Online Poker: Carter 'ckingusc' King Wins 2008 WCOOP Main Event

The Main Event took place Monday night in the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP). Read the event recap below to find out who took it down, and check out the entire WCOOP schedule and results list on CardPlayer.com.

WCOOP Main Event: $5,000 + $200 No-Limit Hold'em

A total of 60 players survived day one of the 2008 WCOOP Main Event. All had already played 12 hours of poker to get that far and without a doubt each player had their eyes set on the $1,775,312 first-place prize.

The action picked up right away and in no time the field had trimmed itself down to the final five tables.

After losing most of his stack, Dustin “neverwin” Woolf got the rest of his chips all in against Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier. Woolf revealed 44 and Grospellier showed AK. The board ran out A10KA2 and Woolf was eliminated in 43rd place, earning $19,665.

After losing a monster pot holding pocket queens against Matt “ShoesRDurrty” Swoboda’s KQ, Ryan "Daut44" Daut was eventually eliminated a short while later by Nick “ahh_snap” Van Newkirk. Daut held A2 in a battle of the blinds and ahh_snap called with KJ. The board provided not one, but two jacks and Daut was eliminated in 34th place, earning $20,757.

Van Newkirk, a player from Omaha, Nebraska, is roommates with the likes of Chris “Genius28” Lee, Michael “martine23” Martin and coincidentally, last year’s WCOOP Main Event Champion Kyle “ka$ino” Schroeder. Van Newkirk made a deep run for the title, but ultimately fell short with a 31st place finish. He took home $20,757 for his efforts.

Coming into the day as the chip leader, Alexander "august35" Kostritsyn couldn't get much going and eventually faltered in 23rd place. The 2008 Aussie Millions winner pocketed $22,942 for his efforts.

Grospellier had been on a sick run thus far in the WCOOP finishing in the top-20 six times. The running joke had been that Grospellier was untouchable and furthermore, incapable of taking a bad beat. He proved the rail wrong, however, on his final hand when he got it in good against Fluffdog87. Grospellier held pocket nines against his opponent’s pocket sevens, but the flop gave Fluffdog87 the two-outer he needed to bust Grospellier in 21st place. He earned $22,942, bringing his WCOOP total to $407,285.

With 26 players remaining, liberace made a strong move to the final table by taking out m3tph. m3tph raised to 150,000 and both klslcz and liberace made the call. The flop came out 1072 and liberace checked. m3tph bet 700,000 and klslcz folded. liberace raised to 2,750,000 and m3tph called all in. liberace showed 77 for a flopped set and m3tph was in trouble with pocket queens. The turn and river bricked and liberace vaulted up the leader board with over 7 million in chips.

Markush13 made his push to the final table by taking out two opponent’s with pocket aces. KingKobeMVP and Chris "cbsplash" Barille both held pocket eights and pocket sixes but neither could connect with the board to give Markush13 a monster stack of over 9 million.

With two tables remaining, Carter  “ckingusc” King made Alex “AJKHoosier1” Kamberis absolutely miserable with pocket queens. On the first hand, Kamberis raised to 259,595 and King moved in for 2,358,892. Kamberis insta-called with said queens and King showed pocket eights. The board ran out JJ3A8 and King rivered eights full to steal the pot away from Kamberis.

A short while later, King was all in again, this time holding A-K against Kamberis and his pocket queens. This time King paired both his hole cards on the turn and river to double up once again.

Christian “charder30” Harder was riding the short stack when his elimination hand came up. Harder moved all in with pocket fours and ran into liberace’s A10. The turn brought one of liberace’s many outs and Harder was busted in 11th place, earning $87,400.

After Fluffdog87’s bustout to end the bubble, the final table was set. Here were the chip counts heading in:

Seat 1: kovi99 — 574,348
Seat 2: klslcz — 4,841,175
Seat 3: Carter “ckingusc” King —8,069,086
Seat 4: liberace — 13,124,107
Seat 5: Alex “AJKHoosier1” Kamberis — 3,713,250
Seat 6: BOLLPOKER — 3,323,739
Seat 7: Sumpas — 2,972,856
Seat 8: Matt “ShoesRDurrty” Swoboda — 6,560,232
Seat 9: Markush13 — 11,446,207

In relatively short time, kovi99 and BOLLPOKER were busted in ninth and eighth place, respectively. klslcz was in prime position to double up but Markush13 had good fortune on his side to end klslcz’s tournament. Markush13 had pocket kings and was in a lot of trouble against his opponent’s pocket aces. The flop and turn were safe, but the river king sent klslcz packing in seventh place, good for $305,900.

A few hands later, liberace took a massive chip lead when his A-K held up against Sumpas’ A-Q. The pot gave liberace nearly 30 million in chips and more than half the chips in play. But Carter “ckingusc” King’s good luck continued. King raised to 420,000 and liberace reraised to 1,280,000. King then made his move, pushing all in for 6,864,314. liberace instantly made the call and showed KK. King was in major trouble holding AJ but the board came 7747A to give him the pot and redistribute the chips a little.

At this point the players took some time out to discuss a deal. Kamberis wasn’t happy with the by-the-chips chop numbers and requested liberace to give up some cash. liberace complied, as did the rest of the table and the numbers were agreed upon. Here is how the chop broke down, leaving $200,000 and the bracelet for the eventual champion.

liberace — $1,375,249
Carter “ckingusc” King — $1,065,432
Markush13 — $961,718
Matt “ShoesRDurrty” Swoboda — $801,153
Alex “AJKHoosier1” Kamberis — $782,542

After doubling up Kamberis, Swoboda was crippled down to his last eight big blinds. A few hands later, he was eliminated in fifth place, leaving the remaining four to battle it out for the extra cash.

Markush13 was the next to go when he tried a bluff at the wrong time. He moved all in on the river with ace-high, only to find that liberace had completed his double-gutted straight draw. With three players remaining, he had more than three times his closest competitor.

Kamberis' comeback finally came to an end when he doubled up King. The end result left Kamberis severely short stacked and his run stopped a few hands later. Kamberis moved in with ace-rag only to run into King's pocket nines. Kamberis is currently leading CardPlayer's Online Player of the Year race. This finish gives him 1,600 more points, putting him more than 1,700 points ahead of his next closest competitor. With less than four months remaining in the race, it will be tough for anybody to catch him.

Here were the chip counts before heads-up play began:

liberace — 34,666,379
Carter "ckingusc" King — 19,958,621

A few hands into play, King held an overcard and a flush draw against liberace's pair of queens. Both the overcard and the flush came and King traded chip counts with his opponent.

The final hand saw King holding A8 against liberace's KJ. The flop hit both players, but King's pair of aces held to give him the title, the bracelet and an extra $200,000, bringing his two-day total to a whopping $1,265,432.

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