Monday, Sept. 8, 2008

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2008 WCOOP train rolls on

Andre Akkari is the last Team PokerStars man standing in Event 6, which continues for Day 2 today.

By Sarah Polson

Where were you this weekend? If you're an online poker fan it's likely you were checking out the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker as it continued through four more events on Saturday and Sunday.

On Saturday, the poker site hosted a $200+$15 Limit Hold'em event and a $200+$15 2-7 Triple Draw event. Then on Sunday, PokerStars rolled out the big guns again with a High Roller event and a two-day No-Limit Hold'em event, both with multi-million-dollar guaranteed prize pools.

Event 3

The first event of the weekend was the Limit Hold'em event on Saturday with a $300,000 guaranteed prize pool. When all the players had settled in, there were 2,258 looking for a shot at a $451,600 prize pool.

The number of participants was up from 2,059 in 2007, meaning that returning champ Cardinal7 was hoping to repeat and walk away with even more than the nearly $68,000 he earned last year for the win.

Plenty of pros were looking for a piece of the money as well. Gavin Griffin, Bill Chen, Alex Kravchenko, Andre Akkari, Chad Brown, Dario Minieri, Katja Thater, Humberto Brenes, Tom McEvoy, Vanessa Rousso and plenty of others were all in attendance.

Chen and Griffin both made it into the money, cashing in 291st and 280th place respectively. Plus Jon "PearlJammer" Turner turned in a 306th-place cash.

The big winner for the event, though, was cwp394, from the United States. For the win, cwp394 pocketed $73,385 plus a WCOOP bracelet.

The final-table results were:

Place	Name	Country	Prize
1st	cwp394	United States	$73,385
2nd	#1PEN	United States	$54,192
3rd	Teacher G	United States	$38,927.92
4th	Bdbeatslayer	United States	$26,192.80
5th	edwinv070	Netherlands	$21,676.80
6th	skizer	Canada	$17,160.80
7th	Perumov	Russian Federation	$12,644.80
8th	BadcardsAA	United States	$8,128.80
9th	lucky_aces08	United States	$5,012.76

Event 4

2-7 Triple Draw may not be one of poker's most well-known variants, but that didn't stop 734 players from putting up their $200+$15 on Saturday for a shot at a $100,000 guaranteed prize pool.

When all the money was counted, that prize pool was actually boosted to $146,800, and there were players from all levels of play including low-stakes cash game players and high-rolling bracelet winners looking for a piece of it.

Many of the pros who played in Event 3 stuck around to play the 2-7 Triple Draw event as well. The event paid out to 108 places, and among those who earned a little payday were Chad Brown, Steve Paul-Ambrose, Isabelle Mercier, Vanessa Rousso, Alex Kravchenko and John Duthie.

The final six came down to a table that included two Norwegian players, two Americans, a German and a Dutch player, with one of the Norwegians taking the top spot. playitsafe took down a $24,809.20 first-place prize plus the coveted WCOOP bracelet.

The final table played out as follows:

Place	Name	Country	Prize
1st	playitsafe	Norway	$24,809.20
2nd	mardene	United States	$18,555.52
3rd	thevoice72	Germany	$13,579
4th	jordan999	United States	$11,010
5th	Mills23	Netherlands	$8,074
6th	gudfaren	Norway	$5,505

Event 5

Only the best of the best had the bankroll and the guts to take on the $10,000+$300 High Roller No-Limit Hold'em event on Sunday. The 321 player-field was littered with some of the biggest names of the game both on and offline.

The final table is a good example of the cross section of players represented in this event. Chris Moneymaker brought some World Series of Poker Champion flavor to the table and was joined by PCA final-table player Jonathan Little, European Poker Tour champion Glen Chorney, and prominent online pros gbmantis, dorinvandy, DuckU and purplEUROS.

When all the cards had settled, dorinvandy had the win, to pocket $617,925 of the $3,210,000 prize pool.

The final table played out as follows:

Place	Name	Country	Prize
1st	dorinvandy	United States	$617,925
2nd	DuckU	United States	$459,030
3rd	#1PEN	United States	$337,050
4th	Choron	Canada	$256,800
5th	gbmantis	United States	$179,760
6th	Money800	United States	$139,635
7th	Jcardshark	United States	$107,535
8th	purplEUROS	United States	$75,435
9th	O.Hershiser	United States	$54,570

Event 6

PokerStars had even more guaranteed money up for grabs on Sunday with the $3 million guaranteed No-Limit Hold'em event. This is a two-day event that saw 7,351 players pony up the $500+$30 for a shot at the prize.

In the end there was $3,675,500 in the prize pool and only 72 players who made it to see Day 2. Andre Akkari is the sole survivor from Team PokerStars to make it through, and when play began today, pokrates was the chip leader.

Stay tuned to PokerListings as we continue to bring you the results from the 2008 WCOOP on Tuesday. If you want to get in the action yourself, head to PokerStars.

Related Article: 2008 WCOOP off to a roaring start

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