Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2008

Pros dig deeper into WCOOP events

Bertrand Grospellier
Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier scooped some more WCOOP cash on Monday.

By Sarah Polson

As Event 20 finished its second day of play on Monday, PokerStars kicked off two more WCOOP events, spreading Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo and Mixed Omaha Hi-Lo Six-Max action for players.

The two poker variations may not be as popular as No-Limit Hold'em, but they still drew heavy fields to top their guaranteed prize pools and attract some of poker's biggest stars.

Event 20

The $1,050 No-Limit Hold'em event that started on Sunday was the third multi-million-dollar guaranteed prize pool event of the 2008 WCOOP. With the promise of at least $3 million in the prize pool, 3,467 players turned up to play, boosting the pool to $3,467,000.

It's a good thing PokerStars planned on the event being two days, because when play ended in the wee morning hours on Monday, there were still 43 players in the mix. Among them were Humberto Brenes and Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier.

Both pros got off to a good start to Day 2 of Event 20 on Monday, but both would end up falling short of the final table. Brenes finished in 16th place, while Grospellier toppled two places above him in 14th.

When play was finally down to the top nine, QuasiFiction was holding the chip lead with more than $17 million in chips. His nearest competitor was Mary 717, who was holding $11 million in chips.

In the end it was NYC P.I.M.P who finished at the top of the heap to win the WCOOP bracelet and $257,953.38. QuasiFiction did, however, turn his chip lead into a second-place finish and a bigger slice of the prize pool than NYC P.I.M.P received because of a deal that was made when play was down to five.

The final-table results, including the five-way deal, was:

Place Name Country Prize
1st NYC P.I.M.P United States $257,953.38
2nd QuasiFiction United States $340,000
3rd CamoJr United States $288,388.83
4th C.K. Brazil $226,965.07
5th Mary 717 United States $288,155.22
6th JSchnett United States $107,477
7th henri72 Estonia $72,807
8th VuaXi'To' United States $45,071
9th Sumar07 Croatia $31,203

Event 21

The $530 Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo event graced the WCOOP schedule on Monday as Event 21. With a $200,000 guaranteed prize pool, the event drew 525 players, with a high percentage of the field being PokerStars pros.

Twenty Team PokerStars members took to the virtual felt including Isabelle Mercier, Daniel Negreanu, Greg Raymer, Barry Greenstein, Hevad Khan and more. Even Grospellier tried to capitalize on his good run in Event 20 by trying some Stud action.

Some of the PokerStars players even made it into the money. Chad Brown went as deep as 16th place and Andre Akkari planted his Brazilian flag in 44th place.

The biggest slice of the $262,500 prize pool went to weaktight. He topped the field for a $42,735.78 win after a two-way deal and earned the WCOOP bracelet for the event.

The final-table results were:

Place Name Country Prize
1st weaktight United States $42,735.78
2nd aldenpogi Philippines $34,439.22
3rd sagwise United States $19,687.50
4th Bad Beat Oz United States $14,437.50
5th CR00k United States $9,187.50
6th The_Drow United States $7,875
7th Andy McLEOD Australia $6,562.50
8th 7CardRyon United States $5,250

Event 22

The second event to get started on Monday was the $530 Mixed Omaha Hi-Lo Six-Max event. It had a $200,000 guaranteed prize pool that was overwhelmingly beat when 620 players showed up to create a $310,000 prize pool.

Once again many Team PokerStars members made the effort to compete as well, including Andre Akkari, Alex Kravchenko, Barry Greenstein, Bill Chen, Chad Brown, Dario Minieri, Bertrand Grospellier, Greg Raymer, Gavin Griffin, Humberto Brenes, John Duthie, Katja Thater, Vanessa Rousso, Lee Nelson, Chris Moneymaker, Isabelle Mercier and more.

Annette Obrestad and Michael Mizrachi were also in the mix to add even more pro power to the event.

Victor Ramdin ended up being the highest-placing pro in 14th place. It was still a tough fight for players to make it into the coveted six final-table spots.

When the final six were found, BUCKIZ6 had a commanding lead over the rest of the field with his $1,169,060 in chips. BUCKIZ6 pretty much powered his way through the final table to take the first-place WCOOP bracelet and the $55,800 top prize.

The final table played out as follows:

Place Name Country Prize
1st BUCKIZ6 United States $55,800
2nd jamie2000 United States $41,850
3rd PieOhMy United States $31,000
4th lovesimi United States $21,700
5th iamaction Canada $15,500
6th Londolozi Australia $9,300

The 2008 WCOOP continues with two more events today, a $500,000 guaranteed No-Limit Hold'em event and a $200,000 guaranteed 2-7 Single Draw event. Stay tuned to PokerListings for the results of those events on Wednesday.

In the meantime, you can check out the action yourself by heading to PokerStars.

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