If seven-card stud is a hard game to play, seven-card stud eight-or-better is even more so. With an entire extra subset of cards to pay special attention to (the low upcards on third street that need to be taken into account before they're mucked), seven-card stud eight-or-better is arguably one of the most focus-intensive poker variants out there.
Nevertheless, 598 entrants bought in for $500 apiece (with $30 entry fee) to attempt to wrangle all of the available information to help them take down the more than $70,000 top prize in this year's seven-card stud eight-or-better event of the PokerStars
World Championship of Online Poker (
WCOOP). That attendance meant that the $200,000-guaranteed tournament, the 18th event in the
WCOOP series, had a prize pool of $299,000.
OnlyPlayRagz, the appropriately named winner of the
razz event in this year's
WCOOP, finished just short of the final table when he came in 11th place, earning $2,990. Also close to the final table was
iacog4 (aka kice), currently in 35th place in the
Card Player Online Player of the Year race, with almost $210,000 in
OPOY-qualified winnings. He finished a little bit further back than OnlyPlayRagz in 13th place, also earning $2,990. Another notable player,
rkruok (currently in the top 50 in the OPOY with more than $190,000 in OPOY-qualified winnings), finished as the final-table bubble boy when he busted in ninth place, which was also worth $2,990.
Once action was down to the final table and the last-remaining eight players, motor1963 was the chip leader with $489,000, which was $189,000 more than his next-closest competitor, crazyjanie. Motor1963 went on a wild run of victories, but he ultimately lost steam and the chip lead was swapped between a few players over the course of the final-table action. Motor1963 eventually got all in on fourth street and mucked when he couldn't beat a pair if treys. He finished in fifth place, for $14,950.
When it got down to threehanded play, the players decided to pause the tournament to discuss a chop. A deal was agreed upon wherein BigLL and mysticaces were both guaranteed around $39,000 and crazyjanie secured more than $49,000. Per the PokerStars chopping rules, $9,000 and the
WCOOP bracelet were left on the table for the eventual winner.
In an unexpected turn, crazyjanie was knocked out of the running for the extra money and the bracelet when BigLL went on a crazy tear and started picking up pots left and right. BigLL eventually busted crazyjanie when crazyjanie missed a flush draw and was left with just jack high.
Despite BigLL holding a big chip lead as heads-up play began, the scene turned into what the final table had been before, with the chip lead swapping hands numerous times. However, BigLL eventually retook the chip lead for the final stretch. In the last hand, BigLL made trip twos and a low to defeat mysticaces, who ended up with just king high. BigLL snagged the gold
WCOOP bracelet and the extra $9,000, bringing his total winnings to $48,367. Crazyjanie was the leading money-winner at the table.
The final results, including the three-way deal, were:
- BigLL - $48,367
- mysticaces - $38,712
- crazyjanie - $49,473
- pinfishtom - $18,567.90
- motor1963 - $14,950
- theowl48 - $11,661
- TheActionKid - $8,730.80
- Sensor - $5,681
There are two
WCOOP events being held today: a pot-limit Omaha event and a no-limit hold'em triple shootout event, both of which have buy-ins of $500 (with $30 entry fees) and guarantees of $300,000. Those tournaments start at 3 p.m. ET and 4:30 p.m. ET, respectively. Tomorrow also features two
WCOOP events: a H.O.R.S.E. event with a $5,000 buy-in (with $200 entry fee) and a $500,000 guarantee and a limit hold'em event with a $1,000 buy-in (with $50 entry fee) and a $200,000 guarantee. Those tournaments also start at 3 p.m. ET and 4:30 p.m. ET, respectively. To sign up for PokerStars to play in today's or tomorrow's events - or the main event on Sunday - and to collect an exclusive deposit bonus through
Card Player, please
click here. For a list of events remaining in the
WCOOP,
click here.
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