UK pro Tom ‘hitthehole’ Middleton has been on fire since winning EPT Barcelona in late 2013 for €942,000. Yet his latest accolade, winning the PokerStars WCOOP Challenge Series main event for $500,000, is one of his finest achievements ever. Middleton, playing under his famous hitthehole username, was one of 1,624 players to enter the $2,100 main event. After Day One Middleton was in the top ten in chips with 80 players remaining and it’s a status he would never relinquish all the way until the final table.
From there it continued to be a dream run for Middleton, who eliminated four opponents on the final table before getting to heads-up versus Israeli player bboooommmmmm. The two did a deal to flatten the steep payouts somewhat, leaving $40,000 on the table to play for. However, with a recent resume that includes the aforementioned EPT Barcelona win, an $89k victory in the PokerStars 500 and a $72k score for a final table finish in a 2013 WCOOP event, it was always going to be Middleton’s day. The major hand of heads-up occurred when bboooommmmmm 3-bet A-T and fired at a Jack-high flop. Middleton raised, bboooommmmmm re-raised and Middleton flatted. The turn was a Ten and bboooommmmmm now shoved all-in, but was drawing very thin against Middleton’s K-J. The river bricked off and bboooommmmmm was left with only a few big blinds, from which he could never recover.
His good friend, and former backer, Chris Moorman tweeted; ‘With 200 ppl left in the 2k on @PokerStars I messaged @hitthehole & congratulated him on his victory. The only surprise is he chopped #boss‘
The victory was predictably greeted with some hyperactive support by the UK, and world, online MTT community. PokerPlayer.co.uk. blogger Sam ‘TheSquid’ Grafton kept it simple by calling Middleton ‘THE MAN’ while Toby Lewis stated, ‘Said it before and ill say it again! Tom @hitthehole Middleton might just be the best! Congrats buddy!’.
Finally, the soft-spoken Middleton got in on the act himself, tweeting to his 2,000 followers: ‘Thanks for all the tweets, didn’t wanna post a ty too soon just in case it was a very elaborate Aprils fools from @pokerstars!’
Relive our exclusive interview with Tom ‘hitthehole’ Middleton, where he talks about his famous EPT Barcelona win RIGHT HERE.
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