Online Poker: WCOOP High Roller Event has a Winner

Two huge events kicked off last night in the 2008 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), a $10,000 buy-in high-rollers no-limit hold’em event and a $500 buy-in two-day no-limit hold’em event. The former crowned a champion in the wee hours of this morning, while the latter will resume today at 4:30 p.m. ET.

Check out the WCOOP schedule and results page on CardPlayer.com.

WCOOP Event No. 5: $10,000 High-Rollers Event

While common in live poker, it is rare to find an online poker tournament with a five-figure buy-in. This year’s WCOOP has three such events, the first of which concluded early this morning. The $10,000 buy-in high-rollers event (event No. 5) featured a guarantee of $2 million, and it surpassed that by leaps and bounds when 321 entrants bought in, pushing the prize pool to $3,210,000, 60 percent more than guaranteed. Fifty-four of those entrants would get paid, with the longest-lasting player snagging $618,000, barring a final-table deal.

The final table of the event, as expected, was incredibly stacked with not a single unknown player taking up a seat. Among those who made the final nine were the European Poker Tour Grand Final Champion Glen “Choron” Chorny (pictured at left), 2003 World Series of Poker main-event winner Chris “Money800” Moneymaker, Jonathan “Jcardshark” Little, retired baseball pitcher Orel “O. Hershiser” Hershiser, Greg “DuckU” Hobson, Nick “gbmantis” Niergarth, Scott “dorinvandy” Dorin, and well-known online player purplEUROS. Also at the table was online pro Peter “#1PEN” Neff, who had just pulled a runner-up finish in WCOOP event No. 3, a limit hold’em event, for $54,000.

#1PEN (pictured at right) became one of the final three players standing in the event, along with dorinvandy and DuckU. #1PEN eventually hit the rail in third place, earning $337,000 for a combined weekend WCOOP score of $391,000. It was then down to DuckU versus dorinvandy for the full $618,000 top prize, since no deal had been made at the final table. There was a nearly $159,000 pay difference on the line between first and second place. Dorinvandy had the chip lead of more than 2-1 going into heads-up play, and he ultimately took it down when all of the chip got in on a flop of 10 8 7. Dorinvandy held pocket tens for top set while DuckU was drawing to a win with Q 9 for straight and flush draws. The K and Q came on the turn and river to miss DuckU and send him packing in second place ($459,030), and dorinvandy clinched the title and the $617,925 first-place prize.

The final results were:

1. Scott “dorinvandy” Dorin — $617,925
2. Greg “DuckU” Hobson — $459,030
3. Peter “#1PEN” Neff — $337,050
4. Glen “Choron” Chorny — $256,800
5. Nick “gbmantis” Niergarth — $179,760
6. Chris “Money800” Moneymaker — $139,635
7. Jonathan “Jcardshark” Little — $107,535
8. purplEUROS — $75,435
9. Orel “O. Hershiser” Hershiser — $54,570

WCOOP Event No. 6: $500 No-Limit Hold’em (two-day event)

The WCOOP’s sixth event, a $500 two-day no-limit hold’em tournament that started last night, will resume and play to conclusion today at 4:30 p.m. ET. The event started with 7,351 entrants, generating a prize pool of $3,675,500 (the guarantee was $3 million) and a first-place prize of $452,000. After 22 levels of play, the field had been wittled down to 72 players. The chip leader going into today is pokerates, with 4,561,526, followed by shaamo with 365,1172. Online Player of the Year contender Alex “AJKHoosier1” Kamberis is still in contention in 19th place with 1,231,031. Blinds will start today at 12,500-25,000 with a 2,500 ante, and the average stack is 1,020,972.

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