Fernando "fviana" Viana Wins the Stadium Series Freezeout Grand Final - High $5,200 NLHE ($721,235)
In just under five hours, the last nine players out of a field of 971 entries in the 2020 PokerStars Stadium Series Freezeout Grand Final - High $5,200 NLHE have been whittled down to a champion and it was Brazil's Fernando "fviana" Viana that came out on top. Viana secured the top prize of $721,235 after striking a deal with eventual runner-up Vlada "Vlada2018" Stojanovic ($553,932) and third-place finisher Maxime "Daghemuneguu" Chilaud ($570,220) as they battled fiercely for two hours after the numbers were agreed to.
It was the conclusion of the first festival of it's kind and the flagship event featured a guaranteed prize pool of $5,000,000 in a Freezeout format, no re-entries were allowed. The final outcome also has a lot of similarities with the $530 Medium tier, as there was a three-way deal with a Brazilian victory and it all ended with a setup hand, too.
Viana has been a well-known pro on the Brazilian poker scene for several years. His best result on the live circuit thus far was a third place in the 2019 WSOP Event #56 $1,500 NLHE Super Turbo Bounty for $116,426. The top three finishers all earned a bigger payday on the virtual felt than they previously had at any live tournaments.
Featured on the final table were five players from Russia and one from Belarus, however, they were all gone by the time the deal was struck. The only known alias belonged to Sergei "Futti18" Koliakov, who finished in 5th place for $224,249.
Final Result Stadium Series Freezeout Grand Final - High $5,200 NLHE
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize (in USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fernando "fviana" Viana | Brazil | $721,235* |
| 2 | Vlada "Vlada2108" Stojanovic | Serbia | $553,932* |
| 3 | Maxime "Daghemuneguu" Chilaud | France | $570,220* |
| 4 | serggorelyi7 | Russia | $310,287 |
| 5 | Sergei "Futti18" Koliakov | Russia | $224,249 |
| 6 | MarinkaHT | Russia | $162,068 |
| 7 | LeslieGroves | Russia | $117,128 |
| 8 | isscreamo | Belarus | $84,650 |
| 9 | Goallinfishara | Russia | $67,992 |
*denotes deal of the final three players
Chilaud Dominates the Early Stages; Stojanovic Rises From Short Stack
The road to victory for Viana was a tough one to say the least as he in fact nursed a quite short stack for most of the first two hours. Chilaud entered the final table as the chip leader and dominated the action, even pulled into a comfortable lead with more than half of the chips in play.
Day 1 chip leader "Goallinfishara" was in the middle of the pack when the action resumed and actively played one single hand. They jammed with ace-king and "serggorelyi7" called with nines, Stojanovic called for less with queens and both pairs flopped a set. "isscreamo" then lost a flip to Chilaud and "LeslieGroves" fired three barrels with a bluff to send their chips over to "serggorelyi7".
Viana was still one of the two short stacks with six remaining and knocked out "MarinkaHT" with kings versus queens. Chilaud was still in the lead and had nearly three times as many chips as the nearest follower despite a few minor setbacks.
Viana From Almost Zero to Hero
The short stacks Viana and Koliakov carefully nursed their shorter stacks and suddenly the Brazilian skyrocketed into the lead after doubling through Stojanovic with king-ten suited versus ace-jack followed by pocket queens holding up against the three-bet jam of Chilaud with pocket sixes.
Half an hour later, Koliakov check-jammed second pair into the top pair of Viana and found no help to bow out in 5th place. Only five minutes later, "serggorelyi7" lost a flip with ace-queen against the pocket jacks of Viana and now it was the Brazilian with more than half of the chips in play.
Fierce Battle of the Final Three
As Stojanovic closed the gap to Chilaud and Viana dropped a few chips, the final three players agreed to a deal. A rapid conclusion of the event was in sight but what broke out was a hard-fought battle which lasted two hours. The lead changed back and forth and Stojanovic won a flip against Viana to get back into contention after being short.
When Stojanovic was about to assume control and run away with a big lead, he doubled Viana with king-queen versus ace-king and Chilaud succumbed to his short stack. The UK-based Frenchman got it in with pocket nines and Viana called with pocket tens to river a full house for good measure.
The heads-up battle itself lasted exactly three hands and Viana won them all. In the final hand, Viana turned the nut straight in a three-bet pot while Stojanovic turned a set of eights. There was no escaping on a blank river as Stojanovic moved all-in and was snap-called to bow out in second place.
The entire final table was also streamed with cards-up coverage on the PokerStars Twitch Channel and Lex Veldhuis appeared as guest commentator to give his insight into the action. That wraps up the PokerNews live updates for this event and festival but the next exciting tournaments are already around the corner.