Swedish poker star Simon Mattsson added another pile of cash and some hardware to his massive lifetime stack this week by winning the International WSOP.com Main Event for $2.8 million.

The event was held on GGPoker outside the US and attracted 4,984 participants who paid $5,000 each over 11 starting flights to generate a prize pool of $23.6 million. The biggest online poker tournament prize pool in history came in the same event in 2020, where 5,802 entries yielded a cat worth $27.5 million.

Tuesday’s win, which marks the biggest point of Mattsson’s career, pushed the one who plays online as “C. Darwin2” to the top of the online player money list with more than $27 million in winnings. In live events, playing under his real name, Mattsson collected an additional $4.4 million.

A final table filled with tough players

Mattsson started the final table as a significant chip leader with 107.7 blinds (500K/1 million/125K), but he faced a handful of players with million wins between them.

Players like Thailand’s Kannapong Thanarattrakul, who capped a great September with his second place finish in this event for $2,094,885.

Thanarattrakul had an extraordinary three-day run at the Triton Mediterranean Poker Party. There, he finished seventh in a $25K event for $145,700 on September 6, 10th in a $30K event for $75K on September 7, and third in the $50K No-Limit 6-Max event for $646,500.

Finishing third in the WSOP.com event was China’s Feng Zhao, who took home $1,570,941. That’s the biggest cash for the tournament player on the track since 2006. Finland’s Samuel Vousden is another online poker specialist who already owns a WSOP bracelet he won at GGPoker in August. He came to the table second in chips with 86.7 big blinds, but stayed in fourth place for $1,178,040.

Now that’s a nice picture. (Image: GGPoker)

Finishing fifth was Hungry’s Istvan Briski, who won $883,404. He made the final table of the WSOP $10k Super MILLION$ High Roller Event in August, finishing fourth for $451,883.

China’s Chi Yanfei finished sixth for $662,460.

Canada’s Jordan Spurlin has cashed both live and online WSOP events since 2017, but seventh place here for $496,774 beats his biggest haul by $35K, when he placed second in the $10 PLO 8-Handed Championship 2021.

Oliver Sprason was the other player to leave and walked away with $372,530. Sprason is a British pro who cashed multiple times in this online series.

Tim Rutherford of Canada finished ninth for $279,358. Another solid online player who consistently cashes in. This is his biggest WSOP.com points.

The final table took approximately 2 hours and 41 minutes to complete. It was shown on YouTube and hosted by Jeff Gross and Jeremey Ausmus.

More than 126,000 players worldwide generated $62 million in prize money in this online series, according to GGPoker.

Wristband events are now taking place in the US markets.

The sweet Swede

Mattsson should be in every conversation when talking about who might be the best online tournament poker player in the world.

He’s been at or near the top of every monthly and yearly money list since 2016, and that’s because all he seems to do is play online poker and cash. According to pocketfives – where he currently sits atop the worldwide all-time cash list – Mattsson has cashed 7,083 times, for an average amount of $3,901.

He led the world in online money for nine separate months since 2016.

This September alone he cashed 100 times. He is also a two-time winner of Poker Player of the Year in Sweden.

And in reality, he’s just getting started.

Mattsson turns 30 next year.

Written by

Bob Pajich

Bob Pajich is a poker news reporter, creative writer, and poker player who never met a suitable contact he didn’t like. If you enjoyed what he writes about, follow him on Twitter: @PondHockey2.