Swedish poker pro Jonas Hagstrom boosted his career winnings by a factor of five this week after winning the Mega Millions XVI at The Bicycle in California following a late decision to invest $4,300 in buying into the game; his previous career earnings of $62,000 were completely eclipsed by the first prize of $311,328 he took home.
His cash represented the lion’s share of a $1,854,688 prize pool as buy-ins easily surpassed the $1 million guarantee on the competition.
Entering on Day 2 of the contest, Hagstrom, who is mainly an online player, kept a low profile and was among the lower stacks on the final table until the three-handed stage was reached.
Then he showed more aggression in doubling up against Xiao Ruan, going on to win a monster flip to eliminate Massoud Eskandari, who had held the chip lead for most of the final table, at third for $109,935.
Facing Ruan in the heads up phase, Hagstrom had almost all the chips in play, and he quickly eliminated his last opponent, sending Ruan to the cashier to collect his second placing cash of $167,625.
“I was waiting for good spots”, Hagstrom said in analysing his strategy after the event. “I made some pretty big folds early on where I would usually play the hands but I just ran good at the right time.”
Other final table cashes included:
Larry Serebryany $82,065
Benjamin Nguyen $63,210
Keyue Wang $49,310
Benjamin Chan $38,765
Bhagwan Tejwani $30,450
Raz Mael $23,400