This year's stud eight-or-better tournament at the Poker Stars
World Championship of Online Poker was full of landmarks, some good, some not so good. The not so good is that this event, the 14th in the series, garnered the least number of entrants of any other event at 581. In fact, the two stud events were also the two lowest yielding events (even lower than razz, a stud variant).
The good news, however, is plentiful. It's almost pointless to mention that the event broke its $100,000 guarantee, like the 13 events before it, to build a prize pool of $290,500. The tournament also saw two players with previous final table placements this year. But the most impressive news is that one of those two players, New York's Kyle "kwob20" Bowker,
who had actually taken a bracelet at his previous final table, would go on to take down this tournament at well. His win would mark the first time in
WCOOP history that a player would win two bracelets in one series, and only the second double-bracelet winner (
along with Spawng, also a winner this year).
The final eight players took their seats, with TroppoBravo at the helm, commanding $420,313 in chips. Evelyn, his next-closest competitor, had almost half as many chips, and Fooge was the short stack with $86,980. Fooge felt the heat as the short stack and was hacked away at until his stack was down to $24,355. At this point, Fooge pushed all in on third street, showing the K
and PokerJ2006 called showing the A
. Fooge turned over his hole cards to reveal K
5
for a pair of kings and PokerJ2006 flipped up the A
and the 5
for the lead and a dominating hand. The remaining streets paired PokerJ2006's 5 to give him an unnecesary two pair to eliminate Fooge in eighth ($5,839.05).
A half hour later, PokerJ2006 would hit the rails himself when he raised all in on sixth street showing K
10
5
7
. Evelyn called showing 3
K
A
5
and flipped over A
8
in the hole, giving him a pair of aces and a low draw. PokerJ2006 was trailing when he showed another king in the pocket to give him a pair and no low draw. The river gave Evelyn a needless low and sealed PokerJ2006's fate. PokerJ2006 left with $8,773.10 for his seventh-place finish.
Doidovarrido's stack had been a roller coaster for a while at this point, dipping as low as $34,000 and then climbing back up to $223,000. Doidovarrido's stack again diminished, sitting at $10,000, and he was the next to go, although he wouldn't be alone. Doidovarrido pushed his few remaining chips on third street, showing the 5
. MOJOEX1 raised after the all-in push with the 5
and got two callers, TroppoBravo with the 3
and nutspp showing the 6
. With three active players remaining, MOJOEX1 again bet out on fourth street, having added the J
to his board. TroppoBravo reraised, now showing 3
4
, prompting nutspp to fold. MOJOEX1 called all in and revealed A
2
in the hole. TroppoBravo turned over K
4
for a pair of fours and doidovarrido flipped up 8
6
with his 5
10
board. With TroppoBravo in the lead, and having both opponents covered, the remaining streets were dealt. Both opponents paired a card, MOJOEX1 ending up with a pair of twos and doidovarrido hit a 5 on the river, but TroppoBravo hit running sevens at the end for two pair and the winning hand. TroppoBravo raked in the pot to retain his second-place standing and eliminate doidovarrido in sixth ($11,736.20) and MOJOEX1 in fifth ($14,757.40).
There were now just four players left and not word one had been spoken about a possible chop. Nutspp, who had the shortest chip stack after the previous two eliminations, was now the next to go just 10 minutes later against kwob20. Kwob20 pushed all in on fifth street and nutspp called with fewer chips. Kwob20 showed a complete hand of 6
5
7
3
10
, for a low draw and an inside straight draw. Nutspp flipped over 7
5
4
J
K
for just king high. Kwob20 hit a 6 on sixth street to pair and a 2 on the river to make a low while the final two cards did nothing to improve nutspp. Kwob20 took down the pot to eliminate nutspp in fourth with an $18,127.20 payday.
Evelyn started the final three as the big stack, but it wouldn't last long. Both kwob20 and TroppoBravo took big pots from him and otherwise whittled away at his stack until he had only a third as many chips as TroppoBravo in second. Left with under $100,000, Evelyn pushed in on fifth street and was called by TroppoBravo. Evelyn showed concealed nines and TroppoBravo showed a made low and an inside straight draw. Sixth street brought TroppoBravo an ace to give him a better pair and eliminate Evelyn in third place.
Evelyn has had a phenomenal
WCOOP so far this year, this being his second final table and fourth cash in the series. With the $25,302.55 he took home for here finish here, his total winnings for the series amount to over $39,000.
The final two were now set and kwob20 had collected more than two-and-a-half times as many chips as TroppoBravo. Despite a big hand in which TroppoBravo built up his stack to virtually tie with kwob20, it was only 4 minutes after Evelyn's demise that TroppoBravo also met his. TroppoBravo pushed all in on fifth street, showing 4
3
K
, and kwob20 called with A
J
Q
. TroppoBravo showed 7
2
in the pocket to give him a low draw and kwob20 flipped over A
7
for a pair of aces. TroppoBravo would pair his king but would not complete a low and was sent to the rail in second place ($40,086). No deal having been struck, kwob20 took the lion's share for his second bracelet win this year and $68,267.50. Kwob20's total winnings this series amount to more than $170,000.
The final standings for the tourament were:
kwob20 - $68,267.50
TroppoBravo - $40,086
Evelyn - $25,302.55
nutspp- $18,127.20
MOJOEX1 - $14,757.40
doidovarrido - $11,736.20
PokerJ2006 - $8,773.10
Fooge - $5,839.05
