2010 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker

The PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker debuted in 2002 as a simple tournament series with just nine events. Over the past nine years, it has ballooned to an astounding 62 events and has become the can’t-miss online tournament series of the year.

Although it coincides with many live tournaments, including the World Series of Poker Europe and the WPT Borgata Poker Open, many players have found themselves altering their travel plans or preferring to stay home altogether to enjoy high-stakes tournament action from the comfort of home.

You may think that anyone who chooses his laptop and a mouse over a brick-and-mortar casino may be sacrificing something in terms of value, prize pools, and variety, but you’d be wrong. This series, otherwise known as the WCOOP, offered seven different games in dozens of variations, with buy-ins ranging from $100 to $25,000. In short, the WCOOP has something for everyone.

Any argument over prize pools would be ended with a quick glance at the numbers. PokerStars put itself on the hook for a guaranteed $50 million, an increase from the $40 million that was guaranteed in 2009. The calculated gamble was actually selling the turnouts short, as the prize pools totaled $62,717,400.
Some Statistics

Of the 62 bracelets awarded to the winners, more than half, 33, were won by players from the United States. Australia finished second with four bracelets, and Germany and Russia finished in a tie for third with three bracelets each. In terms of money won, the United States claimed more than $28 million, while Canada finished second with nearly $4 million.

Jon “PearlJammer” Turner had the most consistent series, cashing 15 times to narrowly beat Michael “miw210” Wang and his 14 cashes. In total, 109 different countries had at least one player record a cash. Although he didn’t claim a bracelet, James “Andy McLEOD” Obst did manage to make four final-table appearances, which was enough to net him Player of the Series honors.

In 2009, three different players won two bracelets during the series. In 2010, only one player, Jamie “Xaston” Kaplan, accomplished the feat. Kaplan banked a combined $257,000 for winning a $200 no-limit hold’em rebuy event and a $500 seven-card stud eight-or-better tournament.

The Main Event

A sizeable chunk of the nearly $63 million awarded came from the $5,000 main event, which attracted a field of 2,443 players and generated a total prize pool of $12,215,000. The event was so large that it featured the second-biggest payout of 2010, and it’s the only online tournament to automatically qualify for Card Player 2010 Player of the Year points.

The two-day event featured some of the game’s best players, and a number of Team PokerStars pros, including Jason Mercier (181st), Johannes Strassman (169th), and Chad Brown (71st).

In 2009, Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko beat Tyler “Udon Wannit” Kenney heads up for the title. This year, Tyler’s brother Bryn “BrynKenney” Kenney had a shot, as well, but he finished in 17th place.

Tyson “POTTERPOKER” Marks held a commanding chip lead going to the final table, with nearly three times the stack of his closest competitor. He kept that lead by taking out both “carryhero” (ninth) and Grayson “gray31” Ramage (eighth) with big pocket pairs.

The next two to go were “ROMDOM” (seventh) and Darren “darrenelias” Elias (sixth), who fell at the hands of “joeysweetp.” With five players remaining, Marks still had a monster lead, but joeysweetp was beginning to separate himself from the rest of the pack.

It seemed that nothing could stop Marks, especially when he cracked Jack “jackellwood” Ellwood’s (fifth) pocket aces with K-9 offsuit by making a straight. “Dazzy2004” (fourth) then went out when his K-Q failed to outdraw A-7. With more than 37 million in chips, Marks had both of his opponents outchipped by nearly 4-1 combined.

Finally, joeysweetp took out Dmitry “Russian_nuts” Stelmak (third) when his pocket queens held up against A-K, leaving the tournament with just two players. Entering heads-up play, Marks had 41,958,606 in chips, and joeysweetp was in major trouble, holding just 6,901,394.

Although he found a way to double up and make it interesting, he ultimately ran an ill-timed semibluff into Marks’ turned nut flush. Marks made the easy call and saw a harmless river card fall to seal the tournament win and a first-place prize of $2,278,097.

The only other player to win a bigger prize in 2010 was Nicholas Chouity, who took down the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo. Despite the buy-in for that event being three times that of the WCOOP main event, Chouity pocketed only $231 more, which further proves that this online tournament has become one of the premier events of the year.

Final-table results were as follows:
1 Tyson “POTTERPOKER” Marks $2,278,097
2 joeysweetp $1,404,725
3 Dmitry “Russian_nuts” Stelmak $1,019,952
4 dazzy2004 $696,255
5 Jack “jackellwood” Ellwood $509,976
6 Darren “darrenelias” Elias $396,987
7 ROMDOM $280,945
8 Grayson “gray31” Ramage $183,225
9 carryhero $112,988

Ryan D’Angelo Wins Record Third Bracelet

By Julio Rodriguez

Many serious poker players have made it a goal of theirs to win a World Championship of Online Poker bracelet, but because of the massive field sizes and always-improving competition, they might as well set out to win the lottery. That being said, someone has to win, and in the tournament’s nine-year history, a total of 228 bracelets have been awarded.

Only nine players have won more than one. The list of double-bracelet winners is short, but it is filled with some of the game’s best players, including Daniel “djk123” Kelly, Anders “Donald” Berg, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Jamie “Xaston” Kaplan, Kyle “kwob20” Bowker, and Shaun “shaundeeb” Deeb. All of them are impressive players, but they all are looking up at Ryan “g0lfa” D’Angelo, who won his third bracelet during the 2010 series.

The Virginia resident earned his record-breaking bracelet in spectacular fashion, winning event No. 55, a no-limit hold’em rebuy tournament, for $199,450, the biggest score of his online career.

D’Angelo has been a tournament grinder for the better part of half a decade, but he wasn’t exactly in the mood to play upon entering the series. “To be honest, I’ve been a bit burned out on online poker for the past few months,” he said. “That being said, there was no way that I was missing the WCOOP. It’s just too big a series. I’ll always find a way to get up for any of the big events that are run on PokerStars.”
More impressively, all three of D’Angelo’s bracelets have come in the “modern era” of the series. His first two bracelets were won last year, in events featuring mixed games and pot-limit Omaha. His ability to play a variety of games meant that he could compete in nearly every event, which, of course, gave him a better opportunity to win gold.

“I started out as a hold’em player, just like everybody else,” recalled D’Angelo. “I really have to credit the friends I have made in poker for my mixed-games success. For instance, my friend Brent Roberts taught me practically everything I know about pot-limit Omaha. I was just fortunate enough to apply those lessons at a crucial time.”

The 24-year-old pro sits atop a prestigious list of champions, but remains, as always, humble. “I’m not going to say that I’m better than all of those guys who have two bracelets,” said D’Angelo. “It’s just a matter of timing, combined with my playing style.”

When asked to elaborate, D’Angelo explained that while others are better at racking up in-the-money finishes, he’s more of an all-or-nothing type of guy. “I’m the kind of player who will either be busting out in the first level or going all the way. I’ve been to only three WCOOP final tables, and have been fortunate to win them all. There are guys out there who’ve been to twice as many, and don’t have any bracelets to show for it.”

D’Angelo was strictly an online player until 2009, when he decided to seriously start traveling the live-tournament circuit. In January of 2010, he made the biggest cash of his career, $700,000 for a fifth-place finish in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure main event. In all, he has earned more than $1.8 million in his tournament career.

Although he was in a bit of a slump upon entering the WCOOP, he found a way to work himself out of it. So, how did he do it? He claims that taking a step back from the game gave him a much-needed perspective. “Lately, I’ve been trying to maintain a good balance between poker and my life outside of it. I found that I just wasn’t playing well when I was consumed by the game. The game has to be fun, not work. Now, when I do sit down for a session, I have a much better approach, and my recent WCOOP win was a result of that.”

Multiple-Bracelet Winners

Player Name Country Bracelets
Ryan “g0lfa” D’Angelo United States 3
Daniel “djk123” Kelly United States 2
Anders “Donald” Berg Norway 2
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier France 2
Shaun “shaundeeb” Deeb United States 2
Kyle “kwob20” Bowker United States 2
Jamie “Xaston” Kaplan United States 2
“spawng” Canada 2
“spencerman3” United States 2

Meet World Championship of Online Poker Main-Event Winner Tyson ‘POTTERPOKER’ Marks

By Julio Rodriguez

Before winning the biggest online tournament in history, Tyson Marks was just your everyday, run-of-the-mill online-poker pro.

He spent his days in Missoula, Montana, grinding out a living, and for two years, he’d done well, earning nearly $600,000.

That’s certainly a lot of money, but that figure pales in comparison to the $2,278,097 he won for topping 2,442 others in the $5,000 World Championship of Online Poker main event.

After dropping out of college, Marks decided to deal poker. The money was good and pitching cards was a lot better than his previous jobs, which included delivering pizzas and construction work.

Marks learned the game as a young boy from his grandmother, but his skills weren’t good enough to keep him from losing nearly all of his wages at the table. Eventually, his roommate, Eric Pratt, sat him down and gave him a blueprint for success. It wasn’t long before Marks turned things around, and after a small-tournament win, he decided to play full time.

Although he struggled at first, he eventually graduated from break-even player to big winner. In this interview, Marks talks about his life-changing win.

Julio Rodriguez: You are the winner of the biggest online tournament in history. Has it sunk in yet?

Tyson Marks: It’s been really overwhelming and kind of hard to deal with, to be honest. I wasn’t really expecting this amount of publicity. Even the local news stations here in Montana have been talking about it. I guess that people around here are proud that a local kid like me was able to win the biggest online-poker tournament in history. I’m honestly on cloud nine right now, and I don’t know when I’m coming down.

JR: You seemed to dominate the final-table bubble, and were able to build a big chip lead. It didn’t seem like you were playing scared because of the money jumps, unlike some others at the table.

TM: The money definitely messed with my head for a little while. With 16 people left, I realized that I was getting really close to the biggest score of my career. Then, I started to think about what could happen and that I was so close to life-changing money. Luckily, those thoughts didn’t really outwardly affect my play. I won a huge pot to eliminate “carryhero” in ninth place, and that gave me more than a 4-1 chip lead on the second-place player. I could’ve coasted for a while, but I told myself that I had to keep the pressure on. After all, if the money meant a lot to me, it meant a lot to everyone else, as well. I had to hit the gas and finish strong.

JR: What did you think of your competition?

TM: There were some really strong players at the table, particularly Jack “jackellwood” Ellwood and Dmitry “Russian_nuts” Stelmak. I got involved in a really tough spot with Ellwood when he four-bet me and I had to shove on him with K-9 offsuit. He had pocket aces, but I was lucky enough to run out a straight. I know that you can’t be results-oriented, and that a lot of the time he’s four-betting light there, but I still felt bad about the beat. I can’t imagine being in his shoes at that moment.

After that hand, I had twice as many chips as the other three players combined, so I started getting texts and messages from friends congratulating me on the win. It was obviously premature, so I buckled down and kept at it. Fortunately for me, the rest of the final table went my way, as well.

JR: Your heads-up opponent, “joeysweetp,” decided to semibluff the rest of his stack while you were holding the nut flush. What was going through your mind during that final hand?

TM: I knew I had won before the actions had even taken place. When I hit the flush on the turn, I just felt the money was going in. Before I had even clicked “call,” I was already celebrating, knowing that I had just won. You have no idea how great it is to hit the “cashier” button and see that big seven-digit number staring you in the face. It almost feels like a mistake.

JR: What does this win ultimately mean to you?

TM: I’ve been playing full time for the past couple of years now, and have been traveling the circuit from time to time, but now I can play on my own terms. I can play when I want to, not because I have to. That’s a great feeling. ♠

James ‘Andy McLEOD’ Obst
Wins Player of the Series Honors
By Julio Rodriguez

With four final-table appearances and 11 cashes, James “Andy McLEOD” Obst was awarded World Championship of Online Poker Player of the Series honors. The 20-year-old pro from Adelaide, Australia, won $211,000 during the 62-event stretch, but with his Player of the Series prizes, he’ll have the opportunity to win millions more.

In addition to a trophy honoring his achievement, Obst will receive nearly $30,000 in buy-ins to future PokerStars-sponsored events. He will be freerolling the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo, the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, and the 2011 Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) main event.

Obst recorded four third-place finishes during the series, and although he couldn’t log off with a victory this year, the former chess prodigy does have a WCOOP win from 2008 in a $200 pot-limit Omaha rebuy event.

He has been one of the more consistent online players for the last few years, and even contended for Card Player Online Player of the Year honors. In 2007, he finished eighth, and in 2008, despite a short-term ban on Full Tilt Poker for being underage, he finished 37th. Later that year, after his 18th birthday, he rejoined the site and won a Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) event in razz, for $40,142. In 2009, he captured a SCOOP championship by winning a $3,000 mixed-hold’em tournament, for $184,000.

Obst is one of only three players — Shaun “shaundeeb” Deeb and Brent “Astrolux85” Roberts are the other two — to have won at least one FTOPS, SCOOP, and WCOOP event. He has earned more than $2 million in his tournament career.

Here are the final Player of the Series standings:
Place Player Name Country Points
1 James “Andy McLEOD” Obst Australia 320
2 Andrey “Kroko-dill” Zaichenko Russia 310
3 Jon “PearlJammer” Turner United States 275
4 Jamie “Xaston” Kaplan United States 265
5 Anders “Donald” Berg Norway 255
6 Michael “miw210” Wang United States 220
7 Calvin “cal42688” Anderson United States 210
7 “osten” United States 210
9 Jason “JP OSU” Potter United States 200
9 “MOJOEX1” United States 200

Penny-Stakes Player

Lives High-Stakes Dream

By Brian Pempus

On Sept. 22, in the middle of the World Championship of Online Poker, more than 220,000 players on more than 33,000 tables were playing cash games on PokerStars in an effort to be dealt into the 50 billionth hand. When the moment came, it was “tblve,” an unknown player from Germany, who won the monumental hand.

All players dealt into the milestone hand received a $5,200 seat in the $10 million-guaranteed WCOOP main event and roughly $3,000 in prizes, but tblve received an additional $50,000 for scooping the pot.

To add to this already interesting story, tblve made it deep in the 2,443-player main-event field, finishing in 83rd place for $19,544. While his pocket queens held up to win more than $50,000 in the micro-stakes cash game, tblve’s pocket kings didn’t stand up when he was all in during the WCOOP main event.

In all, tblve won more than $70,000 — not bad for a micro-stakes cash-game player. ♠