As the 2011 PokerStars WCOOP drew to a close, player HR_DUB took down event #55, the $530+R. It featured 831 players for $440,430 in initial prize pool, but that was just the beginning. Rebuy tournaments attract players with deep pockets, and this was no exception! By the time the rebuy period was over, there were 562 rebuys and 515 add ons! That beefed up the prized pool to $954,000, smashing the 600k guarantee! 108 players total finished in the money!
Each player started the day with 7,500 chips, with each add on of $500 giving an additional 7,500 in chips. Typical of a rebuy tournament, play early on was aggressive and some deep stacks were built right out of the gate. By the time the two hour rebuy period came to a close, there were several players with stacks of approximately 60,000, including squee451, 1-ronnyr3, and Sphinkx87.
Six hours into the tournament only 194 players remained, with Speedokah and de bluffer with around 300,00 in chips. Speedokah wasn’t able to finish in the top ten, but De Bluffer took 6th for $39K. It was Shane “Shaniac” Schleger of Team Online who carried the torch as the biggest big name to look strong late with the chip lead 2/3 of the way through. Schleger won event #34 of this year’s WCOOP 2-7 Triple Draw and was going for his second bracelet in this year’s WCOOP. Schleger busted out shortly afterwards however. The Frenchman Elky Grospellier, another member of PokerStars team pro, also made a run late, but came up short finishing in 48th place from his London flat.
It was Canadian HR_Dub who came on strong late, entering the final table as one of the big stacks with 2.2 Million in tournament chips. With five players left, Hr_Dub got it all in with AJ versus SixthSenSe19 with AK and spiked a jack on the turn to win a 1.2 Million pot!
Next on Hr_Dub’s hit list was Dajvey. With three players remaining, HR_Dub got it in with 66 versus ATo. The small pocket pair held up to knock out Davjey in 3rd place and take the action heads up. This monster pot give Hr_Dub a 10 Million stack, while Fastinho took him on heads up with 4.2 Million.
With blinds at 50,000/100,000, it wasn’t long before all the money went in preflop with HR_Dub holding A3 suited versus 10 10. HR_Dub had luck in his favor tonight and spiked the ace top pair on the flop to take first place of $172,674 and the WCOOP Event #55 bracelet.