Online Poker: WCOOP Main Event Day 1 Recap60 Players Remain For $1,775,312 First-Place Prize |
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The event to take place last night in the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) was the first day of the no-limit hold’em main event. Read the event recap below to find out who is still in contention, and check out the entire WCOOP schedule and results list on CardPlayer.com.
WCOOP Main Event: $5,000 + $200 No-Limit Hold'em
The largest tournament in the history of online poker kicked off yesterday at 1:30 EST, as 2,185 players ponied up the $5,000 + $200 buy-in to create a record-breaking prize pool of $10,925,000. PokerStars was right on the mark when they guaranteed $10 million, but keeping registration open to the end of the second level allowed nearly another $1 million in cash to be added. To put that number in perspective, the recent World Poker Tour Borgata Poken Open held in Atlantic City was only able to boast a $5,000,000 prize pool and that was with an overlay added by the casino.
All this meant a first-place prize never before offered in online tournament history. Last year, Kyle "ka$ino" Schroeder was awarded the championship and $1,378,330 after TheV0id was found to have broken PokerStars terms and agreements. This year, pending any deals, the champion will sign off his computer $1,775,312 richer. In fact, the runner-up will be an instant millionaire as well, taking home $1,311,000.
Each player started with 25,000 in chips and the blinds increased very gradually in 30-minute increments. The slow structure didn't stop some well-known players from hitting the virtual rail early in the competition. Ben "milkybarkid" Grundy, Adam "simmsux" Geyer, Noah "Exlusive" Boeken, Matt "ch0ppy" Kay and David "Chino23" Rheem were all amongst the first 35 players to be eliminated.
After playing for about nine hours, Tim "Tmay420" West was eliminated on the bubble making 324 others very happy and guaranteeing them a payout of at least $8,740. Notables to make the money included Josh "pbdrunks" VanDuyn (316th), Andy "BKiCe" Seth (311th), Mike "goleafsgoeh" Leah (295th), Nick "TheTakeover" Schulman (290th), Scott "dorinvandy" Dorin (286th), Rami "arbianight" Boukai (264th), Phil "USCphildo" Collins (254th), Humberto Brenes (234th), Matt "hazards21" Gianetti (225th), Thayer "THAY3R" Rasmussen (224th), Brian "dubbeemin" Mintz (216th), Chris "GoMukYaSelf" Sparks (170th), Eric "sheets" Haber (162nd), Vanessa "LadyMaverick" Rousso (160th), Isaac "westmenloAA" Baron (158th), Nath "Cap'nJackpot" Pizzolatto (156th), Christian "C.K." Kruel (150th), Shannon "basebal1b" Shorr (144th), Ryan "toetagu" Fair (128th), Shane "Anbessa9" Pacheco (113th), Jake "TheFitGuy" Walsh (104th), Travis "TravestyFund" Rice (100th), J.C. "PrtyPsux" Alvarado (98th), Orel Hershiser (89th), and Jamie "TheCronic420" Rosen (81st).
A total of 60 players remain after play was halted for the night at the conclusion of the 12th level. Among the notables still in contention is Dustin "neverwin" Woolf, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Zachary "ckingusc" King, Ryan "Daut44" Daut, Christian "charder30" Harder, Danny "cpfactor" Smith, and Alex "AJKHoosier1" Kamberis.
The top ten chip counts appear below:
Play will resume at 4:30 p.m. EST and continue until a champion is crowned. Check out the entire WCOOP schedule and results on CardPlayer.com’s WCOOP landing page.
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