One suspects Joao “Naza114” Vieira is unsure whether he is awake or asleep? Online poker can be a slippery stone of a beast, but this week, the London-based Portuguese star has never felt such firm footing.
There are no trembling legs in Vieira’s household.
The Winamax ambassador has been stowing away World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) titles like a squirrel with his nuts. Yesterday, I waxed lyrical on Vieira’s second WCOOP title of the series, after he banked the win and $86,876.70, in a No-Limit Hold’em event. Last night, he added the perfect cherry.
Vieira outlasted 193 horses, heels and heroes in Event #71 (H) $10,300 Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) 6-Max Main Event to collect his first trophy and a whopping $384,947.88 first prize. Ben “Ben86” Tollerene, finished second, Timofey ‘Trueteller’ Kuznetsov finished tenth, and Shaun Deeb finished in 13th place.
It’s been a stunning fortnight for Portuguese players. Both Vieira and Filipe “zagazaur” Oliveira have won three WCOOP titles. Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira, is also staring at the ceiling with a log like smile etched into his mush.
Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira Close to Second Series Win
Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira is the third Portuguese star operating in a slightly higher orbit than the rest of the WCOOP bunch. Ferreira won his seventh COOP title earlier in the series when he beat a 97-entrant field in a $1,050 Limit Hold’em event for $23,896.
Last night, he very nearly made it title #2.
After wading through a murder of 80-strong crows, Ferreira made it to the heads-up phase of Event #66 (H) $10,300 8-Game High Roller. Standing in his way was Belgium’s ‘merla888’. The pair agreed upon a deal that saw them both collect $170,000, and the Belgian went on to lock up the additional $20,000 and change. Talal ‘raidalot’ Shakerchi finished third for $112,000.
The win was ‘merla888’s’ second of the series. He also won two Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) titles in the Spring.
WCOOP in Numbers
The $5,200 buy-in Main Event attracted 2,236-entrants (inc. 599 re-entries), and there are currently 86-players fighting in the pit for the $1.6m first prize (the runner-up also receives a million bucks). The $55 buy-in (L) Main Event, pulled in a monstrous 24,477-entrants (inc. 12,588 re-entries), and 16 players vie for the $180,656.41 first place.
Here are the final numbers courtesy of the PokerStars Blog.
Final Numbers
Events: 291
Entries: 1,172,858
Prize pools: $104,735,857
First prizes: $13,969,057.78*
In-the-money finishers: 173,364*
*Does not include Main Events, where players may yet do deals.
The promised to drop a bomb.
It certainly detonated.