Two old dears ask to share my table. I nod. I can’t hear them. I’m too busy lauding over the majesty of Leftfield’s live album of 2012, remembering that it was at a Leftfield concert that I chose to take drugs for the first time since 2009.
Check, check, one.
Interesting times.
The man at the Deli Bar sends a frown my way as he sees me take my DIY salad from my Little Red Riding Hood style rucksack. Either of these old dears would have made the perfect Grandma.
All I need now is a Big Bad Wolf.
I can’t find one.
All I see are sharks.
PokerStars’ World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) is over, and according to the PokerStars blog, it’s the most successful ever.
Here are the stats courtesy of Howard Swains.
– Events completed: 185
– Total entries: 1,101,677
– Total prize pools: $99,539,195
– Players in the money: 150,239
– First prizes awarded: $15,112,664.08
Let’s take a look at how our High Rollers did.
The High Rolling Double Club
Two High Rollers who compete on separate sides of the great blue divide are Dzmitry ‘Colisea’ Urbanovich and Shaun ‘shaundeeb’ Deeb, and they each won two WCOOP titles during the 2018 series.
Deeb, who won the 2015 WCOOP Player of the Series, came into this one a single victory behind Dan ‘djk123′ Kelly in the All-Time Multiple WCOOP Winner Rostrum. By the end of things, he was one in front, but without a crown (more on that later).
The American’s first victory came on Day 7 when he beat 192 entrants in the $1,050 PLO8 8-Max for $38,088.84. It was his son’s birthday, two years after winning a WCOOP title on the day his wife gave birth. Deeb’s second win came on the penultimate day when he battered 173-entrants into submission in the $2,100 PLO8 6-Max for $69,011.45.
However, the feeling of wellbeing coming from those two wins was nothing compared to the knowledge that Grosvenor Casino had dropped their association with his former Twitter sparring partner Will Kassouf over allegations of theft.
.@GrosvenorPoker hear you have a pro spot opened I’m available
— wcoop wafflecrusher (@shaundeeb) September 16, 2018
From the States to Europe, and Urbanovich won his first title of the series on Day 13 when he took down the 158-entrant $1,050 HORSE for $34,365, then two days later won the 71-entrant, $10,300 8-Game for $225,000. Urbanovich sits joint fourth in the WCOOP All-Time Winning List with four titles (Germany’s Nilsef also has four).
The Best of The Rest
The 2018 WCOOP contained three $25k events. A No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) version, a Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) version, and at the last minute, PokerStars added a $25k NLHE Turbo.
The 2014 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event third-place finisher, and PLO High Roller, Jorryt “TheCleaner11” van Hoof, took down the 54-entrant $25,000 PLO 6-Max High Roller for $465,559.91. It was the most significant online score of the Dutchman’s career.
Linus “LLinusLLove” Loeliger is an online sensation who has won more than $5m profit playing online cash games on PokerStars and Full Tilt but proved he could find his way around an online multi-table tournament (MTT) after beating 104 entrants to win the $25,000 NLHE for $587,747.32. Incredibly, Loeliger, finished third for $764,501.99 in the WCOOP Main Event, making him the #1 player when it came to money won.
On the final day, a player known only as ‘limitless’ took down a heavily competitive $25k NLHE Turbo, beating the 2018 Poker Masters $100k Champion, David “dpeters17” Peters, heads-up to bank the $725,847.48 first prize, the most significant sum won outside of the Main Event.
Check this out for a who’s who of high stakes poker:
$25k NLHE Turbo ITM Results
1: “limitless” (Macau) – $725,847.48
2: David “dpeters17” Peters (Canada) – $561,903.81
3: Luke “Bit2Easy” Reeves (UK) – $434,989.46
4: Michael “mczhang” Zhang (UK) – $336,740.74
5: Bartlomeij “bartek901” Machon (UK) – $260,682.86
6: Andras “probirs” Nemeth (Hungary) – $201,803.76
7: Sergio “zcedrik” Aido (UK) – $156,223.54
8: Linus “LLinusLLove” Loeliger (Austria) – $120,938.19
9: Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo (Canada) – $99,556.53
10: “dannagger” (Norway) – $81,955.19
11: Stephen “stevie444” Chidwick (UK) – $81,955.19
12: Ivan “Negriin” Luca (Argentina) – $81,955.19
13: “fr0zZy” (Russia) – $67,465.72
14: Juan “Malaka$tyle” Pardo (UK) – $67,465.72
15: Mustapha “lasagnaaammm” Kanit (Austria) – $67,465.72
16: Sami “Lrslzk” Kelopuro (Finland) – $55,537.95
17: Bryn “BrynKenney” Kenney (Mexico) -$55,537.95
Descending down the $25k steps to the lower buy-ins and the high stakes online cash game player Rachid Ben “SkaiWalkurrr” Cherif beat 185 entrants to win the $10,300 NLHE 8-Max for $367,001.22, Connor “blanconegro” Drinan won the $10,300 buy-in NLHE PKO defeating 162 entrants to win the $385,762 first prize, and Ole ‘wizowizo’ Schemion beat 294 entrants in the $2,100 NLHE 6-max earning $112,235.
Winamax Ambassador, Adrian “Amadi_017” Mateos, battered 2,822 opponents into submission to win the $109 NLHE Turbo for $40,888.24, Mike “SirWatts” Watson won the 396-entrant $215 2-7 Triple Draw for $15,325.20, and Noah “Exclusive” Boeken won the 181-entrant $1,050 buy-in 8-Game for $41,630.
Last but not least, Steve “Mr. Tim Caum” O’Dwyer won his first-ever WCOOP title after taking down the 667-entrant $2,100 NLHE 8-Max for $227,100.97, and Sam “Str8$$$Homey” Greenwood beat 792 entrants to win the $2,100 No-Limit Hold’em 8-Max High Roller for $268,775.65.
Everyone at this Poker Masters 100k FT has fresh new haircuts, while I’m grinding WCOOP unsure if the food in my beard is from breakfast or lunch.
— Sam Greenwood (@SamGreenwoodRIO) September 16, 2018
The WCOOP Main Event
While the $5,200 buy-in WCOOP Main Event isn’t a High Roller, the $10m Guarantee makes it worthy of mention.
After three days and 25 hours of action, the 2,044-entrant field condensed to a solitary $530 satellite winner called wann2play. The player, hailing from the land of clogs and strange tasting cookies, banked the $1,352,967.97 first prize after cutting a deal with eze8888 from Argentina when heads-up. Eze8888 received $1,257,203.66.
The $25k NLHE winner, Linus “LLinusLLove” Loeliger, finished third, Michael “mczhang” Zhang finished fifth, and Noah “Exclusive” Boeken finished sixth.
Connor Drinan made the ‘unofficial’ final table and somehow ended the day in negative equity.
Well on a positive note at least I can say I did something no ones probably ever done before, final tabled a “wcoop main event” and had my biggest losing coop day of my life
— Connor Drinan (@ConnorDrinan) September 19, 2018
WCOOP Main Event Final Table Results
1: wann2play (Netherlands) – $1,352,967.97*
2: eze88888 (Argentina) – $1,257,203.66*
3: Linus “LLinusLLove” Loeliger (Austria) – $764,501.99
4: PlayaPlz (Costa Rica) – $540.584.85
5: Michael “mczhang” Zhang (UK) – $382,252.52
6: Noah “Exclusive” Boeken (Netherlands) – $270,293.45
*Indicates a heads-up deal
Denis “aDrENalin710” Strebkov.
Denis “aDrENalin710” Strebkov might not be a high roller reg, but we can’t have a WCOOP round-up without mentioning that in 16-years of WCOOP history only Dan ‘djk123’ Kelly had ever won five titles, and Strebkov won that number in a single week.
He stands alone at the top of the All-Time WCOOP Title Leaderboard with nine.
Here are his results.
– Beats 2,133 entrants in the $109 PLO 6-Max for $31,824.
– Beats 91 entrants in the $2,100 Razz for $49,595.
– Beats 2,094 entrants in the $11 NL 5-Card Draw for $3,233.76
– Beats 136 entrants to take down the $2,100 8-Game event for $70,720
– Beats 134 entrants to win the $1,050 Stud Hi-Lo for $29,145
A high stakes reg in the making, perhaps?