The $530 buy-in No-Limit Texas Hold’em tournament has proven to be the most popular WCOOP event, time and time again. Last year, over 20 hours were played, prompting this year’s Event 6 to be split into two days. This year, 7,351 registered to compete in the Hold’em event, lured by a $3,000,000 guaranteed prize pool. After it was all said and done, 1,080 players landed in the money for a piece of the $3,675,500 prize pool, and a lucky nine made it to the final table, guaranteeing them at least $25,728.50. Outlasting the rest of the field, Calvin32 claimed victory to first place and $452,086.50.
Numerous Team PokerStars Pros competed in Event 6. Among them were even the recent PokerStars APPT Macau Main Event competitors: Chad “ChadBrownPRO” Brown, Barry “barryg1” Greenstein, Isabelle “No Mercy” Mercier, Lee “LeeNelson” Nelson, Hevad “RaiNKhaN” Khan, and Vanessa “Lady Maverick” Rousso. Only PokerStars Pro Andre “aakkari” Akkari managed to last until day two, where he busted out in 47th. Baseball legend, Orel Hershiser, also made his appearance as he battled it out in Event 5. Though he hit the rail before getting in the money, Hershiser did make Event 5’s final table.
Here’s the starting line up for Event 6’s final table:
Seat 1: adonislee (United States) 11,182,6474 in chips
Seat 2: Papio Papio (Denmark) 1,175,610 in chips
Seat 3: Solovka (Russia) 22,993,538 in chips
Seat 4: cassie13 (Canada) 2,525,362 in chips
Seat 5: Yo Burger (Canada) 6,041,674 in chips
Seat 6: Roland_NL (Netherlands) 3,080,096 in chips
Seat 7: DUBBZZ (United States) 6,941,294 in chips
Seat 8: randomcrayon (United States) 3,072,334 in chips
Seat 9: Calvin32 (United States) 15,853,618 in chips
Not too long after the start of the final table, the occupied seats started to dwindle. The first to be eliminated from the table was short stack Papio Papio. Cassie13 called his all-in and the board’s Qh-8c-Ks-5h-5c favored her Qd-Kh to Papio Papio’s Ah-6s. Next, Yo Burger was taken out by Solovka’s two pair. Randomcrayon quickly joined the outgoing procession of shortstacks soon after. A hand of Kd-Qd with As-9d-2d-5c-Ks on the board didn’t hold up against Calvin32’s 5d-Ah. DUBBZZ was the next to go, escorted out by a bad beat. His comfortable pair of Jacks was overridden by Solovka’s pocket 3’s when a 3 showed on the turn. Solovka’s next victim was Cassie13, who went all in preflop with Ah-6d. Solovka’s hand, Ad-8d, hit two pair and Cassie13 settled for fifth place.
The action of the final four also didn’t last too long either. Shortly after 11:00pm ET, Calvin32 took out adonislee. The betting was quick and Calvin32 showed his pocket queens, hitting two pair, which was more than what adonislee could say with his Ks-Jc. Just ten hands later Solovka’s pocket jacks took on Roland_NL’s pocket tens. With 4s-Ks-7c-4h-Qs on the board, Roland_NL was left to take third place.
After Solovka denied a deal from Calvin32, the two battled in heads-up play for over two hours and over 200 hands. In the course of the battle, Solovka and Calvin32 continuously traded the chip lead between each other. After 18.5 hours of play, starting from the first hand of Event 6, the final hand rolled out at 1:10 am ET. With 12.5 million, Solovka shoved all-in, hoping to take a chunk of Calvin32’s 60.9 million. Solovka’s Kd-Jc was pitted against Calvin32’s Qc-9h. The two watched as the flop, turn, and river came down. It came 6d-6c-9d-8s-5s. Calvin32’s two pair left Solovka to pick up second place for $306,169.15 while Calvin32 took first, winning the bracelet and $452,086.50.
Here is the results of the final table:
1. Calvin32 $452,086.50
2. Solovka $306,169.15
3. Roland_NL $205,828
4. adonislee $169,073
5. cassie13 $132,318
6. DUBBZZ $95,563
7. randomcrayon $64,321.25
8. Yo Burger $42,268.25
9. Papio Papio $25,728.50