Biggest online winner of all time wins WSOP Winter Online Circuit $10k Heads-Up Championship
Niklas Astedt doesn’t need to add anything else to his list of poker accomplishments to cement his place among the best players in the game. The Swedish online poker crusher continues to polish up the resume, however, with two six-figure scores already in 2021.
Astedt accomplished one of poker’s toughest feats Sunday, getting through a loaded field and winning the $10,000 Heads Up No-Limit Hold’em Championship at the GGPoker WSOP Winter Online Circuit series. Heads-up events tend to draw only poker’s fiercest competition, and Astedt emerged from a stacked bracket to win $348,250.
The win gives Astedt his first career WSOP Circuit Ring and marks the second time he’s scored six figures already this year at GGPoker. Astedt finished second in the Jan. 6 Super MILLION$, cashing in for $346,104 in the process.
Astedt finished the deal Sunday with a win against Mirza Muhovic (2nd - $199,000) in the tournament finale.
Astedt navigates treacherous road to clinch the championship
Sunday featured the final two matches in the $1 million guaranteed event. Astedt took on Cooper Li (3rd - $99,500) in one semifinal, with Muhovic battling Ian Modder (4th - $99,500) in the other.
On the way to the final four, Astedt defeated Timothy Adams, Luke Reeves, Guillaume Nolet, and Wiktor Malinowski (8th - $62,188). The quarterfinal match between Astedt and Malinowski pitted Astedt against one of the world’s toughest heads-up players.
Other top finishers included Juan Pardo (5th - $62,188), George Wolff (6th - $62,188), and Oliver Weiss (7th - $62,188).
The Astedt vs. Muhovic finale began with Muhovic taking a big lead, with Astedt down to less than half the starting stack at one point. Astedt managed to battle back, however, clinching his first WSOP Circuit Ring in one of poker’s toughest tournament formats.
Is Niklas Astedt the best online player in the world?
Astedt ended 2020 at No. 1 on the all-time online tournament earnings list, according to the PocketFives database. The Sweden-based tournament great boasts more than $21.6 in online tournament earnings to top the PocketFives list.
That database doesn’t include GGPoker results, however. Astedt’s latest GGPoker score puts his career earnings at over $6.3 million on the network.
Astedt and Michael Addamo could well be considered as combatants in a battle for status as poker’s No. 1 player in the world. Addamo started his 2021 with a win in the WSOP Winter Online Circuit New Year’s Colossus for $374,604.
If Addamo and Astedt were the best two players of 2020, that trend certainly seems to be continuing in 2021.
