Event #5 of this year’s PokerStars WCOOP turned out to be the biggest buy-in WCOOP tournament to date, bringing in High-Roller NL players from all over the world! With a hefty buy-in of $10,000, Event 5 was sure to attract some of the best players this game has seen. The final table saw the likes of Chris Moneymaker, 2003 World Series champion. It also featured PCA final table player and WPT champion Jonathan Little, “Jcardshark.” Among them were other big names like WCOOP Event 3 runner-up, Season 4 EPT Grand Final champ Glen “Chroon” Chorny, famous MLB pitcher Orel Hershiser, and online pros gbmantis, DuckU, dorinvandy, and purplEUROS!
Here is the makeup of the final table:
Seat 1: Glen “Choron” Chorny (961204 in chips)
Seat 2: gbmantis (865936 in chips)
Seat 3: Orel Hershiser (686234 in chips)
Seat 4: #1PEN (799260 in chips)
Seat 5: Chris “Money800” Moneymaker (510878 in chips)
Seat 6: Jonathan “Jcardshark” Little (416281 in chips)
Seat 7: dorinvandy (2469033 in chips)
Seat 8: DuckU (657987 in chips)
Seat 9: purplEUROS (658187 in chips)
With a final table comprised of such celebrity, it was bound to be an interesting stretch of card play! With all eyes fixed on the table, the only question was which one of these stars would be making their way to the rail first, and how. It ended up being Major League pitcher, Orel Hershiser, as he watched his pocket aces get cracked by Jonathan Little’s pocket sixes. Little flat called Hershiser’s pre-flop raise and hit a set on the flop. Furthermore, calling Orel’s bets right down to the river, he nailed a Full House ensuring him the winning hand as Orel shoved all in. Orel proved to be a great competitor at such things other than baseball as he collected $54,570 in winnings for Event #5.
It was dorinvandy in seat 7 who had the obvious advantage, with nearly 2.5 million in chips. It was not uncommon for dorinvandy to be in the center of all the action pushing others around as the role of chip leader. PurplEUROS had had enough of dorinvandy’s aggressive play and decided to shove all in looking at AQ after dorinvandy opened up for $50,000. In the end it was the wrong timing for purp as dorinvandy was ready to call with his AK offsuit. PurplEUROS was eliminated in this hand, earning him a cool $75,435 for his effort. The hand also gave dorinvandy a new all time high in chips as his stack towered over 3 million!
The tension was certainly high at this point, as everyone wondered who would be eliminated next. Dorinvandy had a monster chip lead and, surprisingly, his next victim was second in the running! Jcardshark (Jonathan Little) called dorinvandy from the big blind after he opened UTG for 50,000. The flop came 4s-2c-5c and Little put out a 72,000 bet. To his surprise dorinvandy raised the bet to 240,000 and Little called. The turn was a Qd – Little checked, giving his opponent a chance to bet big for the taking. Dorinvandy bet a large 420,000 but was quickly called by Jonathan Little. The river came a Ts and again, Little checked. With this, dorinvandy pushed all in, leaving Little to decide what to do with his remaining 1.2 million in chips. With around a minute off the time bank, Little made the call. Dorinvandy had hit two pair on the flop, fours and fives, while to everyone’s amazement, Little only had third best pair. As Little’s chip stack was moved over in front of dorinvandy, the other players must have looked in disbelief as their chip leader became that much more dangerous.
Chris Moneymaker was the only PokerStars Pro to make it to this final table, further proving that his success is no fluke. After a while it became apparent that he had been running card dead. After doubling up short stacked gbmantis, Moneymaker had to make a play, and soon. With his remaining 300,000 in chips he pushed all in with A4, clearly hoping for the blinds and was called by Glen Chorny and his KK in the small blind position. Chris wasn’t able to make his ace on this play and finished in 6th place for a nice $139,635.
Though gbmantis doubled up through Chris before he left, his rejuvenation was short lived as he went all in with AK and was called by DuckU who had pocket eights. The eights held up and mantis was left with a mere 80k in chips. He did manage to double it back up to 160k but that, too, was short lived as he was eliminated in the very next hand when he went all in with Q2 and was called with #1PEN’s AQ. $179,760 was awarded to gbmantis for his 5th place finish.
Chorny was next in line as he butted heads with the table’s chip leader, dorinvandy which ultimately knocked him down to about a half a million in chips. But it was DuckU who sent Chorny packing when the two got involved in an all in situation where Chorny and his A7 faced DuckU’s AsQs. The flop came Kc-Jh-Th and Chorny wasn’t able to hit what he needed on the turn or river, sending him home in 4th place with a $256,800 win.
The next short stack, #1PEN then went all in as the small blind with pocket fours. The chip leader, dorinvandy, made the call with Q7, demonstrating the brute force a large stack can produce. Dorinvandy hit his 7 on the flop and #1PEN ran out of luck as he failed to hit his inside straight draw on the turn or river. This sent #1PEN home in 3rd place with $337,050. A congratulations is in order for #1PEN as he adds this 3rd place victory under his belt. Just the night before in Event #3, he was runner up on the final table. His total payout for the weekend shaped up to be $391,170!
Now they’ve entered heads-up play and the chip stacks are as follows:
dorinvandy – 5,521,457
DuckU – 2,503,543
There was a little back and forth play but it didn’t take too long before a juicy flop forced both players to push their money in. Dorinvandy made a standard raise of $125,000 and DuckU called. The flop came Ts-8s-7d. DuckU checked to dorinvandy who has certainly shown his preference to bet. Dorinvandy bet 140k and DuckU came over the top with all of his chips in the pot. A quick call was made by dorinvandy, as he had a set of Tens. DuckU was looking to hit his straight and flush draw with Qs-9s. However, the Kh was turned and Qh rivered, ending DuckU’s glimmer of hope.
Dorinvandy took home the 1st place victory and $617,925.
DuckU earned $459,030 for his 2nd place finish.
Congratulations to both of them in this exciting tournament!