PokerStars-WCOOP-2008-Event-25-Results

748 of thew world’s biggest gamblers sat down for WCOOP Event #25, the $320-rebuy Pot-Limit Omaha Championship.  Plenty of big names were on hand as PLO is steadily becoming the game of choice in high-stake circles.  A large contingent of Team PokerStars Pros played in the event, including WSOP Main Event winners Greg Raymer and Chris Moneymaker and WSOP Bracelet winners Gavin Griffin and Dario Minieri.  Many big name online MTT-Pros and PLO pros alike such as “shaundeeb” “Johnnybax” and “Pwnasaurus” all made deep runs.

Rebuy tournaments offer an interesting change in dynamic to tournament play.  Players do not have to worry about busting in any single hand if they are willing to purchase more chis for, in this tournament’s case, $300.  Couple this fact with the volatilty of PLO and you are sure to have many rebuys and a prizepool well over the $500,000 guarantee.  In the end the 748 entrants would rebuy 1254 times and over 560 players would use the optional add-on option at the end of the rebuy period.  All in all this created a large prize-pool of $768,000 with just over $144,000 going to the winner.

Many of the big names would fall before reaching the final table, Chris Moneymaker just made the money, finishing 105th.  PokerStars Pro Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier finished12th and “pwnasaurus” finished 11th, just two spots off of the final table.  Each player took home just over $8,000 for their efforts.

Coming into the final table with a sizeable chiplead was Shaun “shaundeeb” Deeb.  Deeb is not directly related to fellow pro Freddy Deeb, although he does get that question quite a bit. “TheNew”, who just recently made our Sunday Tournament Report  after winning theSunday $109r for over $67,000, entered the final table 4th in chips.

Final table stacks and seating assignments:

Seat 1: kAmIkAdZeEe 670,834
Seat 2: Canuck 235,351
Seat 3: ely_cash41 1,832,522
Seat 4: caprioli 328,265
Seat 5: TheNew 1,269,061
Seat 6: MiniKipDK 1,402,832
Seat 7: JohnnyBax 555,570
Seat 8: Miraclos 487,737
Seat 9: shaundeeb 2,583,828

It would be a short final-table experience for JohnnyBax, as he was the first player to be eliminated.  JohhnyBax is one of the world’s best MTT-player and has won millions of dollars playing large buy-in tournaments both live and online.   He has won the both the $215r and $109r on PokerStars as well as many other deep runs in $100+ buy-in tournaments.  Soon after losing a big pot he would get the last of his chips in with JJ33 against Deeb’s Jd7dTc2c.  In regular Omaha fashion the “run-down” hand of Deeb was able to do just that, as the board came 8sAd9dTh9s.  Deeb was actually a large favorite on the flop with a variety of straight draws and a flush draw.  JohnnyBax would take home nearly $11,000 for his deep run.

Next to go was “ely_cash41”, who just as JohnnyBax did, fell victim to Deeb when his As7d5c3s was no match of Deeb’s AdQd9s6d even after a flop of AhKs7s once the turn and river fell 6h-6c to make Deeb a full house.  The 8th place finished earned “ely_cash41” $17,293.  Deeb was starting to amass a dominating chip lead, one which the MTT-Pro would be hardpressed to relinquish.

Up next for Deeb to eliminate was “caprioli”.  Deeb opened from EP and was forced to call caprioli’s all-in for just over 325k chips.  Deeb held AJ45 while caprioli had a naked pair of KK92.  The flop came 6c3d2h and caprioli was all but drawing dead.  The Tc on the turn sealed his fate and he received just under $25,000 for his 7th pace effort.  That’s 3-for-3 in elimantions for Deeb for those who are counting.

Actually, make it 4-for-4.  Shortstacked and with out much to work with, “Miraclos” made a stand with AcQsJcTs, an absolutely huge hand in PLO standards.  Deeb “woke up” with KdTc7h5d and when the board fell 6c3d8s4d5s Deeb would make a straight on the turn and eliminate Miraclos in 6th, good enough for just over $32,000.  That’s 4 eliminations, all at the hands of Shaun Deeb.

Well, make that five.  “kAmIkAdZeEe” has been having internet trouble for most of the final table, and it eventually caught up with him.  It must be frustrating to make it so far yet to have an internet connection cost you a chance at $144,000 and a WCOOP bracelet.  After beeing whittled down kAmIkAdZeEs had to go all-in with AhQd8h7c against Deeb’s Tc8d6c5s after the board fell KdTh4d2dKs.  Unable to make a pair, he was sent to the rail in 5th place, earning just over $40,000 for a hard days work.  That’s five eliminations in a row at the final table by Deeb.

Well, make that si…..OH WAIT, someone else has entered a pot! “Canuck” and “TheNew” squared off in a large pot, with TheNew’s two pair outlasting Canucks pair of aces and straight draw.  Canucked took home nearly $58,000 for his fourth place finish.  Finally an elimination not at the hands on Shuandeeb.

Deeb would get back on the perverbial horse a half-hour later taking out “MiniKipDK” in 3rd place.  Shaundeeb was fortunate enough to be in the enviable position in PLO called “freerolling”.  This is where two players get all of their money in the middle with the same hand but one of the two players (or both sometimes) have a draw to an ever better hand, therefore they can only win or tie, and cannot lose.  On a Ad9s4c flop both players had Aces-up with Deeb holding AhQs9h3c and Mini holding As9d8h6s.  Deeb would need to pair his Queen to win the pot, and although it was about an 8:1 shot, Deeb was certainly up to the task today, finding the Qc on the river to scoop the pot and send MiniKipDK on his way with a $76,860 payday.

Deeb entered heads-up play with a 5:1 chip-lead but would actually lose the chiplead to “TheNew” at one point in the match.  Eventually he would comeback and the two would play a massive pot.  With about 6 million in chips to TheNew’s 3 million both players would get all of their money in on a flop os Ks7d8s with Deeb holding 6s7s8d9d, a huge drawing hand versus TheNew’s Qs4sJsKc.  TheNew had top pair and a flush draw while Deeb had bottom two, an open-ended straight draw, and a worse flush draw.  In typical PLO fashion, the flop was basically a coinflip, TheNew was a 50.1% favorite to win the pot.  The turn came the 3c and the river the 5h giving Deeb a straight and the WCOOP bracelet.  TheNew would have to settle for 2nd place and just over $103,000 while Deeb took home the crown and $144,122.

Deeb is no stranger to success in big events, he already has a FTOPS title to his name, and now he adds a WCOOP Bracelet.  This is Deeb’s 3rd 6figure+ cash online, having won the FTOPS event in August and the Sunday Warm-up on Pokerstars this past May.  He is currently ranked at the 6th best online-MTT player.

Congratulations goes to Deeb and all of those making the money in WCOOP Event #25: