Eelis Parssinen Wins PLO Poker Masters Purple Jacket

Finland’s Eelis Parssinen won the Poker Masters Online PLO Series purple jacket after topping a star-studded leaderboard. Parssinen cashed six times in 14 events and won a cool $735,359 on his way to securing the title.

The Poker Masters Online PLO series started on June 21 at partypoker. Fourteen events with buy-ins of $5,200 to $25,500 attracted some of the best PLO players in the business. Elite stars from around the world descended on partypoker hoping to win the Poker Masters coveted purple jacket.

Poker Central awards leaderboard points to players when they reach the money places of its events. The overall points earner wins a purple jacket just like the famous Green jacket of golf’s Masters. The winner of this leaderboard also banked a free seat to the series’ Main Event worth $51,000.

United Kingdom’s Gavin Cochrane was the man to catch through the first handful of events, but Parssinen kept tugging on his coattails. Cochrane and Parssinen clashed in the fifth event on the schedule. The talented pair were heads-up for the title and a whole host of points. Parssinen came out on top and banked $440,000 plus 264 leaderboard points.

Parssinen Closes In On Leaderboard Title

Fast-forward to the 14th event and it was a four-horse race for the free $51,000 Main Event seat. One of Parssinen, Andras Nemeth, Cochrane, and Aku Joentausta would to the leaderboard depending on how the last event played out.

Neither Cochrane nor Joentausta made it into the final six places, rendering them out of the running. Nemeth busted in fifth-place, his fourth cash of the series, and climbed to 624 points. Parssinen was on 529 points and needed second-place or better for the purple jacket.

British poker legend Simon Trumper fell in fourth-place leaving Parssinen one elimination away from topping the leaderboard. Canada’s Matthew Wood busted in third to lock up the overall title for Parssinen. The Finn crashed out in second place, losing to Chance Kornuth heads-up.

Place	Player	Winnings	Points	Cashes
1	Eelis Parssinen	$735,359	625	6
2	Andras Nemeth	$674,186	624	4
3	Jens Kyllonen	$612,000	612	3
4	Gavin Cochrane	$754,094	594	5
5	Aku Joentausta	$507,643	452	6
6	Bengt Sonnert	$259,761	366	3
7	Sami Kelopuro	$320,700	321	3
8	Andrew Pantling	$277,861	288	4
9	Marcello Marigliano	$269,529	280	2
10	Viktor Blom	$281,225	273	4

Remarkable Results From The Flying Finn

Parsinnen’s performances during the series were exquisite. Six cashes from 14 events again this pool of opposition is nothing short of remarkable. His earnings came in at a cool $735,359, only Cochrane, with $754,094, won more.

Unfortunately for the Finn, his free $51,000 PLO Main Event entry didn’t go to plan. Twenty-nine players bought in and only four places paid. Parssinen busted in 14th place.

The two-day event finished with only five players in the hunt for the $675,000 top prize. Isaac Haxton returns as chip leader and by some distance. Haxton has 2,607,604 chips with Chris Kruk his nearest rival with a 1,264,980 stack. Andre Santos (785,621), Grazvydas Kontautas (742,705), and Aku Joentausta (192,840), make up the rest of the competitors.

There’s no doubt in our mind that we’ll see Parssinen’s name many more times in the future. He has an almost unnatural ability to accumulate chips even against the toughest of opponents. He’s managed to reproduce his online poker results in the live area too. Winnings of $385,356 only tell part of the story because Parssinen mostly only plays in his native Finland. There’s every chance he’ll become a legitimate superstar if he decides to travel further afield.

Matthew Pitt

If it’s something you can play online for real money, chances are Matthew knows a bit about it. He’s been writing about slots, craps and poker for the better part of the last decade. He’s written for PokerNews, PartyPoker and many other respected online gambling websites during the last nine years.

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