To say this year's World Championship of Online Poker was going well for Poker Stars would be an understatement. This weekend alone easily stands as a good example of why. Between Friday and Sunday, the WCOOP held four tournaments and all four events earned well past their guaranteed prize monies. In fact, the $1,000+$50 buy-in no-limit event's prize pool was almost two-and-a-half times larger than its $1 million guarantee, which equated to the second biggest prize in Poker Stars history. This weekend also marked the first year the WCOOP would hold a H.O.R.S.E. event (there are actually two H.O.R.S.E. events in this series). The event was obviously riding on the fervor following the reinstatement of the H.O.R.S.E. event in this year's WSOP, where Chip Reese took home the bracelet and the $1,716,000 prize. Poker Stars apparently still had some trepidations about how much interest players would have in the event, only putting up a $100,000 guarantee for the prize pool. The guarantee was put to shame when 1,798 players entered the fray to build a $359,600 prize pool.
WCOOP Event No. 10: $1 Million Guaranteed No-Limit Hold'em
Poker Stars biggest event of the weekend lived up to its expectations by drawing in 2,458 players to stick in their $1,000+$50 entry fee and build the second-largest prize ever to be given out by Poker Stars. First place stood to earn $442,440 and a 14 karat gold WCOOP bracelet. Some big names cashed in the event, including online poker stars sheets (24th, $8,603), Action Jeff (37th, $5,653.40) and Jordan 'iMsoLucky0' Morgan (124th $3,441.20). Poker stars Luca Pagano and Victor Ramdin also made money in the event (85th, $4,178.60 and 319th, $1,966.40 respectively).
The event's final table also sported some star power with Barny Boatman who entered the table fourth in chips with $1,395,975, having less than half of the big stack, strassa2, with $3,022,563.
Pipestew was the first player sent to the rail when he pushed all in preflop and was up against razeit. Razeit showed pocket eights and Pipestew flipped over K Q and would have to improve. Razeit hit an 8 on the flop and turned a full house to put Pipestew out in ninth ($28,267).
The next elimination hand had sappy123 all in preflop with A Q against strassa2's pocket eights. The pocket pair held up again by completing a full house and strassa2 scooped in the pot to bust sappy123 in eighth, earning him $46,702.
Pocket eights certainly looked good at this point. At least, that's what elementry was undoubtedly thinking when he pushed all in preflop with them. Strassa2 called his all in and showed 10 2. Strassa2 broke the pocket eights streak when the flop paired his 10 and the turn paired his 2, giving him tens up to send elementry packing in seventh with $61,450.
Three more minutes brought three more busts as NNICOLAS, razeit, and MaltLiquor40 were eliminated in sixth, fifth and fourth, respectively. NNICOLAS' K J was taken out by MaltLiquor40's A 3 when NNICOLAS didn't connect with the board and MaltLiquor40 made two pair. He made $82,343 for his run. Barny Boatman's pocket kings took out razeit when his A Q failed to improve past a pair of queens and razeit went home with $105,694. Boatman then showed everyone how the A-Q was supposed to work when he spiked an ace to crack MaltLiquor40's pocket jacks to take him out in fourth ($129,045).
Despite eliminating the last two players, Barny Boatman was the next to bust. To make the situation more ironic, Boatman passed up on discussing a deal immediately before the hand he was eliminated, saying, "3rd is ok anyway." Boatman pushed all in preflop and was called by strassa2. Strassa2 showed A Q, a hand that was being played a lot recently, with mixed results, and Boatman flipped up A 6 for a dominated hand. The flop was excellent for Boatman when it came J 6 4, pairing his 6. The turn put the 8 on the board, improving neither player. Thugmoneymkr, the other player at the table, began chanting for a queen and, sure enough, the river brought it. Strassa2's pair of queens took Barny Boatman out in third, giving Boatman an "ok" $155,345.60.
The final elimination hand came about in just over 10 minutes. After early aggression from thugmoneymkr, and some passive calls by strassa2, the board was 9 8 8 J. Thugmoneymkr again bet out, but this time strassa2 raised all in, having thugmoneymkr covered. Thugmoneymkr said, "gotta call ya..." as he flipped over A J. Strassa2 showed J 9 for the lead. The river sealed the deal when it came the 6 and strassa2 eliminated thugmoneymkr to take first place and the bracelet.
The final standings are as follows:
strassa2 - $442,440 thugmoneymkr - $266,693 BarnyBoatman - $155,345.60 MaltLiquor40 - $129,045 razeit - $105,694 NNICOLAS - $82,343 elementry - $61,450 sappy123 - $46,702 Pipestew - $28,267
WCOOP Event No. 9: $400K Guaranteed Pot-Limit Hold'em
A $400K guarantee turned into $547,500 as 1,095 players showed up for the pot-limit hold'em event. As an interesting note, player Roothlus, who placed third in the Ultimate Bet $200K guaranteed tournament on Sunday, also took 11th place in this tournament on Saturday, making his total weekend earnings over $22,000.
Uncforte would be the eventual winner of the tournament, taking home $105,329 and a WCOOP bracelet after making a deal with second place finisher remen. The heads up match came down to two crucial hands as the final table came to a close. First, remen all but evened out his stack against uncforte when his straight butted up against uncforte's set. In the very next hand, uncforte took remen out when both players flopped a pair of queens, but uncforte had remen outkicked with an ace. His ever so slight chip lead pulled out a win for him in the event.
The final standings are as follows:
uncforte - $105,329 remen - $80,000 InSpiritu - $43,854.75 trollguttn - $32,850 derkderka - $27,375 EC10 - $21,900 myteduck - $16,698.75 Claret1 - $12,318.75 eirivi - $7,938.75
WCOOP Event No. 8: $100K Guaranteed H.O.R.S.E.
F.Briatore took home Poker Stars' first ever H.O.R.S.E. bracelet when he outlasted a field of 1,798 and took out two poker pros at the final table. Both Gary 'p10ker' Jones and Shirley 'Sirens' Rosario cashed at the final table, earning $30,566 for third and $10,788 for seventh respectively.
The final hand would be between F.Briatore and fat&50. Playing seven-card stud, F.Briatore would eventually put fat&50 all in on sixth street after heavy betting and raising throughout the hand. F.Briatore showed two pair, kings and queens to trump fat&50's two pair, jacks and fours to take the pot and the H.O.R.S.E. title.
The final standings for the H.O.R.S.E. event are:
F.Briatore - $79,112 fat&50 - $46,748 p10ker - $30,566 thumbers - $22,654.80 thag - $18,339.60 LakersRule - $14,384 Siren - $10,788 TheTownhouse - $7,551.60
WCOOP Event No. 7: $200K Guaranteed Limit Hold'em
A total of 1,872 entrants vied for the $374,400 prize pool in the limit hold'em event on Friday. Canada's yaaaflow eventually wrenched the title from the hands of the only American at the final table, UH Big Tex, in a very competitive heads-up match.
The two started out tied as the final two players, but UH Big Tex eventually pushed his stack up to more than three times that of yaaaflow. Yaaaflow regained the ground that he had lost, putting them virtually tied again, until a devastating hand for UH Big Tex where yaaaflow rivered a straight to take down a huge pot. The final hand was just four minutes later when UH Big Tex pushed all in preflop with his very short stack and yaaaflow called. UH Big Tex showed K 10 and yaaaflow flipped up A 5. While UH Big Tex hit a 10 on the flop, yaaaflow ended up with two pair to take UH Big Tex out and take the top payday.
The final standings for the tournament were:
yaaaflow - $60,419 UH Big Tex - $46,378 dalzini - $30,608 MADEin - $20,030.40 tow75 - $16,660.80 wheelz21 - $12,916.80 in_da_riva - $9,360 Frejdig - $7,413.12 MikeMcD - $4,492.80
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