It was Brian “SNoooWAN” Hawkins all the way. The finale was his day as he walked away with a cool $25,000 in one month with a meager bankroll of just $200. Cruising ahead of the next finisher on the leader board by $20,000, Brian’s feat was mind boggling.
When Poker News Daily got Bluff magazine’s Editor in Chief Matt Parvis talking about the extraordinary display, he gushed about the domination of just a single player. He thought there would only be three to four horses in a very similar spot with their bankrolls but the decimation act by Hawkins on the field went on to show just how big and fascinating it was to watch him win. Parvis was convinced that much more than half would be eliminated within the week and expected the trend to follow.
Each of the top online poker players totaling 25 received $200 as bankroll on Lock Poker at the Cafe Poker network in the US. To determine the top player in the Online Poker Challenge, tournaments and sit and gos were allowed only. In the end, Hawkin’s minted over $25,000 from his seed money of $200. At the end of the competition that was underway for a month, Garret Beckman finished second. He had already won the $150 rebuy on Full Tilt Poker for $57,000 last October. At the Online Poker Challenge, he ended up with $4,800 in the till. Bluff Magazine did a cover story on that.
Virtual felts of Lock Poker were taken by players using different strategies. While some went for the $3 and $5 multi-table tournaments, others straightaway had a go at the big score in the weekend majors of Café Poker Network. But Hawkins was a different kettle of fish. He cleverly built his bankroll pulling down weaker opponents in heads-up sit and gos. Bluff Magazine is a reservoir of players’ experiences as they blogged about it at their website.
Speaking after his grand victory, Hawkins testified on video that he was terribly excited at being featured in a top drawer gaming magazine like Bluff. He was pleased and contented with the progress of the competition and the way it was held and couldn’t wait for the next Bluff magazine to hit the stands. Both Hawkins and Beckman got entries to the Dream Team Poker event scheduled shortly with the most recent one being held at Las Vegas.
The action kept the online poker community on tenterhooks while Bluff magazine got great feedbacks. According to Parvis, both players and supporters reveled during the challenge. It was a stupendous success with live scoreboards and feedbacks flooding the video blogs.
