Wrapping up in the early morning hours on Monday was the 21st event of the ongoing PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker, or WCOOP. The tournament ended by the time many people in the “real world” were commuting to work as “Antoshka” banked $280,000 after a three-way chop.
The $215 No Limit Hold’em event attracted 10,492 players, meaning that a prize pool of over $2 million was up for grabs. It’s reminiscent of Event #3, also a $215 No Limit Hold’em tournament, in which 12,066 players turned out to generate a purse of well over $2.4 million. “Antoshka” hails from New York and final tabled the PokerStars Sunday Second Chance in April for $22,000. In February, “Antoshka” made waves by turning in a deep run in the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) Main Event, ultimately bowing out in 14th place for $15,000.
Second place and $206,000 in Event #21 went to “UndrAAge.” The runner-up calls Wisconsin home and finished second in the Full Tilt Poker $30 rebuy in July for $5,300. Four days prior, he took fourth in the $40,000 Rush Guarantee, also on Full Tilt, for $4,700. “UndrAAge’s” big breakthrough came in 2007, when he won a $500 buy-in tournament during the FTOPS for $79,000, edging out a field of 743 players.
Also partaking in the chop of the massive WCOOP tournament was “vic_xcite,” who walked away with $190,000. The top 1,350 players finished in the money and making waves at the final table were “ganatodoAA” (fourth place for $104,920), “buriedatsea” (fifth place for $83,930), “ohnistun” (sixth place for $62,952), “puicachamp” (seventh place for $41,968), “Sircall” (eighth place for $23,082), and “XBraumeister” (ninth place for $14,688).
In Event #19 of the 2010 WCOOP, which played out on Saturday, “DSchec” bested “dogsballs” heads-up in the finale of a $109 No Limit Hold’em tournament featuring 10-minute levels. The Turbo attracted over 11,000 entrants, but an overlay of $140,000 was still up for grabs after the tournament fell short of its $1.25 million guarantee. One month ago, “DSchec” won the Full Tilt Poker Sunday Mulligan for $53,000. “dogsballs,” meanwhile, hails from Hawaii and finished fifth in the Sunday Brawl in April for nearly $30,000.
Also putting in an appearance at the final table of Event #19 were “hoodskier” (third place for $90,000), “bagnus” (fourth place for $62,500), “Cairns1987” (fifth place for $50,000), “Buzibär” (sixth place for $37,500), “oncecajun” (seventh place for $25,000), “damaven” (eighth place for $12,500), and “pierreguay” (ninth place for $8,500).
The $530 No Limit Hold’em Two-Day Event (#22) played down to just over 200 runners on Sunday. The action will resume later this afternoon with a $469,000 first place prize on the line. Second place will pull down $349,000, while third place will walk away with $247,000. All told, the top 765 players finished in the money and the top five will earn at least $100,000.
“skylarsash” leads the way with a stack of 1.24 million heading into Day 2 and is the only player to have eclipsed the one-million chip plateau. Others still in the hunt include UB.com pro Matt “mattg1983” Graham (395,000), Vivek “psyduck101” Rajkumar (366,000), Johan “busto_soon” Van Til (275,000), and PokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu (71,000). The latter Tweeted before turning in on Sunday night, “I made it thru to Day 2 #wcoop 22. 209 players left I’m 203rd work to do. Have 14 bbs to play with. Still have a shot. Goodnight all.” The action picks back up today at 5:00pm ET.
Along with the finale of the Two-Day Event, three tournaments are on tap for Monday, offering up a combined $1.25 million in guaranteed prize money:
WCOOP Event #23: $215 No Limit Hold’em Four-Max
$700,000 Guarantee
Monday at 2:00pm ET
WCOOP Event #24: $320 Seven Card Stud
$150,000 Guarantee
Monday at 5:00pm ET
WCOOP Event #25: $215 Pot Limit Omaha Turbo Cubed
$400,000 Guarantee
Monday at 8:00pm ET
Visit PokerStars for full details and stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest 2010 WCOOP results.
