What happens in the nest of the winner of a major online poker tournament the moments after you’ve won? If you live in the U.K, and you take the last chip as the nightcrawlers come out to play, everyone’s in bed. Do you put the mouse down, lean back, exhale deeply, and scream an internal “Yeah!!!”
nine players are within a shout of deliberating that thought, as the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Final Table prepares to play out.
The lion in this hunt is Talal ‘raidalot’ Shakerchi.
The 55-year-old, hedge fund manager from London, begins with a sizeable chip lead, after ripping 2,236-entrants limb from limb in the $5,200 buy-in extravaganza.
If Shakerchi becomes the only remaining player standing beneath the lemonlight, he would have rewritten history. In the Spring, Gianluca “Tankanza” Speranza became the first person to successfully defend the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) Main Event. Nobody has ever won both SCOOP and WCOOP Main Event titles.
Shakerchi won the $10,300 SCOOP Main Event back in 2016 for $1.46m. That watering hole contained a few more ruffians than this with both Sean Winter and Scott Seiver making the final table.
Looking through the hunters in this one, only ‘XMorphineX’ leaps into the poker conscious as a player who could put the other eight to sleep after an overdose of run good. As soon as WCOOP opened the front door, the Belgian waltzed in and won the $530 Sunday Million special for $202,420.81.
Outside of that beast, the other names remain unrecognisable, and that’s not to say there isn’t a monster lurking beneath the pseudonyms. But Shakerchi is used to battling monsters both in the business world and poker.
Shakerchi has earned more than $7.6m playing live tournaments. He has eight titles to his name including winning a 137-entrant £10,300 High Roller at the European Poker Tour (EPT) London in 2013. He finished fourth in the Super High Roller Bowl in December. In short, he’s one of the best non-professionals prowling around the circuit, and he’s not afraid to take a contract out on anyone and in any format.
Here is the final table layout.
The action concludes Wed 25 Sep.
Final Table
- Talal ‘raidalot’ Shakerchi (UK) 122,626,562
- XMorphineX (Belgium) 82,023,949
- Danilo ‘dans170’ de Lima Demetrio (Brazil) – 81,843,549
- BigBlindBets (UK) – 68,825,817
- NeadBeat (Estonia) – 56,071,362
- Leitnant (Estonia) – 44,901,942
- TheMakrill7 (Sweden) – 42,717,905
- 10Pistike93 (Hungary) – 31,260,220
- Moglimiranda (Germany) – 28,728,694
Payouts
- $1,665,962.04
- $1,187,553.01
- $846,528.35
- $603,434.91
- $403,148.26
- $306,624.91
- $218,572.35
- $155,80559
- $111,063.23