The 2019 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) got under way in earnest on Friday, with six two-day tournaments wrapping up and three turbo shootouts also playing from start to finish. If early indications are anything to go by, this is going to be one great big global extravaganza…
TODAY’S HEADLINES
• Nine tournaments wrap on WCOOP’s second day
• Nine winners from nine different countries
• Former Anniversary Sunday Million champ wins big
• First $5.50 buy-in event draws 23,192 entries
BEHIND THE HEADLINES
Underlining WCOOP’s global appeal, the first nine completed tournaments of this year’s series were won by representatives of nine different countries. The early version of the countries leader board therefore represents a nine-way tie between Malta, Germany, Canada, Hungary, Lithuania, Sweden, Norway, Lebanon and Brazil.
The first high six-figure prize of this year’s WCOOP went to a very familiar winner, with Canada’s “a.urli” picking up more than a quarter of a million dollars for victory in WCOOP-2-H, the $10,300 no limit hold’em high roller. “a.urli” previously won the 10th Anniversary Sunday Million special, which was worth close to a million bucks. This time, his total prize came from $127K earned in bounties combined with the $123K he got from the main prize pool. Scott “Aggro Santos” Margereson was second, with Joris “BillLewinsky” Ruijs third.
In the big Omaha event, Lebanon’s “kimokh” held off two Malta-based players to claim the $114K title, with “Biunnu92” and “R4liti” having to make do with second and third respectively. Yuri “theNERDguy” Martins made his first final table, finishing in fourth, with Sami “Lrslzk” Kelopuro in fifth. “kimokh” is also in the money already in the $1,050 HORSE.
Diego “Mr.Bittar” Bittar
Brazil’s Diego Valadares “Mr.Bittar” Bittar built on his $4.3 million PokerStars winnings ledger to the tune of $20,737 when he won the medium buy-in shootout event. Bittar is a previous SCOOP winner, having won a big NLHE event in 2017. This marks his first WCOOP triumph.
Regular ‘COOP final table player “eijseijs” finally made one stick when the Swede picked up the title in the $1,050 six-max shootout. That victory, beating a field of 216 in WCOOP-06-H, was worth $47,520, and required three consecutive single-table victories inside a day. In the final match up, “eijseijs” beat Stefan “mindgamer” Jedlicka heads up.
TODAY’S RESULTS
| Name | Entries | Winner | Country | Prize |
| WCOOP-02-L: $109 NLHE PKO | 7,703 | Daghemuneguu | Malta | $83,581.35† |
| WCOOP-02-M: $1,050 NLHE PKO | 1,246 | mickesch777 | Germany | $166,039.91† |
| WCOOP-02-H: $10,300 NLHE PKO | 107 | a.urli | Canada | $250,001.48† |
| WCOOP-03-L: $22 PLO 6-Max | 5,829 | TsiTool | Hungary | $16,573.44 |
| WCOOP-03-M: $215 PLO 6-Max | 1,367 | bigbadwolfLT | Lithuania | $42,341.38 |
| WCOOP-03-H: $2,100 PLO 6-Max | 298 | kimokh | Lebanon | $113,762.51 |
| WCOOP-06-L: $11 NLHE 6-Max Shootout | 6,743 | sleepymyr | Norway | $8,596.16 |
| WCOOP-06-M: $109 NLHE 6-Max Shootout | 1,296 | Mr.Bittar | Brazil | $20,736.72 |
| WCOOP-06-H: $1,050 NLHE 6-Max Shootout | 216 | eijseijs | Sweden | $47,520.00 |
† inc. bounties
STAT TRACKER
Events completed: 9
Entries so far: 24,805
Prize pools so far: $4,485,961
In-the-money finishers so far: 4,188
Tournaments starting today: 12
(Note: completed events only)
TOP TWEETS
James Graham understands the true significance of WCOOP. “A literal world champion man!”
Productive night. 1 day two and a phase2 of wcoop. 197 people between me being a world champion and 12k tomorrow. A literal world champion man! If there was ever one time to run good and play well. It’s now. @PokerStars look after me please pic.twitter.com/lBZ6oh4TUL
— james graham (@jamasterg) September 7, 2019
Meanwhile, Ben Martin had some pretty high-profile viewers when Lex Veldhuis and the OP Poker crew swung by to rail him. It was greatly appreciated:
Today was crazy. We sattelitted into a $530 WCOOP and min cashed for just shy of $1100. We streamed the latter half of the run and I wanna thank @LexVeldhuis for railing throughout and @pyefacepoker, @OfficialOPPoker and TjennoE for hosting me during my stream. I love you all ❤️
— Ben Martin (@TheBenMartin98) September 7, 2019
I haven’t been feeling 100% recently but this evening has been amazing and the amount of support was unreal. Please please please go and follow all of the people mentioned in the post above, I cannot recommend it enough. I’m gonna crush Lex Live now 😂♥️
— Ben Martin (@TheBenMartin98) September 7, 2019
And I honestly have no idea what this is all about:
@PSTwitch I come to you, concerned about your affiliate. @GJReggie makes a lot of content, most of which revolves around poker. Tonight something changed. I am not sure I like this development. I think WCOOP already has her snapping. At least she is still smiling on the outside. pic.twitter.com/XfLyl51lML
— Toke Gerding Jensen (@TokeDK) September 6, 2019
ONGOING TOURNAMENTS
WCOOP-04: No Limit Hold’em – Buy-ins $5.50, $55, $530
There are 579.8 million chips in play in the $5.50 buy-in event after 15,308 players had 23,192 entries into the tournament. That’s by far the biggest number of entries so far in this WCOOP — but the record probably won’t last long. Overnight, Russia’s “Artur260387” leads the low buy-in tournament, with 197 left, while Brazil’s “Duraircwb” leads 182 in the medium, and “proggrezive” of Argentina is ahead of 94 left in the high.
WCOOP-05: HORSE – Buy-ins $11, $109, $1,050
As expected, the high buy-in HORSE tournament is a who’s who of the best and brightest stars, with Patrick “pads1161” Leonard, Luke “lb6121” Schwartz, Denis “aDrENalin710” Strebkov, Chris “Big Huni” Hunichen and Benny “RunGodlike” Glaser in the top 10 of the 24 left. Shaun “shaundeeb” Deeb is 11th. They’re all looking up at “rtspurs” of Galway, Ireland, who leads the hunt for the $34,147 prize.
COMING UP
Just when Saturday on the WCOOP schedule looks nice and laid back with the comfortable afternoon deep stack, it quickly becomes time for some insanity with a 5-Card Draw event, preceding a NLHE re-buy tournament. Expect the chips to be flying, especially in the latter. In all, there are 12 tournaments starting today.
WCOOP-07: NLHE, 8-Max, Afternoon Deep Stack – Buy-ins: $5.50, $55, $530
WCOOP-08: NLHE PKO – Buy-ins: $11, $109, $1,050
WCOOP-09: 5-Card Draw PKO – Buy-ins: $11, $109, $1,050
WCOOP-10: NLHE + rebuys – Buy-ins: $2.20, $22, $215
PREVIOUS WCOOP ROUND-UPS