Posted on by Sean Chaffin

Poker Podium: A Look at Major Live & Online May Winners on the International Poker Scene

Several online poker operators recently held major live tournament series with online qualifiers also heading to the tables for some action. The international live poker scene has grown in recent months with poker sites leading the charge.

Barcelona, Madrid, and the United Kingdom all hosted major series throughout May. Poker Podium now takes a look at some recent live tournament winners as well as a few hitting it big online.

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Partypoker

The partypoker Grand Prix UK recently concluded at Dusk Till Dawn, offering players plenty of options at the popular UK casino. The £150 Main Event was the major bullet point for players heading to the property, and saw 1,156 players for a £150,000 prize pool.

Andrew Balfe took down the event for £22,000, the biggest score of his career. Nestoras Kakoyannis finished runner-up for £14,275.

Andrew Balfe after winning the partypoker Grand Prix UK main event. (photo courtesy partypoker)

A couple of other players also recently scored big in the MILLIONS Online KO Edition, which runs through May 31. The $530 NLHE Eight-Max event saw 206 players for a $103,000 prize pool. Finland’s Mathias Siljander found the winner’s circle for $19,314. Malta’s Ricardo Silva placed second for $13,860.

The $215 NLHE Eight-Max also produced a nice prize pool with 575 playing for a share of $115,000. Brazil’s Andre Luis Berlanda came out as the champion for $18,606.

Partypoker also recently released more events planned for 2022. Here’s a look at the schedule.

PokerStars

The Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) continues through June 1 at PokerStars. As the action plays out, a few players stand out so far.

Dinesh “NastyMinder” Alt was recently one of the players grabbing a title. The Swiss player is a regular online pro and has scored numerous titles including World COOP, Turbo COOP, Bounty Builder High Roller, and a Sunday Million.

After so much success, Alt now has not one, but two SCOOP titles to add to that string of wins. He first won a $109 SCOOP Sunday Kickoff for $44,887

Alt then turned a $109 Phase entry into an entry into the $5,000 Titans PKO, then winning the event for $230,145. That total included an impressive $157,285 in bounties.

“It felt awesome, especially these high roller tournaments with tough fields, there are so many people I know and respect as very good players, it was definitely awesome,” he told the Stars blog after the Titans win.

“The previous one was a smaller buy-in with more luck involved as the fields are so big and the variance is higher but in the high rollers, it’s more about skill and less variance in the smaller fields.

In other action, PokerStars ambassador Fintan “easywithaces” Hand scored his third SCOOP title in three years. He took down the $2,000 Sunday Warm-Up for $119,046 including $71,820 in bounties. Hand enjoyed quite a celebration after the win:

888poker

The 888poker Live Barcelona series wrapped up on May 23. Poker pros Maria Ho and Dan “Jungleman” Cates made the trip to Spain for the action along with the site’s ambassadors and the 888poker StreamTeam.

Cates made the trip worthwhile, winning the €5,300 Super High Roller for €33,000. In the €2,200 High Roller, Ireland’s James Crawley took the title for €38.000. The UK’s Warren Aspey finished runner-up for €24.000 in a tournament that attracted 63 entries.

The €1,100 Main Event highlighted the series and featured four starting flights. The action included 334 entries for a €320,640 prize pool.

The final table saw five of the nine players hailing from the host country as well as players from the UK, Finland, Italy, and France. In the end, Italy’s Sandro Hauser came out on top for €56,800.

Spain’s Alexandre Ventura Bolet finished runner-up €41,400 after a deal was reached among the top three.

GGPoker, Triton Poker

The Online Poker Championship is underway at GGPoker, running through June 1 with $150 million guaranteed. The company has also partnered with Triton Poker for the tour’s recent Madrid series.

GG offered players online qualifiers for events and some big names have once again made some news. That has included Tom Dwan, who scored two titles in three days. He won the €30,000 Short Deck Turbo and €25,000 Pot Limit Omaha for a total of €626,000.

Australia’s Michael Addamo also has two titles, winning the opening $20,000 NLHE for €478,000 and a €75,000 NLHE event for €1.2 million. Stephen Chidwick and Jason Koon also drvured titles in the series, which wrapped up on Wednesday.