Marcelo "Marolo" Jakovljevic Pudla Wins Event #32: $100 The Opener for $265,880
More than a week after it began, the first event of the GGPoker World Series of Poker (WSOP) Online is finished, and Brazilian Marcelo "Marolo" Jakovljevic Pudla took down the top prize of $265,880. Pudla powered through a record field in a WSOP event, besting the full field of 29,306 entries. One Day 2, Pudla had to contend with 4,599 returning stacks, but when the dust settled after nearly 11 hours of play, the Brazilian had amassed all the chips and won a WSOP bracelet.
With just a single cash on his Hendon Mob page, and $11,053.39 in winnings on his GGPoker profile, this is not only Pudla's first bracelet, but it looks to be his biggest ever cash as well. Pudla led for much of the final table, and was the player who eliminated seven of the final nine players. However, he came into the heads up play behind in chips after runner up Ronit "Songjoy" Chamani eliminated Dejan "627265" Kaladjurdjevic in third place and gathered more than 1 billion chips.
Pudla was able to turn it around over the 10 minute HU match, catching doubles with king-queen over jack-nine and jack-nine over ace-six to even up the stacks. Chamani pulled back out in front again over the next few hands, mostly winning without showdown, but Pudla hung on until they doubled into the lead with ace-deuce over king-queen. That left Chamani short, and set up the final hand where Chamani shoved suited connectors, but ended up dominated by ace-five.
The Final Table
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marcelo "Marolo" Jakovljevic Pudla | Brazil | $265,880 |
| 2 | Ronit "Songjoy" Chamani | South Africa | $198,067 |
| 3 | Dejan "bobkovic" Kaladjurdjevic | Montenegro | $141,189 |
| 4 | Ramiro "OnTheFlow" Petrone | Argentina | $100,644 |
| 5 | Pablo Silva | Brazil | $71,742 |
| 6 | Roberto "Mulooo90" Turrisi | Germany | $51,140 |
| 7 | Boban "bobkovic" Zhivkovikj | Macedonia | $36,455 |
| 8 | Jonas "LobyPewis" Mackoff | Canada | $25,986 |
| 9 | Bret "ShowerTime" Carson | Canada | $18,524 |
The Day's Action
Play got back underway at 3:30 p.m. Eastern time today with the start of Level 3. When play suspended last week, there were still 3,684 players with stacks, but that number dropped quickly. There were 3,039 paid spots, and it took less than two levels to hit the bubble.
The bubble lasted exactly one hand, and the carnage continued unabated after that. Within 30 minutes, there were less than 2,000 players left, and an hour later, they were down to 1,000. It took another hour to play down to 400 players and an hour later they were at 250 players left.
Within six hours of the start of the tournament, the field had whittled down to 70 players. Fourth place finisher Ramiro "OnTheFlow" Petrone and 7th place Boban "bobkovic" Zhivkovikj started to make a run at the top chip counts around this time with Zhivkovikj leading the way with 70 players left.
A couple levels later, there were less than 50 remaining, and Zhivkovikj was still leading the way while Pudla and 3rd place finisher Kaladjurdjevic found their way to top ten stacks. Two levels later they were down to the final four tables with Petrone, Pudla, and Zhivkovikj leading the way.
Within an hour, they were down to 15 remaining, with Pudla out in front. Play slowed down a bit then, and it took another 90 minutes to set up the final table.
Once the final table convened, it was rapid-fire knockouts, starting with the two Canadians, Bret "ShowerTime" Carson and Jonas "LobyPewis" Mackoff, within just a few hands. Zhivkovikj followed shortly after when they got a short stack in with suited cards but couldn't get there.
Germany's Roberto "Mulooo90" Turrisi woke up with ace-ten short stacked six-handed, but was unlucky enough to run into the kings of final table crusher Pudla. Pablo Silva was the next player to fall to his countryman's steam roller. Silva shoved jacks, but couldn't hold against Pudla's ace-queen.
Petrone was Pudla's next victim. Petrone shoved ace-nine under the gun, but Pudla's king-deuce got there with a deuce on the flop and held to bust Petrone in 4th for more than $100k. Kaladjurdjevic from Montenegro was next only one of two players on the final table not to be run over by Pudla. Instead, he got his money in against Chamani with an under pair of tens against her jacks. He couldn't find any help and had to settle for 3rd place and more than $140,000.
That set up a heads up duel that lasted more than 10 minutes. Chamani came into the final two with more than 1 billion chips and a huge lead, but Pudla was able to come back by holding when he had to, and getting there when he had to. The most crushing blow came when Pudla's ace-deuce held against the king-queen of Chamani, leaving her very short and setting up the final hand confrontation. Chamani won almost $200,000 for 2nd place, while Pudla bagged the win, the bracelet, and $265,880.
The concludes the extended version of Event #32, with the bracelet finally awarded. PokerNews will be here to bring you action from all the GGPoker WSOP Online events over the next few weeks. There are still plenty of bracelets to give out.