Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2008

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ElkY scores again, but amateurs still rule WCOOP

More money for Grospellier.

By Jason Kirk

Two more events went into the WCOOP history books yesterday at PokerStars, crowning champions in one well-known game and one a little more obscure.

Event 23 featured some more No-Limit Hold'em, with the twist of one rebuy and one add-on this time around. Then came some 2-7 Single Draw action that drew a field of more than 300 players willing to pay $530 to play.

Event 23

No-Limit Hold'em, the unofficial game of the poker boom, was on the schedule yesterday with this event. One rebuy and one add-on were available to the 1,159 players who turned up for the event; 807 of them took the rebuy and another 954 took the add-on, creating a prize pool of $1,460,000.

That was nearly triple the guarantee of $500,000, testament to the popularity WCOOP enjoys with online poker players.

A full contingent of Team PokerStars pros turned up to take a shot at this bracelet, including Daniel Negreanu, Greg Raymer, Chris Moneymaker, Katja Thater, Chad Brown and Barry Greenstein.

Only Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier got close, though, finishing in 15th place. That comes on the heels of his second-place finish in Event 19 and 14th-place finish in Event 20.

The final table was set just before 6 a.m. ET, with ddrufnek holding the chip lead. That was a far cry from bubble time, when according to ddrufnek's chat at the final table he had less than $9,000 in chips and admittedly stalled just to make the money.

When play was four-handed the players made a deal to give second through fourth places equal money, leaving $210,000 and the bracelet. Once ddrufnek found himself heads-up with luckyuli, though, the chip lead changed hands enough that the two made a second deal; luckyuli then claimed the additional $15,000 for second place when ddrufnek closed the tournament out with A-7 against luckyuli's K-J.

Place	Name	Prize
1st	ddrufnek	$194,902
2nd	luckyuli	$184.902
3rd	imeasy2read	$169,804
4th	ILAN17	$169,804
5th	Mpetes	$76,650
6th	dinkel	$62,050
7th	MaxHam	$47,450
8th	1bigbluffer1	$32,850
9th	MT456	$20,440

Event 24

For the first time in WCOOP history, No-Limit 2-7 Single Draw was on the schedule yesterday. Despite 2-7's status as an old-school game that not many people play these days, a field of 308 players put up the $530 for their shot at this prestige bracelet.

The final table was set just a few minutes after 3 a.m. ET and featured a handful of well-known players. Two players were eliminated within the first hour of final-table play, one at the hands of luvgamble. He had come in to the final table toward the back of the pack but suddenly found himself with the chip lead over his four remaining opponents.

luvgamble would press the issue with that chip lead and find himself heads-up with SirWatts by 4:41 a.m., holding a 6-1 chip lead.

But the tête-a-tête wouldn't be over quickly. SirWatts fought back time and time again, cutting luvgamble's lead nearly in half and prompting him at one point to type in the chat box "ur a tough sob."

In the end SirWatts gambled his tournament life on a big bluff at the wrong time. His 8-8-T-6-3 was no good against luvgamble's 7-6-5-3-2, and luvgamble claimed the top prize and the bracelet.

Place	Name	Prize
1st	luvgamble	$42,000
2nd	SirWatts	$30,000
3rd	newhizzle	$21,000
4th	Blute	$13,000
5th	Aftret	$9,000
6th	thevoice72	$7,000
7th	borisbäck	$5,000

The WCOOP action continues this afternoon with two more bracelet events. You can take your shot at online poker glory by heading over to PokerStars and either buying in directly or trying your hand at a satellite.

Either way, if you end up at the top you'll see your screen name in all its glory here in a PokerListings recap tomorrow.

Related Articles:

• Pros dig deeper into WCOOP events
• Pros light up weekend WCOOP, manage to hold own
• WCOOP spreads Heads-Up, PLO

 

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