With only one week remaining in the 2009 WCOOP PokerStars set out for another record-breaking Sunday. Three big events, headlined by the $25,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Championship, were scheduled for Sunday. Events 26 and 28 also took place, with the $1,000+$50 two-day event finishing up early Tuesday morning.
The heads-up tournament was certainly the highlight of the day, as 36 of the world’s best poker players ponied up $25,000 in attempts to win the $315,000 first place prize. It would take forever to list the accomplishments of such a small field. With players like Tom “Durrrr” Dwan, Daniel “kidpoker” Negreanu, and Brian “$tinger 88” Hastings on hand, this tournament had one of the toughest fields ever seen on PokerStars. Other notables included FlopTurnRiver regular Rich “Nutsinho” Lyndaker, 2008 Main Event Champion Peter Eastgate, and Danny “supernova9” Stern, from the new hit show “2 Months 2 Million” on GSN.
Eastgate along with “skilled_sox”, a PokerStars Supernova Elite (and high-stakes HU SNG regular) made the money, falling in the quarterfinals. The final-four came down to Jonathan “Iftarii” Jaffe, “Allan “Sifosi” Baekke, Olivier “Adonis112” Busquet, and Sorel “Zangbezan24” Mizzi. All four players are well-known high-stakes regulars in both cash games and tournaments, and while playing for $315,000 might faze most, these players were not affected in the least. The championship came down to Iftarii and Sifosis, with Jaffe eventually coming out on top.
PokerStars WCOOP Event #27 $800k Guaranteed
36 Entrants; $900,000 prize pool
1. Iftarii $315,000
2. Sifosis $180,000
3. Adonis112 $90,000
4. zangbezan24 $90,000
5. mistakooll $56,250
6. joiso $56,250
7. skilled_sox $56,250
8. PeteEastgate $56,250
The biggest event of the day was the $200+$15 $1,000,000 Guaranteed Event #26. The tournament nearly reached 10,000 entries, building a massive $1,959,000 prize pool. One of the more well known names making the final table was “RJules12”, a high-stakes player who nearly won FTOPS Event #19 last month, taking home just under $29,000. His 4th place finish here earned him considerably more, $97,950 to be exact. Heads-up play came down to “lelijk22” and “dunkmaster50”, two solid players who have had mild success on PokerStars in the past. In the end it was lelijk22 taking home the title and nearly $275,000 for his first big win:
Seat 2: dunkmaster50 (17288805 in chips)
Seat 9: lelijk22 (31686195 in chips)
dunkmaster50: posts small blind 125000
lelijk22: posts big blind 250000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
dunkmaster50: raises 250000 to 500000
lelijk22: raises 1375555 to 1875555
dunkmaster50: calls 1375555
*** FLOP *** [8h 9c Js]
lelijk22: bets 2345555
dunkmaster50: raises 2345555 to 4691110
lelijk22: raises 25088280 to 29779390 and is all-in
dunkmaster50: calls 10690890 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (14397390) returned to lelijk22
*** TURN *** [8h 9c Js] [Tc]
*** RIVER *** [8h 9c Js Tc] [2h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
lelijk22: shows [8d 8c] (three of a kind, Eights)
dunkmaster50: shows [Jc Td] (two pair, Jacks and Tens)
lelijk22 collected 34577610 from pot
PokerStars WCOOP Event #26 $1M Guaranteed
9,795 Entrants; $1,959,000 prize pool
1. lelijk22 $274,260
2. dunkmaster50 $199,818
3. equinespy $141,048
4. RJules12 $97,950
5. Holmesy1978 $78,360
6. PepaG $58,770
7. jimenezzzz $39,180
8. ole6 $19,590
9. candy1203 $13,321
The biggest prize pool of the day went to Event #27, the two-day $1,050 NL Hold’em Freeze-Out. 3,268 players created a massive $3,268,000 prize pool, one of the biggest of the 2009 tournament season. The $513,076 first-place check will be only eclipsed by the WCOOP Main Event, set to take place next Sunday. Winner “Unsyatisfied” took down his first $10,000+ score on PokerStars. Runner-up “GAKingChaser” took home more than $382,000 for his efforts, easily the biggest score of his career. Unlike the champion he has had some success on PokerStars, having shipped the Second Chance in July for over $52,000.
PokerStars WCOOP Event #28 $3M Guaranteed
3,268 Entrants; $3,268,000 prize pool
1. Unsyatisfied $513,076
2. GAKingChaser $382,356
3. Visionary129 $269,610
4. reilly11014 $187,910
5. runslikerubs $138,890
6. goin4br0ke $106,210
7. johnnyv5000 $73,530
8. thepractice $40,850
9. Ginsash $26,144
FullTilt continues to build off the WCOOP, as their tournaments have seen a nice boost from their August FTOPS as well as PokerStars Series this month. The Sunday Brawl continued to flirt with a $500,000 prize pool, as 2,413 players entered the $240+$16 KO Event. For those unfamiliar with knock-out tournaments, every time a player eliminates a fellow competitor he/she wins $40. Twenty-three FullTilt sponsored professionals entered the event including Scott Fischman, Mike “Timex” McDonald, and Ryan Dreyer who was the low-pro, finishing in 48th place. The biggest name making the final table was Adam “Roothlus” Levy, a high-stakes professional who nearly won FTOPS Event #22 in February, taking second for $387,500. This final table was not as kind to Levy, as he busted in 7th place for just over $11,000. Second place finisher “albari” shipped his best career finish and his 3rd $10k+ score of all time.
FullTilt Sunday Brawl $350k Guaranteed
2,413 Entrants; $482,600 prize pool
1. Tannina80 $98,426
2. albari $63,703
3. Thorres156 $47,295
4. america_lol $35,712
5. Yoghii$25,095
6. Yettiman $16,408
7. Roothlus $11,100
8. MIsTeRLiQUoR $7,722
9. Bulat010 $5,791
The $750k took a bit of a step back this weekend, but still managed to beat it’s guarantee by more than $20,000 as 3,860 entrants created a nice $772,000 prize pool. The lower attendance couldn’t be blamed on the FullTilt Red Pros, as nearly 40 played in the sites biggest weekly tournament. Erica Shoenberg, fresh off her appearance on 2M2M, joined the fun and actually made the money, finishing in 234th place. Gus Hansen also took time off from dumping money into FullTilt’s high-stakes games. squeezing into the money by one spot, taking 521st place. Other professionals making the money were Berry Johnston (319th), David Pham (282nd), and Vivek Rajkumar, who finished in 63rd place.
FullTilt Sunday $750k Guaranteed
3,860 Entrants; $772,000 prize pool
1. emitzon $136,683
2. philbort $82,604
3. njw11 $54,040
4. MacroPiemonte $42,614
5. mce86 $31,961
6. petian $23,700
7. Colonel Mustard $17,756
8. tha_burgh $13,896
9. shiiipitobv $10,345
FullTilt’s final event of the day, the Sunday Mulligan, saw a bunch of strong names make the final table including the two heads-up competitors, “BadgerPro” and “pat4ak” who is also known as jshark4. BadgerPro is no stranger to success in big events, having shipped the $109r on Pokerstars in May for nearly $72,000. Jshark made his second major final table in just under a month, having taken 7th place in FTOPS Event #24 for $17,768 in August. Only one FullTilt professional, Lynette Chan, was able to make the money in the Mulligan, finishing in 103rd place for $373.55.
FullTilt Sunday Mulligan $200k Guaranteed
1,205 Entrants; $241,000 prize pool
1. BadgerPro $53,020
2. pat4ak $33,740
3. MURIBE $24,823
4. GiggysMaid $19,581
5. Bobby_Kimball $15,063
6. UnlimitedGirth $10,845
7. bmwman1 $7,230
8. Niled $5,423
9. this is punny $3,856