping up at nearly 6 a.m. local time in Finland and 5 a.m. in Andorra respectively, and it was Helppi that claimed the lion's share of the $1,558,000 prize pool after topping a field of 328 entries.

Helppi had to wait a long time for his maiden WSOP victory after being present in televised poker for a long time and it came last year in Las Vegas when he took down Event #72 $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship for $306,622. The top prize for his second triumph in as many years was worth $290,286 while former EPT Barcelona runner-up Cortes had to settle for $213,270.

Once the nicknames were turned into real names for all nine finalists, Helppi's countryman Jens Kyllonen was also revealed. The PLO specialist was one of two further players with a WSOP bracelet to their name along with Brazil's Yuri Dzivielevski. Kyllonen played a vital role in the early stages of the final table by sending three opponents to the rail but eventually had to settle for 5th place.

Alex Difelice was one of Kyllonen's victims and confirmed his hot streak on the virtual felt in the last few months with yet another deep run. The Canadian was part of a three-way deal in the 2020 SCOOP Main Event and also claimed a WSOP Circuit ring during the previous festival on the GGnetwork after topping a huge field of 2,614 entries in the $1,000 PLO Main Event under his moniker "rubbherducky".

Final Result Event #35 $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha Championship

The action kicked off with more than 70 players in their seats and that number grew by the minute. Especially towards the end of the late registration and re-entry period, plenty of big names appeared and vanished without anything to show for. Jesus Cortes emerged as one of the chip leaders when he hit a one outer for quads soon after and the eliminations kept coming at a rapid pace.

Towards the money bubble, the action suddenly slowed down and a rare phase of no eliminations followed. Eventually, Maxi Lehmanski and Brian Green bowed out at the same time on different tables with Green holding fewer chips to become the bubble boy.

In the blink of an eye, two tables closed and it didn't take long to reach the final three tables. Stephen Chidwick, Dario Alioto, Isaac Haxton, George Wolff and Anson Tsang all hit the rail in rather swift fashion. On the final table bubble, Thai Ha lost a big pot with straight under straight against Mike Watson and Shyngis Satubayev also came up short.

While Kyllonen did the leg work to trim down the contenders for the WSOP bracelet, he doubled Helppi who then took over control. In heads-up, Helppi flopped top set twice and Cortes would not recover from that anymore to come up one spot shy of poker history.

That wraps up the PokerNews live updates for tonight but the next WSOP bracelet events on GGPoker are already around the corner.

Juha Helppi raised it up to 320,000 and Jesus Cortes came along to see a flop of    . Cortes bet the pot for 640,000 and picked up a call from Helppi to then check-fold the 55h] turn when Helppi made it 400,000 to go.

Juha Helppi	6,763,168	1,491,200
Jesus Cortes	1,436,832	-1,491,200

Jesus Cortes won most pots in heads-up including the two biggest hands so far against Juha Helppi and pulled into a comfortable lead.

A limped pot saw Helppi bet the     flop and Cortes check-called a min-bet to then check-call 480,000 on the   turn. They checked the   river and Helppi's [10h107h5d] were no good as Cortes held     .

Jesus Cortes	6,284,404	1,740,000
Juha Helppi	1,915,596	-2,227,652

Jesus Cortes and Juha Helppi claimed pots to pull ahead while Belarmino "Iseey0urcard" De Souza dropped back to a mere 11 big blinds. De Souza limped in and called a pot-sized raise to 450,000 by Helppi only to check-fold the     flop as Helppi made it 300,000 to go.

Jesus Cortes	3,062,408	448,500
Juha Helppi	2,599,784	1,150,000
Mike Watson	1,431,996	-650,000
Belarmino "Iseey0urcard" De Souza	1,105,812	-948,500

Mike Watson has claimed four out of six hands and bumped up his stack to nearly close the gap to Jess Cortes and Juha Helppi, the latter of which he beat in the biggest pot.

Helppi min-raised the button and Watson came along to the     flop, on which he check-called a bet of 148,500 by Helppi. No betting action followed on the   turn and   river as Watson earned the checkmark with      for two pair as Helppi only had      for a pair of eights.

Juha Helppi	2,251,940	-738,500
Mike Watson	2,231,996	968,500
Jesus Cortes	2,113,908	-70,000
Belarmino "Iseey0urcard" De Souza	1,602,156	-160,000

Since returning to their seats, the four remaining players kept the pots small and Juha Helppi twice min-raise folded to Jesus Cortes's three-bets. Apart from that nothing much happened and the blinds will go up shortly.

Juha Helppi	2,990,440	-320,000
Jesus Cortes	2,183,908	680,000
Belarmino "Iseey0urcard" De Souza	1,762,156	-360,000
Mike Watson	1,263,496	0

Jesus Cortes chipped up some after forcing a fold from Juha Helppi who then suffered another setback. Mike Watson raised the pot off his short stack and four-bet jammed for 812,348 as Helppi potted it from the small blind. Helppi tossed in the few extra chips to set up the following showdown.

Mike Watson:     
Juha Helppi:     

Watson found a gutshot to go with his overcard on the     flop and instead went runner-runner wheel on the   turn and   river.

Juha Helppi	2,550,440	-1,052,348
Jesus Cortes	2,382,708	560,000
Mike Watson	1,704,696	772,348
Belarmino "Iseey0urcard" De Souza	1,562,156	-280,000