The 2011 World Championship of Online Poker is nearing its conclusion, but some of the best events are yet to come. WCOOP Event 44, a $320 No Limit Hold’em 2x Chance, was undoubtedly one of the toughest fields yet. The 2x chance meant that if a player were to bust in the first 180 minutes of play, they would have the option to buy in again for $300.

2,080 players came out for the event and after the rebuys were tallied, the total prize pool was $811,500. This was over double the original guarantee of $400k! It meant a first place prize of just under $130k.

Quite a few notable players fell just short of the final table, including November Niner Pius “MastaP89” Heinz. He finished 34th for just $2,475.07, but fortunately he’ll have another crack at big money in November when he plays for millions. Adam “squee451” Sherman looked to score big in Event 44 to add to his already sizable online winnings of over $2.4 million. He got no further than 24th, however, and pocketed $2,880.82.

The final two tables were populated with three PokerStars pros, but none of them were able to make the trip to the final table. Jude “j.thaddeus” Ainsworth finished in 18th for $3,448.87 and Daniel “KidPoker” Negreanu followed right behind him in 17th for the same payout. George “gkap13” Kapalas came the closest of the PokerStars pros as he busted just before the final table in 11th place for $6,289.12.

Daniel Negreanu

Here were the final table chips and seats:

Seat 1 – trampek – 327,806
Seat 2 – sizzlinbetta – 1,083,267
Seat 3 – thagrinda444 – 1,126,880
Seat 4 – z0di@c – 674,067
Seat 5 – Pvd170590 – 3,399,580
Seat 6 – Obafemi 9 – 1,652,414
Seat 7 – Teobaldo – 758,703
Seat 8 – BuRR7deuce – 3,578,920
Seat 9 – nutzho – 923,363

Stephen “sizzlinbetta” Reynolds and Getty “nutzho” Mattingsley looked to the be most accomplished players at the final table as each of them had over a million in cashes online. This wasn’t thagrinda444’s first final table of the series as he final tabled Event 30, a $530 10-Max No Limit Hold’em Shootout. He got 10th in that event for $4,515.

Obafemi 9 and sizzlinbetta were the first departures of the final table as each player got in the last of their chips with AT offsuit and both times each player had 3 outs. Neither could hit their outs and they finished in 9th and 8th respectively.

Thagrinda444 was able to improve upon his prior final table by finishing in 7th place. He busted after running AQ suited into the KK of Pvd170590.

Z0di@c was the next player to give AT offsuit a whirl, putting his opponent trampek at risk. trampek held 99 but unlike the AT of Obafemi 9 and sizzlinbetta, Z0di@c’s hand hit the board. This meant trampek was out in 6th place. Z0di@c was also responsible for the next bustout, taking Teobaldo out in 5th place.

Pvd170590 came into the final table just shy of the chip lead, but he went no further than 4th place as his AJ offsuit was coolered by z0di@c’s AA. BuRR7deuce was responsible for nutzho’s bustout with A8 against nutzho’s JQ.

Z0di@c began heads-up play with a roughly 2 to 1 chip lead and didn’t relinquish it, finishing off BuRR7deuce in short fashion. This meant that Z0di@c won a handsome first place prize of $129,840.80, along with a coveted WCOOP bracelet.

Congratulations to everyone that cashed Event 44! Please see below for the final table payouts.

1 – z0di@c – $129,840.80
2 – BuRR7deuce – $97,380.00
3 – nutzho – $73,035.00
4 – Pvd170590 – $52,057.72
5 – Teobaldo – $36,517.50
6 – trampek – $36,517.50
7 – thagrinda444 – $20,287.50
8 – sizzlinbetta – $14,201.25
9 – Obafemi 9 – $8,115.00