The day is different depending on where you live. For some, it’s 90-degree heat, and the ankle-biting mosquitoes are hitting them like miniature machine guns. For others, they are hard at work, metalwork helmet shielding eyes from sparks. Then you have the unfortunate souls in the middle of a coup as a dogfight breaks out overhead.
Then there are the grinders.
When the World Championships of Online Poker (WCOOP) hits PokerStars, every day is the same.
Wake up.
Play.
Sleep.
Wake up.
Play.
Sleep.
Like these three monsters.
Adrian “Amadi_017” Mateos Wins His Second Title
Adrian Mateos is one of those crazy conjurers with a natural affinity for the great game of ours. In his early 20s, Mateos sacrificed the warm bosom of his family to move to London from Spain to grind out a career as a professional poker.
Methinks he made the right decision.
The Winamax pro donned his cape to take down the 326-entrant Event #50 (H) $2,100 No-Limit Hold’em PKO for $130,468.21 (inc. bounties). Mateos defeated former WCOOP Champ, “CalmRevolver” heads-up. Alex “bigfox86” Foxen and the reigning Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) Main Event winner, Gianluca “Tankanza” Separanza, also made the final table.
The win is Mateos’s third COOP after winning a $2k No-Limit Hold’em title for $234,030.07 during the 2017 SCOOP. Last year, he won his first WCOOP title beating 2,822-entrants to win a $109 No-Limit Hold’em event for $40,888.24.
Mateos is also a three-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner, and a European Poker Tour (EPT) Grand Final champion with more than. $17.7m in live tournament earnings, and is the All-Time Money Earner in Spain.
Michael “mczhang” Zhang Continues to Flourish.
The sun’s going to find it challenging to burn Michael Zhang’s skin. If he’s not in a casino taking everybody’s money, he’s doing the same from the comfort of his home.
Zhang is one of the oddities capable of playing brilliantly in tournaments and cash games both live and online, and he’s currently in the middle of the heater of his life.
In 2018, Zhang earned $1.5m playing online tournaments, including winning a WCOOP and SCOOP title. He also won $1.1m playing live, with the lion share of that coming in his €51,000 High Roller win at partypoker MILLIONS Germany.
The promenade of Zhang’s pure poker run extended this week after he beat 175-entrants to take down Event #48 (H) $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller. Zhang beat the Romanian, Alexandru “steakaddict” Papazian, heads up to win the $253,810 first prize.
Boom.
Boom.
Thomas Boivin Wins One
Another player in fine fettle is Thomas Boivin.
The Belgian operates out of the UK, and on Tuesday he won Event #48: (M) $1,050 No-Limit Hold’em Super Tuesday after defeating a 1,112-entrant field to collect a career-high bounty of $178,331.
Boivin has now won $1.7m playing online.
His previous best score was for $80k, finishing runner-up in the PokerStars Sunday Million back in March. On the live front, Boivin won the $25,000 at the World Poker Tour (WPT) Gardens Poker Festival in July and then finished third in the $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em event at the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open in August.
Soon all three will witness the sun, the moon and the stars.
Until then, the grind continues.