Event No. 1 – Shorthanded No-Limit Hold’em
The first event of the series started off by blowing PokerStars’ modest $1 million guarantee out of the water. The $200+$15 six-max tournament attracted 7,217 entrants, creating a total prize pool of $1,443,400. With the buy-in and prize pool offering similar numbers to the Sunday Million, event No. 1 played out at a much faster pace, likely due to the short-handed tables that saw the blinds coming around a bit more often than usual.
Nearly 1,100 places were paid, and among the notables to make it deep into the money were Argyris "polpolpol" Argyrou and Hunter "HEMIpowerSWT" Frey. Frey’s deep performance was bittersweet, to say the least. With four tables left, Frey was poised to make a run at tbe final table. Unfortunately for him, a series of stumbles saw him make his exit in 21st place, meaning he would pick up no points in Card Player’s Online Player of the Year race, which only awards the top 20 finishers.
Currently, Frey sits in third place in the standings, less than 600 points away from current leader Brian "SNoOoWMAN" Hawkins.
In the end, shane147 took out pffwhatever to claim the first WCOOP title of the series and, more importantly, a first-place prize of $202,409 (after a four-way deal made at the final table, which left $20,000 for the first-place finisher).
Here are the final results:
- shane147 — $202,409*
- pffwhatever — $94,136*
- SilverSocks — $136,894*
- – DoV – — $110,000*
- CURDOG1KCK — $49,075
- Jordan "scarface_79" Smith — $23,686
* Payout reflect a four-way deal made at the final table with $20,000 left for first place, per the PokerStars chopping rules.
Event No. 2 – Pot-Limit Five-Card Draw
In a blast from the past effort to revive a once-dominant game of old, PokerStars offered another six-handed tournament to its players, this time in the form of a $200+$15 pot-limit five-card draw tournament. PokerStars is currently the only major site to offer the game and does so in pot-limit, no-limit, and limit variations.
The game is still new to most and was sure to attract some dead money, but it also brought out some of the very best, all looking forward to navigating the predictably smaller-than-average field. Still, a surprising 1,024 players turned out to play, generating a total prize pool of $204,800, doubling PokerStars’ guarantee of $100,000.
The tournament paid out 156 spots and wasn’t lacking in star power by any means. Daniel "KidPoker" Negreanu busted in 181st place, just shy of the money bubble, but of those to make it deep into the money were Kevin "BeLoWaBoVe" Saul, Joe "hoodini10" Udine, Danny "THE__D__RY" Ryan, and Josh "bbbbb33" Weizer. Also making a run at the title was last year’s main event champion, Kyle "ka$ino" Schroeder, who busted in 14th place.
Just missing out on the final table was PokerStars pro Hevad "RaiNKhAN" Khan, who busted in seventh place. Khan spent most of the tournament near the chip lead but ultimately fell just short of the win.
When it was all over, ImBillMcNeal beat wedlowjones heads up for the win, banking himself $34,201 in winnings.
Here are the final results:
- ImBillMcNeal — $34,201
- wedlowjones — $25,395
- Isidor — $18,739
- Yamzit — $14,848
- nathalie111 — $11,038
- xoxol73 — $7,680
There will be two more WCOOP events today, a $200+$15 limit hold’em tournament and a $200+$15 deuce-to-seven triple-draw tournament. For complete information on the WCOOP, refer to the previous article in the poker news archive. Players can also take advantage of a PokerStars deposit bonus through Card Player.
