Tyson “POTTERPOKER” Marks is poker’s newest multi-millionaire after winning the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Main Event early Tuesday morning. The $2,278,097 payday was the largest in the history of online poker, surpassing 2009 WCOOP Main Event winner Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko ($1,715,200).
The $5,200 buy-in event with a $10 million guarantee got underway on Sunday with 2,443 players, 271 of which advanced to Day 2 on Monday. Dozens of poker’s biggest names were still in the hunt, including 2010 WCOOP Player of the Series James “Andy McLEOD” Obst, Sorel “zangbezan24” Mizzi, Jason “Taknapotin” Somerville, William “Altrum Altus” Reynolds, and PokerStars Team Pros Jason Mercier and Chad Brown. But after nearly 12 hours of play, Marks had dismantled a final table filled with talented players to earn his first WCOOP bracelet and a seat in poker history.
Marks entered the final table with a sizable chip lead and took complete control after the eliminations of carryhero (9th), Grayson “gray31” Ramage (8th), “ROMDOM” (7th), and Darren “darrenelias” Elias (6th). With more than half of the chips in play, Marks won a pre-flop confrontation against Jack “jackellwood” Ellwood that all but stamped him as the next WCOOP champion. Marks put in a five-bet shove and was snap-called by Ellwood, whose [Ah][Ac] was in great shape against the [Kc][9d] of Marks. However, Marks spiked a straight on the [Jh][Qs][9h][5s][Th] board, ending Ellwood’s day in fifth place for $509,976.25.
From there, Marks used ruthless aggression to chip away at his remaining opponents. “Dazzy2004” was the next to exit after calling his short stack all-in with [Qd][Kc] and losing to the [Ac][7h] of “Russian_nuts.” The remaining three players were all millionaires, with third place receiving close to $1,020,000, but there was no mention of the word “chop” as Marks was intending to win the tournament outright.
While Marks was involved in nearly every hand, he managed to get out of the way when “Russian_nuts” and “joeysweetp” played for a pot worth 6.5 million chips. With the blinds at 100,000/200,000 and a 25,000 ante, “Russian_nuts” moved all-in for 3,147,898 on the button with [Ad] [Kh] and “joeysweetp” called from the big blind with [Qc][Qd]. The board ran out [6h][9h][2s][7s][2h], sending “Russian_nuts” out in third place.
Despite his virtual double-up going into heads-up play, the tournament ended too soon for “joeysweetp.” Outchipped by a 5-1 margin, “joeysweetp” raised to 440,000 on the button and Marks called. After a flop of [Jh][8c][2h], Marks led out for 480,250 and “joeysweetp” called. The [Kh] fell on the turn and Marks fired a bet of 1,025,005. “joeysweetp” moved all-in for 7,194,378 and Marks called instantly, revealing [Ah][4h] for the nut flush. “joeysweetp” showed [Ts][7d] and was drawing dead; the [Td] on the river changed nothing and clinched the title for Marks.
An elated Marks briefly posted his thoughts on Pocketfives.com shortly after his big victory: “Thanks everyone for the sweat!!! Wow how unbelievable is this… I’m truly speechless for now.”
Marks, who resides in Missoula, Montana, now has more than $3.6 million in online earnings to go along with $159,618 on the live tournament circuit. In 2009, we won a pair of World Poker Tour prelims at the L.A. Poker Classic for a combined $77,500, but his WCOOP championship is by far the largest win of his career.
Here are the final results from the 2010 WCOOP Main Event:
1. Tyson “POTTERPOKER” Marks – $2,278,097
2. joeysweetp – $1,404,725
3. Russian_nuts – $1,019,952
4. dazzy2004 – $696,255
5. Jack “jackellwood” Ellwood – $509,976
6. Darren “darrenelias” Elias – $396,987
7. ROMDOM – $280,945
8. Grayson “gray31” Ramage – $183,225
9. carryhero – $112,988
Notable finishes: Bryn “BrynKenney” Kenney (17th), Joao “joaobarb” Barbosa (20th), Jason “JP OSU” Potter (21st), Alexey “LuckyGump” Makarov (22nd), Mike “Timex” McDonald (30th).
