Poker Stars' WCOOP Debuts by Shattering GuaranteesFull Tilt's $500K Guaranteed Decides a Winner…Or Not |
|
To say it was a busy weekend for online poker is an understatement. With the kickoff of Poker Stars' 2006 World Championship of Online Poker coinciding with Full Tilt's monthly $500,000 guaranteed, online players had ample reason to sit at multiple tournaments and maximize their chances for a big payday.
In fact, JohnnyBax (Cliff Josephy) sat at all four major tournaments at once on Sunday, also putting his hat in the ring for Party Poker's Sunday Million Guaranteed and Ultimate Bet's $200,000 guaranteed. Even Bill Chen, a double bracelet winner at this year's World Series of Poker, got in on the action, hitting up both Ultimate Bet's guarantee and WCOOP event No. 2, the $1.5 million guaranteed no-limit tournament.
Chen fell short of earning a third tournament bracelet this year when he placed 154th in the WCOOP event, earning $2,472.25. JohnnyBax failed to make the money in any of his events. Despite all of the star power multi-tabling on Sunday, very few made final table appearances.
Poker Stars' 2006 WCOOP Kicks Off With Two Events
Poker Stars apparently underestimated interest in this year's WCOOP, as both of the first two events of the championship far surpassed their guaranteed prize pools. The $1.5 million no-limit hold'em tournament held on Sunday, for instance, brought in 4,495 hopefuls to pony up the $500+$30 entry fee and generate a prize pool of $2,247,500. This amounted to almost 50 percent more prize money than the guarantee and a top prize of $365,218.75 to go along with the WCOOP bracelet.
While none of Poker Stars' World Series of Poker main event champions managed to break the top fifth of the field, some notables (other than Bill Chen) did cash in the event. Eric "Rizen" Lynch got ousted in 89th place, netting $3,371.25. Bryan "micon" Micon, of NeverWinPoker.com, bubbled just before the final table when he exited in 10th place for $10,788.
The chip counts at the final table were as follows:
Rambo5 - $3,215,217
gski6986 - $1,894,799
LUNOID - $1,458,261
polpolpol - $1,383,705
lasbas - $967,978
Mr Neverquit - $594,356
Striker 10 - $582,260
Sassenage - $531,520
Feb19 - $513,404
It was a close race for ninth place, as the bottom four stacks were within $81,000 of each other. This closeness caused a tension that became all the more obvious when two of the short stacks butted heads just four minutes into the final table. Striker 10 pushed all in preflop and was called by Mr Neverquit, who showed pocket 10s. Striker 10 flipped up A
Q
and would need to improve to stay alive. Unfortunately for Striker 10, the board further improved neither player and he was eliminated in ninth place ($22,475).
Sassenage was next to go when he pushed all in preflop with J 9
against lasbas' Q 10 offsuit. Lasbas hit a queen on the flop to further his lead and the turn and river sent Sassenage to the virtual rail in eighth, making him $34,836.25.
Polpolpol took out Feb19 soon thereafter when Feb19's A 3 was dominated by polpolpol's A J preflop. Polpolpol needlessly paired his jack on the turn to eliminate Feb19 in seventh for $46,073.75.
Mr Neverquit survived to play another hand when he called all in preflop with A-8 against Rambo5, who also held A-8. They ultimately split the pot. The very next hand, Mr Neverquit wound up quitting in sixth ($59,558.75) when he pushed all in and was again up against Rambo5. To further the similarities, they again shared an ace, but this time Rambo had a better kicker…another ace. Rambo's pocket aces held up to eliminate Mr Neverquit. The next elimination also featured a dominated ace when gski6986 got all of his chips in the middle preflop with A 10 and was called by Rambo5 who showed A
Q for the lead. Neither improved and gski6986 was eliminated in fifth, to earn $76,415.
In another preflop all-in situation, lasbas called all in against polpolpol and showed QJ against polpolpol's A 2. Polpolpol ended the hand with two pair, enough to put lasbas out of the tournament in fourth with $94,395.
Polpolpol got to enjoy his newfound wealth for only three minutes before he, too, was eliminated. The tragedy of the situation was that the three remaining players were in the process of negotiating a chop when polpolpol woke up with A K and Rambo5 called his preflop all in with pocket 10s. Despite polpolpol's chants for "AKAKAKAKKA," he was sent packing just moments before a chop deal could be reached. Polpolpol made a still respectable $119,117.50 for his efforts.
Rambo5 and LUNOID then had the manager put the table on break while they discussed a chop. Despite having over a 4-1 lead on LUNOID, Rambo5 decided a fair chop would be $290,000 for him and $250,000 for LUNOID, with $30,865 and the WCOOP bracelet still on the table for the winner. The offer was accepted and within only a few more minutes the tournament was over. The final hand, after more than 13-and-a-half hours of play, had Rambo5's pocket aces hold up against LUNOID's pocket 6s, and Rambo5 took home the first-place prize of $320,865 and the bracelet. LUNOID took home a sizable $250,000 for his second place finish.
WCOOP Event #1 The $100,000 Guaranteed Razz Tournament
The $100,000 guarantee for the first WCOOP event on Saturday seemed laughable to the 1,297 entrants who pushed the prize pool to over two-and-a-half times that at $259,400. Since it was a limit tournament, participants were geared to stay up to the wee hours of the morning playing razz to pocket the $58,365 first prize. In fact, it took 13 hours to crown the first winner of the 2006 WCOOP.
Joe Hachem and Greg Raymer both outlasted most of the field in the tournament, but Raymer was sent to the rail just before the bubble. Hachem went on to nab a 60th-place finish, for $648.50.
Nabokov eventually took the title when he completed an 8 low on sixth street against his opponent TS Long's 9 low. The standings for the tournament's final table are as follows:
Nabokov - $58,365
TS Long - $35,019
solody - $22,827.20
2badd4u - $16,861
FellKnight - $13,748.20
Respekmestak - $11,154.20
debrisfish - $8,560.20
BadgerDawg - $5,706.80
Party Poker Sunday Million Guaranteed
Despite the larger-than-expected turnout for the Poker Stars Sunday event, Party Poker didn't have any trouble surpassing its guaranteed prize pool, either. In fact, the Sunday Million Guaranteed event had 130 more entrants than last week, for a total of 5,015. The tournament lasted only nine hours, a pittance when compared to the marathon 13-hour Poker Stars event running simultaneously with a comparable number of entrants.
JeanLeBeast was the first to go from the final table in tenth when he could only muster a pair of kings against Premiumstud's pair of aces. Not too long after, RupertG29 was all in on the flop and was called by gnesh. RupertG29 showed pocket sevens and gnesh fliped up A-Q and would need to improve. He did just that when the river spiked an ace to eliminate RupertG29 from the tournament in ninth place. AdvConKbot was next to the rail when his pocket threes butted up against danlmo's pocket kings. Neither further improved and danlmo kicked AdvConKbot out in eighth.
In the midst of discussing possible chop deals, AES81 found himself with decent holdings and typed "here we go" as if he had already given himself to losing the hand. He called all in to Foldy123's preflop raise and showed pocket eights. He was in the lead when he saw Foly123's A-9, but the ace on the river put his lights out in seventh before a deal could be settled upon.
It seems a deal was never to be set as the eliminations kept rolling. Premiumstud was eliminated holding A-Q against gnesh's pocket jacks. The flop was murder for Premiumstud when it came J-10-10 and the turn and river sealed his fate for a sixth-place finish. Prominent online player KillingFields was next on the chopping block when his nines, an overpair to the board, were caught by wdwilly's flopped set and he was eliminated in fifth. However, the extra chips didn't save wdwilly from being the next eliminated when his pocket kings were taken out by the two pair of danlmo. Wdwilly walked away with a fourth place finish.
Foldy123 was eliminated when his J-10 failed to improve against his opponent's A-4. Foldy123 didn't have much to complain about, though, considering he'd made seventh place at the final table of this tournament just last week, netting him $20,000. This third-place finish earned him $52,657.50, putting his total week on Party Poker at $72,657.50.
The final hand had gnesh's flopped pair of jacks against danlmo's flopped pair of eights. Gnesh hit two pair on the river to drive the nail into danlmo's coffin and sent him packing in second.
The final standings for the tournament were:
gnesh - $155,465
danlmo - $84,853.80
Foldy123 - $52,657.50
wdwilly - $42,627.50
KillingFields - $35,105
Premiumstud - $27,582.50
AES81 - $20,060
AdvConKbot - $15,045
RupertG29 - $10,030
JeanLeBeast - $5,015
Full Tilt $500,000 Guaranteed
A total of 1,027 put forth the entry fee to Full Tilt's monthly $500,000 guaranteed tournament, enabling yet another tournament to surpass its guarantee and offer $513,500 to participants. Toto Leonidas was among the final nine and virtual railbirds were excitedly chanting his name throughout the hands. Leonidas was ousted in eighth when his bluff on the flop was called by KingKenneth holding a flopped two pair. Leonidas held an unimproved ace-high until the end and walked away with $11,553.75.
The payouts on the final table were as follows:
or not - $115,537.50
misterBLAIR - $74,457.50
riversidejoe - $55,201.25
KingKenneth - $42,363.75
traheho - $32,093.75
Sir_Pillage - $23,107.50
da_professional - $15,405
Toto Leonidas - $11,553.75
fielderflop - $8,216
The winner's name was the source of amusement for the railbirds, who noticed that, after his win, the tournament lobby read, "Congratulations, or not!"
Ultimate Bet $200,000 Guaranteed
Ultimate Bet's $200,000 guaranteed tournament, despite being the smallest guarantee of the major tournaments, was also the only tournament to have to provide an overlay. Only 764 players signed up for the tournament, far shy of the 1,000 needed to break even. Ultimate Bet was stuck putting in $47,200 to match its guarantee.
Further tarnishing the event was that more than half of the final table was spent attempting to make a deal to chop the prize money, even though deal making isn't officially allowed in Ultimate Bet's tournaments. From the final five on, PODG attempted to convince his fellow players that agreeing to a deal in the chat box was enough to officially secure the deal, and then the winner of the tournament simply had to manually transfer the appropriate amount of winnings to the other players' accounts after the tournament.
PODG continued trying to convince the other players to chop until only he and Potroast00 remained heads-up. Potroast00 finally agreed to a chop, although still skeptical, and PODG took down the very next hand to win the tournament. Whether such deals are recognized or enforced by Ultimate Bet is still unknown.
The final table standings were as follows:
PODG - $46,000
Potroast00 - $28,000
Nicecall420 - $18,500
Dyzalot - $13,000
Wildcard1 - $11,000
Jack Straw - $9,000
muchaka (Corey Cheresnick)- $7,000
SlowDan5L - $5,000
PeruvianSky - $3,500
highplaya - $2,000
Copyright © 2001-2024
CardPlayer.com. All rights reserved.
