The 2011 World Championship of Online Poker has come to an end. With more than $40,000,000 in prizes handed out over the course of 62 events, the 2011 WCOOP was one of the biggest tournament series of all time. For three weeks some of the best tournament players in the world battled it out in huge events with gigantic buy-ins. Tournaments like the $10,300 buy-in 8-game championship, $2,100 HORSE tournament, and $5,000 Main Event tested all of their skills. The final event was the biggest and best of them all. More than 1,600 players ponied up the $5,000 entry fee for the chance at more than $1,000,000 in first-place money.
With such a large buy-in fee, the turnout was quite impressive. There was more than $8,000,000 in the pot for the 189 players fortunate enough to make the money. Unfortunately, even those lasting deep into day-2 were not guaranteed a huge payday. Amongst those who fell just short of the big money were David “david1213” Vamplew (183rd place; $13,422), “lechuckpoker” (166th; $13,829), Bertran “Elky” Grosspelier (135th; $15,049), Francis “teachuppoker” Cagney (132nd; $15,049), Steve “gboro780” Gross (122nd; $15,456), Jimmie “AlusivPnkBny” Guinther (118th; $15,456), and Johnny Lodden (102nd; $17,083).
There were plenty of other big names making it inside the top-100 including “Buck21”, “Assassinato”, Grayson “gray31” Ramage, and Eugene Katchalov who all cracked the top-100 but could not quite reach the final table. Coming even closer was Dani “supernova9” Stern, also known as “Ansky” to the online poker world. Stern was part of the TV series “2 Months 2 Million” that aired on G4 in 2009, along with fellow poker professionals Jay “Krantz” Rosenkrantz, Brian “flawless_victory” Roberts, and Emil “whitelime” Patel. The show was a hit amongst the online community but was not renewed for a second season. Ansky, who is considered one of the best NL players in the world, busted in 13th place in the Main Event for a nice $45,556 payday. Finishing one spot better was Niki “RealAndyBeal” Jedlicka, a former FullTilt red pro, who is best known for his PLO prowess. His 12th place finish netted him just $53,691, and had to feel like quite a small amount with what was online at the final table. Taking the last two spots on the bubble were “huiiiiiiii” and “LoneHixx” who earned the same amount as Jedlicka. With LoneHixx’s bustout in 10th place the final table was set.
The final table was highlighted by Mike “GoLeafsGoEh” Leah, a high-stakes professional who you can probably tell hails from Canada. The highly-regarded MTT professional is no stranger to tournament series success having finished 2nd in FTOPS Event 14 earlier this year for $111,279 and Event #22 last year for $110,000. In fact, his third place finish here was the fourth six-figure score of his career, and easily the biggest. The $560,000 payday dwarfed his career record on PokerStars, nearly doubling his previous earnings on the world’s largest online poker site.
With Leah gone in 3rd place it was up to Vojtech “Vojta_R” Ruzicka and “Kallllle” to settle the Main Event winner. Not only did the winner get a gold WCOOP bracelet and the prestige of winning the ME, but he would also take home an enormous $1,260,018 first-place prize. With more than half a million dollars separating first and second it was a fight to the finish. To be honest, neither player had the resume of previous WCOOP ME winners, but nonetheless they were the two left standing when the dust settled. Ruzicka appeared to be the more experienced of the two, having won the $109 re-buy for $26,617 as well as the $215 Weekly Turbo for $16,302 earlier this year. Kallllle did not have any big score to his name, although he appears to just play high-stakes MTTs every now and then on PokerStars. Perhaps what happened to him at the final table will get him to sign on more often. After a nice battle Kallllle eventually bested Ruzicka and took home the $1,260,018 prize.
Below you can find the Main Event final table results, as well as Event #60 and #61. Congratulations goes to Kallllle and all 189 players who made the money in the 2011 WCOOP Main Event!
PokerStars 2011 WCOOP Main Event $5M Guaranteed
1,627 Entrants; $8,135,000 prize pool
1. Kallllle $1,260,018.50
2. Vojta_R $710,000.00
3. goleafsgoeh $560,000.00
4. BackDoorovic $650,000.00
5. VadziMoney $750,000.00
6. WhySoSrsSon $222,085.50
7. jle90 $162,700.00
8. OU THE NICK $122,025.00
9. dan82mur $81,350.00
PokerStars 2011 WCOOP Event #60 $1.25M Guaranteed
9,664 Entrants; $1,932,800 prize pool
1. X-Front $284,319.29
2. tormos $207,776.00
3. yarik1903 $144,960.00
4. The_Stat $96,640.00
5. 1WHALEN1 $77,312.00
6. Veg 101 $57,984.00
7. Zanjong $38,656.00
8. DeRp0kErGuRu $21,260.80
9. Flyboys007 $14,979.20
PokerStars 2011 WCOOP Event #61 $500k Guaranteed
70 Entrants; $700,000 prize pool
1. Ostrov $210,000.00
2. E. Katchalov $140,000.00
3. roi kin23 $105,000.00
4. Brryann $70,000.00
5. KidPoker $52,500.00
6. Femmeonfelt $38,500.00