For online player Jonas ‘llJaYJaYll’ Lauck, today is a good day. That’s because he’s $1,517,541 richer than he was when he woke up yesterday morning.
On Wednesday, the German poker pro topped a field of 2,091 internet players in the $5,000 buy-in PokerStars WCOOP Main Event. He became the 15th winner of the World Championship of Online Poker, which first ran in 2002.
Lauck’s win was the largest from the Main Event since Tyson “POTTERPOKER” Marks won $2,278,097 in 2010, the year before the infamous Black Friday. Last year’s winner, Kristof “Coenaldinho” Coenen, took home $1,300,000. The great Fedor “CrownUpGuy” Holz earned that same amount in 2014 for his victory.
Lauck joins an impressive list of WCOOP Main Event winners, including Holz and J.C. Tran (2006). His victory concluded an 82-event online poker series that totaled more than $73 million in prize pool money. The Main Event lasted three days before Lauck finished off a ‘0409479,’ a player from the United Kingdom, to win the title.
Big Hands Heads Up
With Lauck and ‘0409479’ heads-up, the eventual runner-up ran into a bit of a cooler. Lauck held A♠K♣, up against A♥Q♣, both monster heads-up hands. All the money got in pre-flop, leaving ‘0409479’ in dire need of a suck-out.
But the flop ran out K♦5♦2♣, putting the chip leader just two cards away from the biggest win of his poker career. The board finished off with 7♥ and 8♦, wrapping up the German’s impressive, life-changing victory. Don’t feel too bad, the runner-up also received a nice chunk of change ($1,101,278). In 3rd place, ‘R_Scientist’, another British player, earned $799,196.
The rest of the final table went as follows: ‘Gambler4444’ (4th/$579,976), ‘axtipotos_86’ (5th/$420,888), ‘Olorionek’ (6th/ $305,439), ‘uknowProsky*’ (7th/$221,656), ‘gorodski’ (8th/$160,856), ‘deadfizh’ (9th/$116,733).
Live Wire
Jonas ‘llJaYJaYll’ Lauck hasn’t just been a successful online poker player. He’s also won some big bucks in live tournaments since 2011.
Overall, he has more than $1.3 million in live event wins. His biggest score came in a $1,080 buy-in Deep Stack event at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in 2012 for $260,765. Lauck beat out 1,602 players to win that title.
In the 2016 World Series of Poker Main Event, he made a deep run, nearly becoming a November Niner before busting out in 37th place on Day Six. The German pro earned $174,826 for his second cash of this year’s WSOP.
He has yet to win a World Series bracelet, but came close in 2014 when he finished 2nd in a $1,500 no-limit hold’em event for $130,955. But none of his previous cashes compare to what he won online Wednesday. Should be plenty of free rounds of beer for his contingent this weekend.
