The WSOP Poker Players Championship is the one they all want to win, but while many suspected it might be the chip leader heading into the final table’s time to shine, Jason Koon, the final didn’t work out like that. In the end, German high roller Christian Rudloph took the victory and $1.8 million top prize to go with the Chip Reese Trophy.

This being the pandemic-inspired GGPoker-based WSOP 2020 Online Series, there was no celebratory champagne being popped and no camera bulbs to flash that winning moment into poker history. Christian Rudloph won’t care one bit about that, however, as he came from being third in the chipcounts when play began to overhauling tough players in every spot at the final table.

Winning the $50,000-entry Poker Players Championship in Las Vegas is a feather in the cap of any player. This year the buy-in may have been halved to $25,000, but the bragging rights are just as valuable, and beating such a strong final table from 407 total entries – meaning a prizepool of just over $10 million – is a huge achievement for the German player.

By far the biggest win of Rudolph’s career did not come easy. With an average stack at the start of the final table comprising just 23 big blinds, stacks were shallow and the action in such poker-shark infested waters was predictably large. It would, however, take 20 minutes for Aliaksei Boika to bust in 9th place, the Belarussian running an all-in with ace-five into Shankar Pillai’s ace-jack, which held.