Continuing what has been one of the most successful years that a professional poker player could have, Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko won the Main Event of the 2009 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), earning over $1.7 million for his efforts.

The two-day $5,000 buy in event, which started on Sunday, saw an astonishing 2,144 players willing to either pony up the entry fee or satellite their way in. This field outpaced the $10 million that PokerStars guaranteed and set up a prize pool of $10.72 million.

As is expected for what has become the preeminent online tournament of the year, top professionals and celebrities were bountiful and some performed extremely well. PokerStars Germany sponsored pro Katja Thater (305th place) was able to find her way through the first day to the money and, on the celebrity side, baseball Hall of Fame member Orel Hershiser showed that he has been a diligent student of the game by finishing in 217th place. When the play ended for Day 1, 178 were left in the fight, led by poker professional Jason Dewitt.

Dewitt brought one of the more interesting stories to the festivities of the WCOOP. In what is potentially a first-ever occurrence in the world of poker, Dewitt was also participating in the World Poker Tour (WPT) event that is taking place at the Borgata when Day Two of the WCOOP began. Tournament officials made the landmark decision to allow Dewitt – playing online under his “TheMasterJ33” moniker – to bring a computer close to the tables to allow him to multi-task.

Dewitt appeared to handle the adversities of playing in both events well. Although he wouldn’t be able to maintain his chip lead in the WCOOP Main Event (eventually being eliminated in 87th place), his play in the WPT tournament – where Dewitt admitted he was “trying to build a big stack or bust” prior to getting back into the action of the WCOOP – enabled him to finish in 15th place when action ended.

Timoshenko, under his “Jovial Gent” nickname, came to the final table of the WCOOP Main Event in excellent shape with slightly over 10 million in chips, only two million off of chip leader Dan “djk123” Kelly. The duo held over half of the chips in play and it seemed to be only a matter of time before they hooked up to decide the championship.

After “Udon Wannit” doubled up through “PeachyMer,” Kelly administered the killing blow, eliminating “PeachyMer” in ninth place. Kelly then went on to dismiss both “Mudvaynes” and “Chong94” in seventh and sixth place, respectively.

Timoshenko held back through these early eliminations, but got into the flow after about an hour and a half. Timoshenko eliminated “Xaston” in fifth place and then sealed the tournament, for all effective purposes, when he and Kelly (who had fallen into second place) went to war. After a pre-flop battle where Kelly pushed in the remainder of his 10 million-plus stack with pocket tens, Timoshenko snap-called with pocket kings. A king on the flop all but sealed the hand and, once the turn and river blanked, Kelly was out in fourth, $643,200 richer. As the 2009 WCOOP Player of the Series, he is on his way to the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in January.

With Kelly’s dismissal, Timoshenko held a dominant chip lead over “Udon Wannit” and “reddeevil” and continued to apply the pressure. He dismissed “reddeevil” in third place and, only a few hands later, locked up the title. On a 6-K-8 flop, “Udon Wannit” bet out only to face a reraise from “Jovial Gent.” “Udon Wannit” decided that Timoshenko was pushing him around and made a stand all-in with 6-5 for bottom pair; “Jovial Gent,” however, had the goods when he showed K-6 for a flopped two pair. Once the turn and river ran dry, “Udon Wannit” was out in second and Timoshenko was crowned the 2009 WCOOP Main Event Champion.

The final table played out as such:

1st Place: Jovial Gent – $1,715,200
2nd Place: Udon Wannit – $1,286,400
3rd Place: reddeevil – $933,712
4th Place: djk123 – $643,200
5th Place: Xaston – $482,400
6th Place: Chong94 – $375,200
7th Place: Mudvaynes – $268,000
8th Place: Supa4real – $182,240
9th Place: PeachyMer – $96,480

Timoshenko, when he was only 20 years-old, won the inaugural stop of the Asian Poker Tour (APT) in Macau in August of 2008, pocketing $500,000 for his efforts. He then made the final table of the 2008 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe £1,500 No Limit Hold’em tournament, finishing in third for £55,350.

After taking a break to turn 21, Timoshenko unleashed his skills on unsuspecting WPT regulars, taking the Championship title in April for $2.1 million. Over the past year, he has won almost $3 million in live tournaments and, with his win in the WCOOP Main Event, drove his lifetime poker winnings to almost $5 million.

One Comment

  1. bart says:

    This yevgeniy guy is unreal. That same night he won the WCOOP main event he also won a $1,000 buy in tourney on Full Tilt poker for 75k where he plays as bballer88. He is also a great heads up player with 250k in profit this yr on Full Tilt in the heads up arena.

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