Stellar Performance Earns Timo Kamphues WPT Shooting Stars Charity Title

July 31st, 2020 | by Kaycee James

The WPT World Online Championships has added more money to its charity prizepool and given another batch of players a healthy payday.

Timo Kamphues has won the WPT Shooting Stars for Charity event on Partypoker and helped to raise $51,200 for 1 Day Sooner. (Image: WPT)

The $1,100 WPT Shooting Stars of Charity event saw 483 players ante-up on July 29 for two days of action. On hand to represent the poker community was a constellation of stars, including Manig Loeser, Sam Trickett, and Liv Boeree.

For an added dose of star power, snooker world champion Mark Williams played as a bounty alongside former Manchester United player Wes Brown. However, for all the stars on display, it was Finland’s Tomi Brouk that shone the brightest on Day 1.

Day 1 Star Goes Supernova as Timo Kamphues Shines

Brouk is one of the top online MTT pros in the world with just short of $10 million in prize money and that fact showed. Even with a who’s who of poker battling for a WPT title on July 29, Brouk came through the first session on top.

Play resumed on July 30 with 45 players vying for the $90,498 top prize. Marvin Rettenmaier, Mikita Badziakouski, and Joao Vieira were among the day’s early casualties. Brouk stayed strong as 45 became nine but his flame was soon extinguished.
The Finn moved all-in pre-flop with K♠J♥ but ran into trouble when Eugenio Peralta called with Q♣Q♥. A blank board offered Brouk no help and, with that, the start of the day chip leader was out in ninth.

The demise of Brouk gave Timo Kamphues time to shine. However, to become a final table star, he needed more than healthy dose of luck.

His first bout of good fortune came against Sam Trickett. An opening raise from Trickett elicited an all-in from Kamphues with A♠K♣.

Trickett made the call with A♦K♦ and watched in dismay as the board ran out 4♠2♠7♠J♣6♠. It was at this point Kamphues sensed a WPT title was written in his stars.

Everyone Wins with WPT Shooting Stars for Charity Event

He pushed the action at every opportunity until another helping of luck gave him the remainder of Trickett’s stack. With the finale down to six, Kamphues open shoved for 71 big blinds with K♦4♣. With those behind him holding 20 big blinds or fewer, the aggressive move was justified.

Trickett woke up with A♥T♣ in the big blind and made the easy call. Unfortunately for him, the 4♥K♠8♦9♥7♦ board gave Kamphues enough of a hand to eliminate the final table’s most accomplished player.

Klas Lofberg was next to fall victim to Kamphues’ stellar run of cards. Again, the German open shoved, this time with J♦T♣. Lofberg called with aces but a jack and a ten gave Kamphues another scalp.

At this point there was no stopping Kamphues. Moving all-in with impunity, he took our Eugenio Peralta and Matas Cimbolas before dispatching with Nikita Kupchin heads-up.

The final hand was, unsurprisingly, another fortunate turn of events. This time, however, the decisive card didn’t come until the river.

With Kupchin all-in with pocket tens and Kamphues calling with A♥6♥, the latter needed some help. Help eventually came when the A♦ fell on the river.

That card brought the WPT Shooting Stars for Charity event to an end and gave Kamphues a $90,498 payday.

WPT Shooting Stars for Charity Results

1 – Timo Kamphues – $90,498

2 – Nikita Kupchin – $64,429

3 – Matas Cimbolas – $44,169

4 – Eugenio Peralta – $30,726

5 – Klas Lofberg – $21,796

6 – Sam Trickett – $15,843

7 – Sergey Konovalov – $11,282

8 – Mikolaj Zawadzki – $8,161

The WPT and Partypoker donated $100 every $1,100 collected in the Shooting Stars event. The $51,200 raised will be combined with money from the recent media invitational. All the money raised will be donated to 1 Day Sooner, a charity dedicated to finding a cure for COVID-19.