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Sunday, Sept. 16, 2007

WCOOP well underway at PokerStars

By Sarah Polson

Four events and four bracelet winners means the World Championship of Online Poker is well underway at PokerStars. The site has already seen thousands of players log in for a shot at the guaranteed prize pools.

The series kicked off Friday with a $215 No-Limit Hold'em six-max tournament with a $400,000 guaranteed prize pool.

After 4,610 players registered to play, the prize pool was kicked up to $922,000, and 534 players were going to get a piece of it. The winner was looking forward to more than $170,000 for his or her efforts.

More than 15 hours after the first cards were dealt, the tournament was finally down to the final six, and when play made it down to three at the final table, the players made a deal to chop what was left of the prize pool, leaving a little extra for the winner.

That winner ended up being samh133, who scored $155,561 and the WCOOP bracelet when all was said and done.

The final hand saw samh133 re-raise on a flop of 5-J-Q with heads-up opponent WiLDmAn75 calling. He called again when the turn brought a seven, and a two on the river left him drowning when samh133 turned over fives for a set and WiLDmAn75 could only counter with a pair of queens.

The top six players in Event 1 were:

Place	Name	Country	Prize
1st	samh133	United States	$155,561
2nd	WiLDmAn75	United States	$96,352
3rd	LUFCBas	United Kingdom	$84,710
4th	TiltHappens	United States	$26,880
5th	bearbeer123	Sweden	$18,901
6th	toomanydonks	United States	$10.142

Friday also saw Event 2, Pot-Limit Five-Card Draw, roll out with 857 players pitching in the $215 buy-in.

The guaranteed prize pool was $100,000, but that was boosted to $171,400 by the time all the money was counted. That would get divided up between the top 108 players.

While Event 1's final table was mostly American players, the Five-Card Draw event truly exemplified how international poker in all its forms has become.

Five different nations were represented, and it was spielram.at from Austria who won it. He wouldn't get the biggest share of the cash since the top four chopped the pot according to chip count, but he did get the shiny new bracelet and the champion title.

The top six players in Event 2 were:

Place	Name	Country	Prize
1st	spielram.at	Austria	$26,265
2nd	jaygee1984	Germany	$20,654
3rd	pseudos	Spain	$26,912
4th	boro83	Ireland	$17,609
5th	BadgerPro	United States	$5,827
6th	pairDboard821	United States	$3,685

A guaranteed $200,000 prize pool was up for grabs Saturday in Event 3, the Pot-Limit Omaha six-max with a $215 buy-in. With 1,818 players turning up, that prize pool ended up at $363,600, and 270 places getting paid.

Sweden's jalla79 seemed to be running over the playing field when it got down to the final table. However, when it got to heads-up, TomNordli from Norway was able to build his significantly smaller stack back up to more or less match that of jalla79.

At that point, the two decided to chop the pot evenly, leaving $18,000 and the bracelet for the eventual winner.

That winner was jalla79 after a final had where TomNordli raised pre-flop and got a call. The flop came 7-2-4 rainbow. This time it was jalla79 betting and getting a call from TomNordli.

After the turn brought a three, jalla79 check-raised all-in, and TomNordli called with the last of his chips. The Norwegian's two pair, however, wasn't enough to beat the ace-to-five straight jalla79 had picked up.

The top six players were:

Place	Name	Country	Prize
1st	jalla79	Sweden	$67,740
2nd	TomNordli	Norway	$49,740
3rd	ely_cash41	United States	$27,379
4th	madiso	Estonia	$16,432
5th	smittymatt	United States	$9,162
6th	lefty2506	United States	$5,500

Also playing Saturday was the inaugural Deuce-to-Seven Triple Draw with its $100,000 guarantee. It being a new addition to the WCOOP didn't stop the players from checking it out as 649 players ponied up the $215 buy-in, boosting the guarantee to $129,800.

At a final table where a few players later admitted it was their first time even playing this form of poker, it was Norway's Donald who took home the top prize.

There were no chops this time as Donald won the complete top prize as well as his WCOOP bracelet. The top six players were:

Place	Name	Country	Prize
1st	Donald	Norway	$32,450
2nd	pstarfish	United States	$18,821
3rd	omaha kid	United States	$12,006
4th	GymZQuirk	United States	$7,788
5th	polpolpol	Cyprus	$4,900
6th	GodlinkRoy	Australia	$3,200

Today the WCOOP will roll out the big guns by guaranteeing a $2 million prize pool for Event 5, No-Limit Texas Hold'em with a $530 buy-in. Stay tuned to PokerListings.com for the best and brightest results of all the WCOOP events.