PokerStars.com World Championship of Online Poker

Over the past eight years, the World Championship of Online Poker has grown to proportions that even the world’s largest online poker site, PokerStars, couldn’t have imagined. The popular tournament series, fondly known as the WCOOP, began as a modest nine-event run in 2002 that concluded with a $1,000 main event with just 238 players. The 2009 edition boasted 45 jam-packed tournaments in nearly every poker discipline, and wrapped up with a $5,000 main event with 2,144 entrants.

Many staples of the live-tournament circuit have steadily declined in attendance over the last few years, and the increasing numbers of options overseas have seen the fields thinned by competition. Nonetheless, players haven’t stopped flocking to online play, where they can potentially earn millions of dollars from the comfort of their own homes.

Throughout its three-week duration, the WCOOP outperformed every other comparable live-tournament series, despite relying, for the most part, on smaller buy-in events and fields full of satellite winners.

Take, for instance, the recent Legends of Poker main event at The Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles, California. That field totaled 279 players, while the same buy-in event attracted a field of 299 on PokerStars. Running simultaneously, the $3,500 main event at the Borgata Poker Open in Atlantic City, New Jersey, drew a WPT-record 1,018 players, but that didn’t even come close to the WCOOP main event.

Lower buy-ins, no travel costs, and larger prize pools have made the WCOOP a can’t-miss event on the poker calendar, and the 2009 edition was one for the history books. The series culminated in a $5,000 championship event with 2,144 players and a $10,720,000 prize pool, making it a Card Player 2009 Player of the Year points event.

A Look at the Numbers
A total of 43,973 unique players participated over the course of the 45 events, winning an amazing $51,652,800 in prize money. Those players represented 140 countries, of which 104 had a player cash.

Compare that to the most recent World Series of Poker, which featured 57 events, 60,875 entrants, and $174,011,894 in prize money. Clearly, the WCOOP has established itself as the WSOP’s online counterpart.

PokerStars has done a fantastic job of reaching the burgeoning European market, but the success of the WCOOP relied heavily on American players, who reaped the biggest rewards of the series.

Of the 45 bracelets awarded, 25 went to the United States. Second place belonged to the United Kingdom, which won four, and Germany rounded out the top three with three. Americans made 148 final tables, with Germany and Canada scoring 28 and 27, respectively.

More than $24 million was pocketed by Americans, nearly half of the total amount of money awarded in the series. The nation with the smallest amount of prize money won was the Cayman Islands; its lone representative picked up $235.12 for an isolated in-the-money finish.

Team PokerStars Gets In On the Act
Team PokerStars Pro is no stranger to the WCOOP. A slew of sponsored pros flood each and every final table, playing host and offering words of encouragement to those busting out of a tournament.

Occasionally, a team pro will break through for a big score of his/her own. In fact, both Chad “stelladora” Brown and Greg “FossilMan” Raymer have bracelets of their own from previous WCOOPs.

This year was no different, as German pro George Danzer topped a field of 976 in a $215 pot-limit Omaha rebuy tournament. He earned $109,545 for his victory, but the team was far from done.

Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier has been one of the best players in the world for the better part of the last three years. He has WPT and EPT wins, and this year claimed WCOOP gold — twice in a span of just three days. He achieved double-bracelet status, but wasn’t alone in that elite category.

Double the Bracelets, Double the Fun
Prior to this year, only two players had won multiple WCOOP bracelets. Unknown Canadian player “spawng” was the first to accomplish the task, picking up his first bracelet in 2005 and his second a year later. In 2006, Kyle “kwob20” Bowker won two bracelets, becoming the first player to win multiple events in the same series.

Then, 2009 came along, and the series made room for three more. The first was Ryan “g0lfa” D’Angelo, a professional poker player from New York. After winning a $320 eight-game mixed tournament for $50,250, D’Angelo tore through a $320 half Omaha/half hold’em tournament, this time banking a cool $69,245. Those scores took his lifetime tournament winnings to more than $700,000, the majority of which came from a third-place finish at the 2008 WSOP.

D’Angelo credited his wins to his ability to stay alive and avoid marginal situations. “I got lucky a few times in both events that I won, but the cool thing about WCOOP events is that I feel they are much more low-variance than, say, a regular no-limit hold’em event,” said D’Angelo. “I was able to avoid being all in, for the most part, and by the time I got heads up, I had massive chip leads that I was able to hang on to.”

With the series winding down and in its final weekend, two more names would make history, both of whom are already prominent names in the online community.
Grospellier picked up his first win in a $530 no-limit hold’em rebuy tournament that awarded him $232,730. He then won $263,323 on the penultimate day of the series with a victory in a $215 no-limit hold’em event.

ElkY was ecstatic after his first win, explaining how close he came to busting out. “You can just imagine how thrilled I was to finally win that WCOOP bracelet after five years of playing in the series,” he said. “It was such a tough tournament, too; I was only a few cards away from elimination a couple of times, and the final three tables were filled with all of the greatest online players.”

The excitable Frenchman has proven to be a beast in both live and online play, and has amassed nearly $7 million in tournament winnings in his short career. That puts him in 23rd place on the all-time earnings list.

The final player to accomplish the double-bracelet feat was 20-year-old professional Daniel “djk123” Kelly. He did more than just win two tournaments, however, and was awarded the highest honor of the series.

Daniel “djk123” Kelly Wins Player of the Series Award
Known for his hyperaggressive, almost maniacal playing style, Kelly is one of the best no-limit hold’em tournament players in the world. In 2008, he finished sixth in the Card Player Online Player of the Year race, and so far this year, he’s on a pace to do the same.

Kelly has been a model of consistency almost exclusively online, where he has amassed lifetime tournament winnings of more than $2.2 million — all while being a full-time student at Villanova University, where he is majoring in mechanical engineering.

Despite his obvious prowess in the Cadillac of poker, Kelly showed a much more polished, well-rounded ability to dominate events other than no-limit hold’em. His first bracelet of the series came in event No. 2. He outlasted 1,526 entrants in razz, putting away $53,410 in the process. Then, on the next-to-last day of the series, he notched another victory in the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. championship. A little over 100 of the world’s greatest players participated, and Kelly found himself at the final table with the likes of Matt “Hoss_TBF” Hawrilenko and Noah “Exclusive” Boeken.

When good players catch cards, it’s almost impossible to beat them. Kelly steamrolled the final table, especially during heads-up play in the stud variations, and came out on top for $252,350.

His two wins tied D’Angelo and Grospellier, but his astonishing 11 cashes put him over the top, giving him Player of the Series honors. Remarkably, Kelly managed to cash in 26 percent of the 43 events he played. Despite this unheard of accomplishment, he was modest about it.

“I guess I take pride in it,” said Kelly. “It’s definitely an honor to be considered the best overall player, but I can’t help but think that it’s also the ‘who ran the best’ award. That’s the thing about tournaments. I understand that the variance is huge. Some players who aren’t that good just go on massive heaters, and then you get the players who are really good and run really good, like [Yevgeniy Timoshenko].”

While his victories gave him the gold, it was his fourth-place finish in the main event that provided the biggest payday of his short career.

Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko Dominates Main Event
After all of the preliminary events had come and gone, it was time for the main event. The two-day event saw a field stuffed to the brim with satellite winners, but a who’s who of online superstars remained at the end of the first day, still in the hunt for the top prize of $1,715,200. PokerStars put up a lofty $10 million guarantee for the event, but that was surpassed, as the total prize pool was $10,720,000.

As the final table approached, two players in particular were doing their best to abuse the others as much as possible. Kelly, fresh off of winning his second bracelet of the series, and WPT Championship winner Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko crushed the short stacks and went to the final table as the two overwhelming chip leaders.

Kelly said, “From about the final 20 or so on, most of the players were playing pretty weak, trying to move up in the money. With the exception of one player, Benjamin “Chong94” LaFew, [Timoshenko] and I were able to pretty much take what we wanted, especially on the final-table bubble.”

Thanks to the rapid chip accumulation before the final table, there were always a few short stacks to contend with, and the possibility of a deal was never brought up. Kelly and Timoshenko continued to take turns unleashing their fury on the rest of the table.

By the time they reached four-handed play, Kelly had racked up four knockouts of his own, but the tables were turned on the young pro when he ran into what he described as a cooler situation (see the sidebar on Page 54) and was eliminated by Timoshenko. For his outstanding performance, Kelly picked up another $643,200, bringing his 11-cash total to $956,956.

After winning that massive pot, it was now just a matter of swatting away the flies for Timoshenko. He quickly found himself heads up with more than a 3-1 chip advantage, and it didn’t take much longer to close out the match.

On the final hand, both players saw a flop of K 8 6, and the money went in. Udon Wannit had the 6 5, but he was in bad shape to Timoshenko’s K♦ 6♦, for two pair. The turn and river were the 3 and 4, and Udon Wannit was eliminated, getting a payday of $1,286,400.

For his victory, the young pro from Mukilteo, Washington, earned a hefty $1,715,200, which is only the second-largest score of his very short career. The largest was his $2,149,960 payday at the WPT Championship. He also has a final-table appearance at the WSOP Europe and a win in Macau on the Asian Poker Tour. To date, he has won more than $6 million in live and online tournaments, and is highly regarded as one of the best players in the game.

Like most of today’s young, successful online grinders, Timoshenko started from scratch and built the empire that now surrounds him. The dream can be realized by anybody with enough dedication and patience to devote time to the game. Who knows? Maybe next year’s WCOOP champion is this year’s small-stakes grinder, hoping to turn a small investment into millions.

“I have never deposited money online,” said Timoshenko. “I started off playing freerolls, and after winning a few dollars, I was able to run that up to a significant amount. From there, it was all about proper bankroll management and getting better, making me the player I am today.”

PokerStars.com WCOOP $5,000 Championship Final-Table Results
1 Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko $1,715,200
2 Udon Wannit $1,286,400
3 reddeevil $933,712
4 Daniel “djk123” Kelly $643,200
5 Jamie “Xaston” Kaplan $482,400
6 Benjamin “Chong94” LaFew $375,200
7 Mudvaynes $268,000
8 Supa4real $182,240
9 Mer “PeachyMer” Brit $96,480

Notable WCOOP Winners
The World Series of Poker awarded 57 bracelets this summer, and an astonishing number of notable professionals were on the receiving end. The World Championship of Online Poker was no different, rewarding some of poker’s best online players for their countless hours of study and devotion to the game. Take a look below at some of the big winners from this year’s series.

Event No. Tournament Winner Prize Money
2 $215 razz Daniel “djk123” Kelly $53,410
8 $215 limit hold’em Kevin “iacog4” Iacofano $64,000
9 $215 no-limit hold’em ternoplayer $303,876
10 $10,300 no-limit hold’em Sumpas $611,455
11 $530 no-limit hold’em hustla16 $446,533
15 $320 badugi Raymond “raydavis77” Davis $19,912
18 $320 eight-game Ryan “g0lfa” D’Angelo $50,250
19 $320 pot-limit Omaha George Danzer $109,545
24 $530 heads-up no-limit hold’em Eugene “MyRabbiFoo” Katchalov $170,000
27 $25,500 heads-up no-limit hold’em Jonathan “Iftarii” Jaffe $315,000
28 $1,050 no-limit hold’em Unsyatisfied $513,076
29 $320 half Omaha/half hold’em Ryan “g0lfa” D’Angelo $69,245
33 $1,050 no-limit hold’em Darryll “df1986” Fish $160,525
36 $530 no-limit hold’em Brent “Astrolux85” Roberts $210,000
38 $530 no-limit hold’em Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier $232,730
39 $1,050 limit hold’em Terrence “Unassigned” Chan $83,030
40 $215 no-limit Omaha eight-or-better Chris “PiMaster” Viox $42,263
42 $2,100 eight-game David “RugDoctor” Williams $107,800
43 $215 no-limit hold’em Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier $263,323
44 $10,300 H.O.R.S.E. Daniel “djk123” Kelly $252,350
45 $5,200 no-limit hold’em main event Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko $1,715,200

‘Jovial Gent’ Eliminates His Biggest Competition at the Final Table
Imagine that you are at the final table of the world’s most important online tournament. There’s more than $1.7 million on the line. You’re one of the most feared players, and have a massive chip stack. But, you have one of Internet poker’s hottest players sitting on your immediate left, also with a big stack.
This was exactly the bittersweet situation in which Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko found himself at the World Championship of Online Poker main-event final table. Sure, he had a great opportunity in front of him, but when Daniel “djk123” Kelly has position on you, he’s going to make life a little difficult.

To top it off, Kelly had knocked out three players en route to four-handed play, and was getting stronger with each three-bet steal. Luckily for Timoshenko, a hand went down that not only gave him an insurmountable chip lead, but also eliminated his biggest threat.

Blinds/Antes: 60,000-120,000/15,000
Chip Counts: Timoshenko – 13,626,010
Kelly – 10,291,231
Hands: Timoshenko: K K; Kelly: 10 10

The Hand
With four players remaining in the tournament, Yevgeniy Timoshenko raised to 281,010 from the button. Daniel Kelly then reraised to 844,444 from the small blind. Timoshenko reraised to 1,800,000, Kelly moved all in for his last 9,431,787, and Timoshenko called.

Kelly showed pocket tens, Timoshenko pocket kings.

The flop came K J 4, and Kelly was looking for a miracle. It never came, as the board ran out with the 3 and Q. Kelly was eliminated in a disappointing fourth place, and Timoshenko took an overwhelming chip lead.

Analysis
At the final table, Timoshenko was not too pleased about his seat. “I had a very good run with two tables left and built up a very big stack. The only thing I didn’t want to happen at the final table was for Dan to have position on me.”

Kelly agreed, going one step further: “I had position on him, which was nice. It was probably the best seat at the final table.”

Position aside, both players seemed to share the same sentiment when it came to doing battle with each other. “He’s a very aggressive player, so I expected him to be messing with me a lot and putting on the pressure,” said Timoshenko. “It definitely limited the number of hands I could play, especially early on.”
Kelly had the advantage, but was still cautious with the WPT champion. “Not only is he a very good player, but he also had a lot of chips and was the only person who could really hurt me at the time, “ said Kelly. “I tried to stay out of his way, at least at the start of the final table. He wasn’t exactly going to let me push him around.”

After the short stacks fizzled out and the players found themselves four-handed, a perfect storm of events occurred to enable Timoshenko to get rid of his biggest adversary. First, the short stack got a little lucky to double through Kelly. Then, Kelly slipped to third on the leader board.

On the surface, it may appear that Kelly went a little crazy with more than 85 big blinds left in his elimination hand, but he insists that the situation was just a cooler. “Well, at that point, it was four-handed and I was in third,” said Kelly. “The fourth-place guy still had 6 million, so it’s not like I could sit back and wait for him to bust out. Yevgeniy was raising at least 90 percent of the time when he was on the button. He’s definitely capable of four-betting light, knowing that I can three-bet light, so I just think it was a cooler.”

Timoshenko isn’t so sure about that analysis. “I think that was the first time he three-bet me all final table,” Timoshenko said. “There wasn’t really a spot where I thought he had any reason to get out of line and three-bet me without a hand. So, I don’t really know if I would be four-bet bluffing as much as he thinks. However, I do understand how he could feel that way at that time. Certainly, with his image of being super aggressive and me being the chip leader, I can see how he would think I was trying to outplay him, but that just wasn’t the case.”

When asked if there was any way he could get away from the tens, Kelly added, “I would never three-bet there and then fold. Against some players, I might flat [flat-call], trying not to get it in preflop. But, once I decide to three-bet there against a button raise, I’m not folding. We just weren’t deep enough for me to get away from it.”