Anyone who had the money couldn’t resist entering into the WCOOP Main Event on Sunday September 30th. The $2300 buy in conclusion to the WCOOP series hosted nearly 3,000 players, and, more importantly, the biggest prize pool in online poker history: $7,495,000!! The top 8 players would receive a 6 figure pay day, and first place would yield 1.3 million dollars! The WCOOP Main Event is the 3rd richest tournament in the world, behind only the WSOP Main Event and the WPT Championship. Although the ME hosted a massive field filled with pro’s, it came down to two unknowns, ka$ino and thev0id, with thev0id pulling out the victory.
Many entered hoping luck would shine on them on a lazy Sunday afternoon. FTR had a strong showing of players. Gp333 aka Gabe is one of the most feared 5/10 cash game pro’s around. busto_soon aka Johnny Fish is consider a top 25 tournament pro according to pocketfives.com. Hartlin is a respected FTR member who regularly plays in high buy in tournaments. Alexos is one of the top cash game players on FTR who recently satellited into the event. And maybe the best of them all, maxxscam is a tournament professional with career earnings that exceed all of them. All had a great shot at taking down the coveted Main Event bracelet. But they would have to fight through a field that had nearly everyone on the pocketfives.com top 100 in it, the top cash game players in the world, and respected live professionals Humberto Brenes, Vanessa Rouso, as well as many others including Pokerstars poster child Daniel Negreneau.
After one hour of play we had an exciting leaderboard. Daniel Negreneau was in first place! Right on his tail was FTRer gp333 who was in 26th place. Gabe was dominating the table with super loose and aggressive play, using his postflop reading skills to show a profit with almost any hand.
PokerStars Game #12363373539: Tournament #70000023, $2500+$100 Hold’em No Limit – Level IV (150/300) – 2007/09/30 – 18:13:25 (ET)
Table ‘70000023 171′ 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: charder30 (13975 in chips)
Seat 2: hockeystud94 (18330 in chips)
Seat 3: SyraDKE (20150 in chips)
Seat 4: Swtwtr25 (19425 in chips)
Seat 5: book52 (15450 in chips)
Seat 6: Deadlydoji (14350 in chips)
Seat 7: GDUNTAK (19475 in chips)
Seat 8: silverlion99 (27370 in chips)
Seat 9: gp333 (50500 in chips)
Swtwtr25: posts small blind 150
book52: posts big blind 300
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Deadlydoji: folds
GDUNTAK: folds
silverlion99: folds
gp333: raises 450 to 750
charder30: folds
hockeystud94: folds
SyraDKE: calls 750
Swtwtr25: calls 600
book52: folds
*** FLOP *** [6c 5d 2s]
Swtwtr25: checks
gp333: bets 2300
SyraDKE: calls 2300
Swtwtr25: folds
*** TURN *** [6c 5d 2s] [Th]
gp333: checks
SyraDKE: bets 4000
gp333: calls 4000
*** RIVER *** [6c 5d 2s Th] [5h]
gp333: checks
SyraDKE: bets 7000
GDUNTAK said, “don’t waste your chips for nothing”
gp333: calls 7000
*** SHOW DOWN ***
SyraDKE: shows [7s 8s] (a pair of Fives)
gp333: shows [Jd 6s] (two pair, Sixes and Fives)
gp333 collected 29150 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 29150 | Rake 0
Board [6c 5d 2s Th 5h]
Seat 1: charder30 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 2: hockeystud94 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 3: SyraDKE (button) showed [7s 8s] and lost with a pair of Fives
Seat 4: Swtwtr25 (small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 5: book52 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: Deadlydoji folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 7: GDUNTAK folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 8: silverlion99 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 9: gp333 showed [Jd 6s] and won (29150) with two pair, Sixes and Fives
In the next hour, the leaderboard changed drastically. Negreneau hadn’t collected anymore chips and was fading. 1st place was overtaken by unknown pompanopimp. In 8th place was Bill Ivey, who reached the final table in Event #5 and is a respected cash game and tournament pro. And climbing even closer to the lead was none other than gp333, who had over 60k chips and was in 14th place.
However, gp333’s high variance style had his chip stack moving up and down at an alarming pace. Eventually, he suffered a horrible beat that sent him off the leaderboard and into the middle of the pack.
PokerStars Game #12364448401: Tournament #70000023, $2500+$100 Hold’em No Limit – Level V (200/400) – 2007/09/30 – 19:12:37 (ET)
Table ‘70000023 171′ 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: charder30 (21325 in chips)
Seat 2: hockeystud94 (45255 in chips)
Seat 3: SyraDKE (26350 in chips)
Seat 4: Swtwtr25 (39675 in chips)
Seat 5: SAS35 (22100 in chips)
Seat 6: Deadlydoji (17600 in chips)
Seat 7: Yamisou1985 (27371 in chips)
Seat 8: silverlion99 (20420 in chips)
Seat 9: gp333 (47600 in chips)
Swtwtr25: posts small blind 200
SAS35: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Deadlydoji: folds
Yamisou1985: folds
silverlion99: folds
hockeystud94 said, “lawl”
gp333: raises 575 to 975
charder30: calls 975
hockeystud94: folds
SyraDKE: folds
Swtwtr25: folds
SAS35: calls 575
*** FLOP *** [Kd 2d Kc]
SAS35: checks
gp333: bets 2300
charder30: calls 2300
SAS35: raises 6700 to 9000
gp333: calls 6700
charder30: folds
*** TURN *** [Kd 2d Kc] [7d]
SAS35: checks
gp333: bets 12400
SAS35: calls 12125 and is all-in
*** RIVER *** [Kd 2d Kc 7d] [5h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
SAS35: shows [Ks 7s] (a full house, Kings full of Sevens)
gp333: shows [Kh Qs] (three of a kind, Kings)
gp333 said, “aaaaaaah”
SAS35 collected 47675 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 47675 | Rake 0
Board [Kd 2d Kc 7d 5h]
Seat 1: charder30 folded on the Flop
Seat 2: hockeystud94 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 3: SyraDKE (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 4: Swtwtr25 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: SAS35 (big blind) showed [Ks 7s] and won (47675) with a full house, Kings full of Sevens
Seat 6: Deadlydoji folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 7: Yamisou1985 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 8: silverlion99 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 9: gp333 showed [Kh Qs] and lost with three of a kind, Kings
On the other hand, highstakes cash game pro MesmerizePlz was climbing the leaderboard. He had over 100k chips and was in 28th place. FTR wasn’t having a strong showing. Hartlin was out, gp333 and busto_soon were in the middle of the pack, and Alexos couldn’t get anything going. Meanwhile, pompanopimp, our chip leader after hour 2, was still the chip leader 5 hours later! And our own maxxscam was climbing. He was in 61st place with over 200k chips; good shape indeed. It was now midnight eastern time and this writer went to sleep.
When I woke up, 16 hours after the tournament had began, we had reached our final table. The most notable of names still remaining was LadyMaverick, aka poker professional Vanessa Rousso. Also nitbuster, aka Josh Arieh who some may remember from the WSOP main event in 2004. Another name I noticed was HelmetSky, who I personally played with at $200 buy in No Limit Hold’em. The chip leader however was mpg1000, who had 20 million chips, twice as much as Ka$ino, who was in 2nd place. Although everyone surely would be battling for the first prize of over $1,000,000, the first “loser” at the final table would receive nearly $60,000.
As the tournament went on, several players busted out and mpg1000 saw his chip lead dwindle to Ka$ino. After losing his KQ all-in preflop against Ka$ino’s AK, mpg1000 busted out in 5th place, which was over $300,000. Next to bust out was HelmetSky, who received nearly $400,000 for 4th. LadyMaverick was next to go, and we were finally down to the final two, Ka$ino and an unknown player named thev0id. After a long heads up battle, thev0id pulled out the victory and a cash prize of over 1.3 million dollars, the largest payout in online poker history!
Yet the drama was not over…
It turns out that thev0id had breached Poker Stars terms of service, and was disqualified from the tournament. Although Poker Stars have not confirmed what thev0id did wrong, it is rumored it involved playing on multiple accounts during the tournament. While this doesn’t necessarily have a player gain a competitive advantage over the field (unless that is two accounts played by one person are at the same table), it disqualified him from his 1.3 million dollar prize. The new winner is Ka$ino, who gains over a half million dollars in winnings.
WCOOP Event ME: Report
