WSOP: Ranno Sootla Makes History, Earns $596K with Colossus Victory

Lance Bradley · August 1, 2020

Estonian Ranno Sootla won nearly $600,000 and his first WSOP bracelet after outlasting the massive field in Colossus. (Jokker photo)

Ranno Sootla etched his name into the World Series of Poker record books on Saturday multiple times after taking down Event #41 ($400 NLHE Colossus) of the WSOP Online. The tournament featured the largest prize pool and first place prize for a WSOP Online event and made him the first Estonian to win a WSOP bracelet.

The multi-starting flight Colossus drew 12,757 entries and built up a $4,796,632 prize pool with Sootla taking home $595,930 for first place. The Estonian survived a final table where two other players were responsible for six of the last eight eliminations and he never held the chip lead until the final 15 minutes.

It didn’t take long to get the first final table elimination. Just a few minutes after play resumed Ajay Chabra moved all in from middle position for 27,061,079 with and Paraskevas Tsokaridis re-shoved from the button with forcing the blinds to fold. The board ran out to give Tsokaridis a rivered pair of aces to eliminate Chabra in ninth place.

Ten minutes later, Andre Figueiredo moved all in for 49,703,960 from the hijack with and Lai Sisheng called off his last 17,651,368 from the small blind with . Sisheng could do nothing but watch as the failed to save him from an eighth place finish.

Five minutes later, Team partypoker Pro Joni Jouhkimainen got in on the action. Tom Delaine moved all in from middle position with only to have Jouhkimainen re-shove over the top with right behind him. Everybody else folded and Jouhkimainen stayed in complete control on the flop, turn, and river to end Delaine’s tournament with a seventh place result.

Tsokaridis got back on the elimination train 15 minutes later in a blind versus blind situation. Agate Ose moved all in for 66,232,684 from the small blind with and Tsokaridis called from the big with . The flop left Ose drawing thin with two cards to come and both the turn and river were bricks and the Austrian was eliminated in sixth.

Barely a minute passed before Tsokaridis did it again. This time he raised to 12,000,000 from the button with before Arunas Sapitavicius moved all in for 106,907,600 from the big blind with . Tsokaridis called and then watched again as the runout connected with his hand and failed to save Sapitavicius from busting in fifth place.

While Tsokaridis worked with the chip lead, Jouhkimainen picked up another elimination. Figueiredo moved all in for 35,755,328 from the button with and Jouhkimainen called from the big blind with . The board ran out to make Figueiredo’s fourth place finish official.

Despite having picked up that elimination, Jouhkimainen only got to hang out for another 15 minutes. The Finn called from the small blind before Tsokaridis raised to 19,200,000 from the big blind. Jouhkimainen responded by moving all in for 149,919,599 and Tsokaridis called. Jouhkimainen turned over but got bad news when Tsokaridis showed . The flop only made things worse and Jouhkimainen was drawing dead after the turn. The river was an inconsequential to eliminated Jouhkimainen in third and send the tournament to heads up.

Tsokaridis had 64% of the chips in play when heads up play started. Sootla dominated heads up play early on and took over the chip lead for the first time at the final after just five minutes of one-on-one action. Over the next 30 minutes, Sootla continued to chip away at Tsokaridis’ stack and eventually found a spot where all the chips went in the middle. With blinds at 5M/10M, Tsokaridis called from the button before Sootla raised to 30,000,0000. Tsokaridis moved all in for 172,211,296m and Sootla called and showed . Tsokaridis had outs after tabling . The runout did not improve Tsokaridis’ hand and he was out in second place giving Sootla the win and nearly $600,000 payday.