Brits Dominate World Championship Of Online PokerBrits Take Most WCOOP Titles So Far; Poland Gets First Ever |
|
The World Championship of Online Poker kicked off on Sept. 4 and the results have been flowing in ever since with some very familiar names topping lists and cashing deep alongside those who had not before seen the upper end of the WCOOP payout list.
The Brits have been doing very well so far with four WCOOP takedowns and plenty of deep cashes and final tables. The first WCOOP title to go to the U.K. came in event no. 2, the $10,300 no-limit hold’em High Roller. It boiled down to Brit on Brit action with “DYBYDX” facing fellow native “xraypies” heads up. DYBYDX succeeded in the end and walked away with $430,000, leaving xraypies with the second-place prize of $310,000. The runner-up made a massive profit however after satelliting into the event for $33.
Big names at the final table included Kevin “ImaLuckSac” MacPhee, who finished third for $235,000, Tobias “PokerNoob999” Reinkemeier (sixth for $100,000), and Tom “kingsofcards” Marchese (ninth for $40,000). MacPhee went on to final table another WCOOP event to tie with Spanish player “2FLY2TILT” for most final tables so far. 2FLY2TILT took his second WCOOP title so far in his career and the first prize of $20,185.20 in event no. 8, a $215 triple stud event where he beat UK player “mddgfc” heads up. The Spaniard received his first WCOOP two years ago in a draw event.
The second WCOOP bracelet to go to England came in event no. 5, a $320 no-limit hold’em six-max shootout where a deal was made sixhanded with “Mossop7” taking the lion’s share of $50,378.60 for the win.
A two-day event brought the next UK bracelet when Brits dominated event no. 12, a $215 no-limit hold’em heads-up tournament. Eventually “rickv” beat “crossybig” to take down the $75,616 first prize. The fourth British champ was “Pandochat” after a win in event no. 13, a $215 pot-limit Omaha H/L six-max event. A deal was made between the final four leaving eventual winner Pandochat with $28,186, and fellow Brit and third-place finisher “Tlick777” with the largest amount of $32,000.
Britain may have four titles so far from this year’s WCOOP, but hot on its heels is Russia with three, followed by Australia, Netherlands, and Norway with two. Russia could indeed take over with so many more events to come as so far Russians have made the most final tables (23) and are on the top of the “Cashes By Country” leader board with 747, not to mention there have been more Russians than any other nationality taking part in the events overall so far.
Russian winners at time of writing are “K_0_S_T_Y_A” in event no. 3 ($288,660.78); “ranayr” in event no. 7 ($19,608), and “Tat0chka” in event no. 14 ($110,609.02).
Two players must be mentioned finally, “N4kai” from Poland and Norway’s Anders “Donald” Berg. A threehanded deal made in event no. 18, the $320 no-limit hold’em event with 10-minute levels, saw N4kai walk away with $107,515.78 and become the first Polish player to win a WCOOP title in the entire history of the series. Berg took down event no. 16, the $215 pot-limit Omaha six-max tournament to become only the second player to hold three WCOOP bracelets (Ryan “g0lfa” D’Angelo was the first to do so). Berg won $61,488.00 for first place.
Titles have also gone to fellow Norwegian “RiskStar”, LOL_U_91 (Belgium), “extasyman” (Romania), “Olkku” (Finland), “Ugnis” (Lithuania), “Fred_Brink” (Denmark), “erickie” (Netherlands), plus “bratpack1979” and “MONSTER_DONG” (Australia).
The resilience of online poker is also reflected in the attendance and prize pools created in the events so far with guarantees doubled and even tripled, and bigger fields than last year in many tournaments. For instance, in event no. 17, a $215 2-7 no-limit draw tournament, 390 players registered, up from 367 last year, and the $78,000 prize pool was more than three times the event’s guarantee. Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier had a deep run finishing in ninth place for $1,482, but it was “Brryann” who took the top spot and $16,380 after beating Jon “PearlJammer” Turner heads up. Turner received $11,700 for his efforts.
The WCOOP now marches on until Sept. 25 and those who want to get involved can find the tournaments in the PokerStars client by going to Events > WCOOP.
Copyright © 2001-2024
CardPlayer.com. All rights reserved.
