The 2010 World Championship of Online Poker is underway! The biggest online tournament series in the world kicked off early Sunday with Event #1 – $215 NL Hold’em 6-Max. The $1,250,000 guaranteed event attracted more than 9,000 players and generated a massive $1,800,200 prize pool. With more than $270,000 up for grabs there were plenty of great players on hand to compete for not just the money, but a WCOOP bracelet.
PokerStars was well represented by their professionals including a handful who made the money in Event #1. Online superstar Randy “nanonoko” Lew is best known for his ability to 24-table and crush midstakes NL cash games. However, Lew has been testing the waters in tournaments and it paid off yesterday with a 33rd place finish for $5,400. Noah “Exclusive” Boeken also cracked the top-100 finishing in 87th place for $2,070. Much like Lew, Boeken is a cash game professional who dabbles in both live and online tournaments. Finishing just outside the top-100 was Barry “barryg1” Greenstein, known as the “Robin Hood of Poker” for donating all of his tournament earnings to charity. Lately Greenstein has been much more prevalent on the live cash game scene where he has made appearances on GSN’s “High Stakes Poker” and the newest poker show, the PokerStars.net “Big Game”.
With just six players at the final table the action was fast and furious. There was plenty of play left as blinds were only 125,000/250,000 leaving the chip leader “AlexKP” with more than 100 Big Blinds.
Seat 1: AlexKP (27,904,440 in chips)
Seat 2: inhidonks (7,378,980 in chips)
Seat 3: stevie444 (10,804,952 in chips)
Seat 4: Tutanhamon1 (20,274,472 in chips)
Seat 5: Drateks (5,440,084 in chips)
Seat 6: ROOJAR_M (18,207,072 in chips)
A player without the luxury of a big stack was “Drateks” who entered the final table with just 22BBs and was the first to go when his medium pair ran into AlexKP’s bigger pair. He was unable to win the 20:80 and busted in 6th place for $27,003. This was the biggest score of his career on Stars by nearly $10,000. The big pot left AlexKP with an even bigger chip lead as he cracked the t33,000,000 mark:
Seat 1: AlexKP (28435690 in chips)
Seat 2: inhidonks (7347730 in chips)
Seat 3: stevie444 (10773702 in chips)
Seat 4: Tutanhamon1 (20118222 in chips)
Seat 5: Drateks (5158834 in chips)
Seat 6: ROOJAR_M (18175822 in chips)
Drateks: posts small blind 125000
ROOJAR_M: posts big blind 250000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
AlexKP: raises 300000 to 550000
inhidonks: folds
stevie444: folds
Tutanhamon1: folds
Drateks: raises 4577584 to 5127584 and is all-in
ROOJAR_M: folds
AlexKP: calls 4577584
*** FLOP *** [8s Ah 3d]
*** TURN *** [8s Ah 3d] [4d]
*** RIVER *** [8s Ah 3d 4d] [3c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Drateks: shows [7c 7s] (two pair, Sevens and Threes)
AlexKP: shows [9c 9d] (two pair, Nines and Threes)
AlexKP collected 10692668 from pot
The player happiest to see Drateks go was “inhidonks” who entered the final table with just a few more Big Blinds than the short stack. Being able to move up one spot in the standings was worth $13,500 to inhidonks who took home $40,504 for a hard day’s work. The highly-ranked tournament professional might have been a bigger threat with a larger chip stack but with just 15BBs was forced to shove A9o UTG. Unfortunately, he ran into pocket Kings and had to settle for 5th place:
Seat 1: AlexKP (41958369 in chips)
Seat 2: inhidonks (4567544 in chips)
Seat 3: stevie444 (12136974 in chips)
Seat 4: Tutanhamon1 (20020756 in chips)
Seat 6: ROOJAR_M (11326357 in chips)
ROOJAR_M: posts small blind 150000
AlexKP: posts big blind 300000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
inhidonks: raises 4230044 to 4530044 and is all-in
stevie444: folds
Tutanhamon1: folds
ROOJAR_M: raises 6758813 to 11288857 and is all-in
AlexKP: folds
Uncalled bet (6758813) returned to ROOJAR_M
*** FLOP *** [Kh 5h 7c]
*** TURN *** [Kh 5h 7c] [4c]
*** RIVER *** [Kh 5h 7c 4c] [Jh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ROOJAR_M: shows [Kd Kc] (three of a kind, Kings)
inhidonks: shows [Ah 9d] (high card Ace)
ROOJAR_M collected 9547588 from pot
Despite busting inhidonks, Matthew “ROOJAR_M” Pilat found himself with just 12BBs shortly thereafter and lost a key race to chiplead AlexKP. The 4th place finish earned him $76,508 which easily ranks as the best score of his career. The Australian poker player seems to grind midstakes games. I guess we can call this a shot well taken.
Seat 1: AlexKP (42090636 in chips)
Seat 3: stevie444 (22118320 in chips)
Seat 4: Tutanhamon1 (20200468 in chips)
Seat 6: ROOJAR_M (5600576 in chips)
stevie444: posts small blind 200000
Tutanhamon1: posts big blind 400000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
ROOJAR_M: raises 5150576 to 5550576 and is all-in
AlexKP: calls 5550576
stevie444: folds
Tutanhamon1: folds
*** FLOP *** [Qh Jc 3s]
*** TURN *** [Qh Jc 3s] [5c]
*** RIVER *** [Qh Jc 3s 5c] [5d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ROOJAR_M: shows [Qc Kc] (two pair, Queens and Fives)
AlexKP: shows [Jh Jd] (a full house, Jacks full of Fives)
AlexKP collected 11901152 from pot
With three players left AlexKP held more than half the chips in play. His chip-stack was about to grow even bigger as he busted Stephen “stevie444” Chidwick is 3rd place. One of the best online tournament players in the world, Chidwick earned himself $130,514 for his deep run in WCOOP Event #1. The six-figure score was the 2nd of his career and another near-miss in a major. Chidwick nearly won FTOPS Event #17 last year before falling in 2nd place for more than $142,000. With a resume full of $40,000+ scores Chidwick might have been the final table favorite but he could not get away from ATo and like many others fell to AlexKP’s AKo:
Seat 1: AlexKP (46197892 in chips)
Seat 3: stevie444 (24924140 in chips)
Seat 4: Tutanhamon1 (18887968 in chips)
Tutanhamon1: posts small blind 250000
AlexKP: posts big blind 500000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
stevie444: raises 510101 to 1010101
Tutanhamon1: folds
AlexKP: raises 1989902 to 3000003
stevie444: raises 21861637 to 24861640 and is all-in
AlexKP: calls 21861637
*** FLOP *** [Ad 5d Ts]
*** TURN *** [Ad 5d Ts] [4c]
*** RIVER *** [Ad 5d Ts 4c] [Kd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
AlexKP: shows [Ah Kh] (two pair, Aces and Kings)
stevie444: shows [Th Ac] (two pair, Aces and Tens)
AlexKP collected 50160780 from pot
Heads-up play came down to two relatively unknown players. AlexKP fresh off of busting stevie444 had nearly a 4:1 chip lead:
Seat 1: AlexKP (71434532 in chips)
Seat 4: Tutanhamon1 (18575468 in chips)
However “Tutanhamon1” quickly cut into the lead and the two players decided to chop the remaining $455,274. However, tournament rules dictated the players had to leave $25,000 on the table and battle it out winner-take-all style. After the chop Tutanhamon1 was guaranteed $198,274 while AlexKP assured himself of $232,000. With a big chunk of change still up for grabs the two played for awhile before AlexKP finally busted Tutanhamon1 when his set of threes outmatched his opponent’s top-pair:
Seat 1: AlexKP (54234532 in chips)
Seat 4: Tutanhamon1 (35775468 in chips)
AlexKP: posts small blind 300000
Tutanhamon1: posts big blind 600000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
AlexKP: raises 600000 to 1200000
Tutanhamon1: calls 600000
*** FLOP *** [Qh Tc 3h]
Tutanhamon1: checks
AlexKP: bets 1200000
Tutanhamon1: calls 1200000
*** TURN *** [Qh Tc 3h] [4h]
Tutanhamon1: checks
AlexKP: bets 3800000
Tutanhamon1: raises 29500468 to 33300468 and is all-in
AlexKP: calls 29500468
*** RIVER *** [Qh Tc 3h 4h] [2d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Tutanhamon1: shows [7s Qc] (a pair of Queens)
AlexKP: shows [3s 3d] (three of a kind, Threes)
AlexKP collected 71550936 from pot
AlexKP earned $257,000 for the win and took home a WCOOP bracelet awarded to each event winner. Congratulations go to AlexKP and all 1,140 players who made the money in WCOOP Event #1. Be sure to check back with the FlopTurnRiver News Section over the next 3 weeks for coverage of all the major WCOOP IX Events!
WCOOP 2010 Event #1 $1,250,000 Guaranteed
9,001 Entrants; $1,800,200 prize pool
*2-way chop
1. AlexKP $257,000
2. Tutanhamon1 $198,274
3. stevie444 $130,514
4. ROOJAR_M $76,508
5. inhidonks $40,504
6. Drateks $27,003