Russian player 'Nikki_Hefner' winsss TCOOP 2015 Main Event for record-breaking first prize

ONCHAN, Isle of Man -- (PRESS RELEASE) -- The PokerStars.com 2015 Turbo Championship of Online Poker Main Event champion was crowned on Sunday, February 1, as Russian player 'Nikki_Hefner' won a first prize of $396,516.38. Despite making a deal with second-place 'riversousa' from Brazil, the first prize of nearly $400k set a new record for largest single cash in a TCOOP event, beating the previous largest of $382,812 set in last year's High Roller event.

A total of 4,169 players entered this year’s $700 NL Hold'em Main Event, which generated a prize pool of $2,772,385 – far in excess of the $2 million guarantee. Due to the fast-paced nature of the tournament, it was all over in just five hours, 11 minutes, which, for the winner, equated to an hourly rate of an astonishing $76,498.

TCOOP 2015 Main Event
Entrants: 4,169
Prize pool: $2,772,385
Number of cashes: 540
Final table:
1. Nikki_Hefner (Russia) – $396,516.38*
2. riversouza (Brazil) – $363,119.56*
3. PitBully01 (United Kingdom) – $228,721.76
4. Spraggs (United Kingdom) – $159,412.13
5. basil86 (United Kingdom) – $117,826.36
6. jxarturo (Colombia) – $90,102.51
7. yryryryr (Portugal) – $62,378.66
8. majo-K88 (Germany) – $34,654.81
9. GhettoHomie (Germany) – $22,179.08

• reflects heads-up deal

In total, $19,968,306 was awarded to players throughout the Championship, with 168,621 tournament entrants.

TOURNAMENT HIGHLIGHTS
On the final day, Team PokerStars Pro Theo 'Theo J' Jorgensen won the $2,100 High Roller event (TCOOP-47). The Danish pro topped a field of 926 players to scoop his first PokerStars 'COOP' title, which was good for $193,237.03 after a deal with 'DaNuts90' from Germany.

Meanwhile, Anders 'Donald' Berg just missed out on becoming the third player to achieve a Triple COOP (TCOOP, SCOOP, WCOOP titles) after he finished fourth in the $320 8-Game event (TCOOP-48). He already has three WCOOP – and two SCOOP – victories.

LEADERBOARD
Winner of this year's Player of the Series Leaderboard was 'CandyJohnson' from Norway, who won one event, made three final tables and had 13 cashes. The player receives a Champion's Trophy and 2015 SCOOP Main Event [H] ticket. Players ranked down to 100 on the Leaderboard also receive 2015 SCOOP tickets of different amounts.