One of the more exciting events in this years World Championship of Online Poker came to an end late this afternoon. Event #30, a $500+$30 NL Shoot-Out Tournament, resumed Thursday afternoon with just 10 players remaining. The high-stakes NL Shoot-Out held a $500,000 guarantee which ultimately was not met. With only 895 players PokerStars was forced to dig deep and pony up $52,500 in overlay. While overlay is great for those playing the event it can be a bad sign of things to come for the rest of the series. However Event #30 seems to be one of just a few specialty events that may not have garnered as much attention from tournament players because of its structure. The tournament started with all the players spread out across 100 tables. In a shoot-out tables are not combined as players bust, instead each table works down to one remaining player and then another round begins.
Once the event was underway there were plenty of good players on hand vying for a $91,250 first-place check. Among the 895 players were plenty of PokerStars professionals including one who was fortunate enough to make the money. Highlighting those inside the top-100 were Barry “barryg1” Greenstein who busted in 41st place for $1,925. The high-stakes cash game professional is one of the most recognized players in poker due to his appearances on shows such as NBC’s “Poker After Dark”, The PokerStars.net “Big Game” on FOX, and “High Stakes Poker” on GSN. Other notables professionals included Pat “TorontoToro” Pezzin, George “Jorj95” Lind, and former WSOP ME Champion Chris “Money800” Moneymaker.
The final table was delayed until Thursday which left the remaining 10 players plenty of time to stratagize against their opponents. Being a shoot-out all ten players involved started with identical chip-stacks:
Seat 1: JeanGrae (7500 in chips)
Seat 2: Beldar C. (7500 in chips)
Seat 3: th’Kick (7500 in chips)
Seat 4: WhEADa (7500 in chips)
Seat 5: MDGR (7500 in chips)
Seat 6: Patonius2000 (7500 in chips)
Seat 7: kardioloq (7500 in chips)
Seat 8: blindside030 (7500 in chips)
Seat 9: WushuTM (7500 in chips)
Seat 10: piscogay (7500 in chips)
These even stacks led to a lot of play early on with zero bust-outs. There we plenty of strong tournament and cash game players at the final table including “Beldar C.”, Robert “Patonius2000” Woodcock, and Supernova Elite “piscogay”. Unfortunately for Beldar C. he was the first to bust when he made an interesting Pre-flop bluff with 95s but ran into AKo. His hand could not come from behind and he busted in 9th place for $9,500. The sub-$10k score hardly registers on a resume than includes more than $1,350,000 in cashes on PokerStars alone. He has numerous high stakes wins on his resume including a handful of victories in the PokerStars $100 re-buy.
Piscogay, who is one of the most well-known NL cash game grinders, ended up falling in 5th place for $24,750. The former Supernova Elite professional has played millions of hands in mid-stakes NL full-ring games including $1/$2, $2/$4, and $3/$6. By generating 1,000,000 VPPs in a year he, along with many other grinders, earns a large amount of cash bonuses, tournament entries, and other perks. To learn more about the PokerStars VIP Program visit our review here.
While two of our highlighted players could not crack the top-3 there was one who nearly made it to the end. Patonius2000, a high-stakes cash game professional, ended up busting in 3rd place for $47,250. While he has earned nearly $400,000 in cashes on PokerStars the majority of his earnings have come from high-stakes Pot-Limit Omaha where he as made more than $250,000 at the $25/$50 level. Unfortunately his quest for a WCOOP bracelet came to an end when his Jack-high flush draw failed to improve against second pair:
Seat 6: Patonius2000 (9807 in chips)
Seat 7: kardioloq (53394 in chips)
Seat 9: WushuTM (11799 in chips)
Patonius2000: posts the ante 50
Patonius2000: posts small blind 200
kardioloq: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
WushuTM: folds
Patonius2000: raises 500 to 900
kardioloq: calls 500
*** FLOP *** [8s Qs 6s]
Patonius2000: checks
kardioloq: bets 1100
Patonius2000: raises 1675 to 2775
kardioloq: raises 41675 to 44450
Patonius2000: calls 6082 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (35593) returned to kardioloq
*** TURN *** [8s Qs 6s] [9c]
*** RIVER *** [8s Qs 6s 9c] [3h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Patonius2000: shows [Js Ac] (high card Ace)
kardioloq: shows [8c 9s] (two pair, Nines and Eights)
kardioloq collected 19664 from pot
With just two players left Event #30 turned into a $27,750 winner takes all heads-up battle. The chip-lead and advantage went to “kardioloq” who held more than 80% of the chips in play while “WushuTM” was left nursing a short-stack. The tournament ended rather abruptly as with just 35 Big Blinds WushuTM decided to get all of his money in before the flop with ATo. Fortunately his hand was barely ahead of kardioloq’s KQo but that did not last long as a King fell on the flop and Event #30, a WCOOP bracelet, and $91,250 went to kardioloq. Congratulations goes to kardioloq and all 100 players who made the money in 2010 WCOOP Event #30!
Seat 7: kardioloq (60876 in chips)
Seat 9: WushuTM (14124 in chips)
WushuTM: posts small blind 200
kardioloq: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
WushuTM: raises 400 to 800
kardioloq: raises 1500 to 2300
WushuTM: raises 11774 to 14074 and is all-in
kardioloq: calls 11774
*** FLOP *** [Kd 3h Jd]
*** TURN *** [Kd 3h Jd] [4s]
*** RIVER *** [Kd 3h Jd 4s] [8c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
kardioloq: shows [Qd Kc] (a pair of Kings)
WushuTM: shows [Th Ac] (high card Ace)
kardioloq collected 28248 from pot
PokerStars WCOOP 2010 Event #30 $500k Guaranteed
895 Entrants; $500,000 prize pool
1. kardioloq $91,250
2. WushuTM $63,500
3. Patonius2000 $47,250
4. WhEADa $35,250
5. piscogay $24,750
6. th’Kick $20,000
7. MDGR $15,750
8. JeanGrae $12,500
9. Beldar C. $9,500