Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex. Here’s our latest round-up from the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP). Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex.
TODAY’S HEADLINES
• Veldhuis thrills thousands en route to WCOOP silver
• “Zagazaur” makes good after brilliant Thursday
• Five new champions share their secrets
• Three wins for Russia to close in on Brazil
BEHIND THE HEADLINES
Twitch Poker, and PokerStars Twitch in particular, went into near meltdown overnight when its brightest star Lex Velduis found himself heads-up for a WCOOP title. There had been 347 entries to WCOOP-30-H, a $2,100 NLHE affair, with a prize pool of $654,000. All that was standing in Veldhuis’ way of a maiden title, and potentially the first to be won by a PokerStars Ambassador while streaming live, was a British player by the name “GODofHU“. Could Veldhuis do it? Well, as our Dutch hero admitted himself, the clue was there in his opponent’s name. “This guy is a f***ing god heads up,” he said. But as the $91,694.92 runners-up prize hit Veldhuis’s account, and the “GG”s rained into the chat, the streamer extraordinaire can look back on a job very well done. We will no doubt report more on this over the coming few days.
In the medium buy-in event, which had a $530 buy-in, Filipe “Zagazaur” Oliveira made good on his long list of deep runs during this WCOOP. Like both Ferreira and Joao “Naza114” Vieira, Oliveira is a Portuguese player now living in the Netherlands to play online, and we highlighted yesterday how he had had a superlative Thursday, running deep in three major tournaments. There was nowhere deeper left to run in WCOOP-28-M, beating Ukraine’s “MountainRo$e” heads up and banking $185,467.46, including bounties.
The final stages of WCOOP-29-H $2,100 PLO8 brought another constellation of stars to the tables, with Mike “SirWatts” Watson, Yuri “theNERDguy” Martins, “iamivar”, Niklas “Lena900” Asted, Benny “RunGodlike” Glaser, Ari “BodogAri” Engel, Connor “blanconegro” Drinan, Ole “wizowizo” Schemion, Dominik “Bounatiro” Nitsche and Alex “bigfox86” Foxen all having an interest on the last three tables. However Germany’s “Tonimonntana” was the only played unscarred at the end: he won, for $63,642.
It was a hellish job trying to figure out the biggest winners in WCOOP-33, a Heads-Up, Turbo, Progressive Total KO, Zoom event. All of those additional words in the event’s name told a complicated story: the tournaments, with buy-ins of $5.50, $55 and $530, were not only two-handed and played at the Zoom tables, but they also did not have a conventional prize structure. Collecting bounties was the only way for players to be paid, rather than from a conventional payout structure. In the high buy-in, Brazil’s “botteonpoker” took $50,283.17 for winning, but “LuxPoker17” ended up with the second biggest prize ($14,287.11) despite being knocked out in sixth place, while “arron8” made the third biggest haul ($7,265.63) despite perishing in 44th.
INTERVIEWS! INTERVIEWS! INTERVIEWS!
Alex Difelice on the live felt
We’ve been catching up with a heap of winners from this year’s WCOOP, all of whom have been happy to share the secrets of their successes. Click through for first-person accounts of WCOOP triumph, from those who have been there many times before to newcomers sampling the limelight for the first time.
• “snovalshik1”: first-timer, who turned $5.50 into $3,408
• Rinat “Zapahzamazki” Lyapin: Won PLO while streaming live
• Alex “dynoalot” Difelice: Second win, but “I feel I have a ways to go.”
• Pedro “PaDiLhA SP” Padilha: Akkari’s acolyte, who sets the record straight
• Shaun “shaundeeb” Deeb: Seventh title, surely not the last
TODAY’S RESULTS
| Tournament | Entries | Buy-in | Winner | Country | Prize |
| WCOOP-28-L: $55 NLHE PKO | 15,207 | $760,350 | brunilsks | Brazil | $62,044.50† |
| WCOOP-28-M: $530 NLHE PKO | 2,981 | $1,490,500 | Zagazaur | Netherlands | $185,467.46† |
| WCOOP-28-H: $5,200 NLHE PKO | 262 | $1,310,000 | WRUUUUM | Finland | $205,127.67† |
| WCOOP-29-L: $22 PLO8 6-Max | 3,032 | $60,640 | Murkovic | Croatia | $7,621.61* |
| WCOOP-29-M: $215 PLO8 6-Max | 697 | $139,400 | MAMbl4 | Russia | $23,908.95 |
| WCOOP-29-H: $2,100 PLO8 6-Max | 157 | $314,000 | Tonimonntana | Germany | $63,642.19 |
| WCOOP-30-L: $22 NLHE 8-Max | 6,436 | $128,720 | karet2 | Russia | $18,297.13 |
| WCOOP-30-M: $215 NLHE 8-Max | 1,793 | $358,600 | Sajanas23 | Lithuania | $47,652.81* |
| WCOOP-30-H: $2,100 NLHE 8-Max | 327 | $654,000 | GODofHU | UK | $121,542.24 |
| WCOOP-33-L: $5.50 Heads Up, Turbo, PKO, Zoom | 15,149 | $74,230 | Antiya.Z | Russia | $2,959.83† |
| WCOOP-33-M: $55 Heads Up, Turbo, PKO, Zoom | 5,189 | $259,450 | pierrec_m | Romania | $15,165† |
| WCOOP-33-H: $530 Heads Up, Turbo, PKO, Zoom | 621 | $310,500 | botteonpoker | Brazil | $50,283.17† |
†inc. bounties
*denotes deal
STAT TRACKER
Events completed: 90
Entries so far: 382,475
Prize pools so far: $37,898,430
First prizes so far: $5,900,206.41
In-the-money finishers so far: 59,070
Tournaments starting today: 15
(Note: completed events only)
TWITCH WATCH
It was all about Lex last night as he went on his near $100K tear. Here are a few highlights from the show, including a big double with 32 left, a knockout to take the field from 13 to 12, taking the chip-lead 11 handed with pocket rockets, a huge Team Pro flop when down to six and a three-handed double up (again with pocket nines).
TOP TWEETS
Tom Parsons, aka @TomParsons410 on Twitter and “shouse410” on PokerStars is in the process of spinning $3.75 into something much bigger. As a former Micro Millions champion, this is true to form. Good luck Tom!
$17k up top, a nice little day 2 in this $11 wcoop, sattied in for $3.75. Unfortunately cant stream it, but lets get it. pic.twitter.com/H1htjgYBjf
— Tom Parsons (@TomParsons410) September 14, 2019
The always philosophical Sam Grafton is channeling his inner Slavoj Žižek in new and intriguing ways.
Me trying to take a day off when I know WCOOP is up and running. pic.twitter.com/xD3RNznKjK
— Sam Grafton (@SquidPoker) September 11, 2019
And for anyone wanting to take Lex down a peg or two, there’s always the photo. Don’t forget the photo:
He may hate this photo… but it’s bringing @LexVeldhuis good luck into the final table of WCOOP!
Come cheer him on and compliment the photo: https://t.co/HtdHe8wq0W pic.twitter.com/E5BHO6ifz3
— Team Liquid (@TeamLiquid) September 13, 2019
LEADER BOARDS
It seems we’ve been reporting a lot on the same few players during this WCOOP so far, and the dominance of a handful of superstars is reflected in the current Player of the Series standings. Although nobody has yet won two titles, all of Filipe “Zagazaur” Oliveira, Stefan “mindgamer” Jedlicka, Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira, Shaun “shaundeeb” Deeb and Adam “Adamyid” Owen have been prominent throughout.
For all that, Canada’s “TruthBeTold7” still tops the overall standings, with his 620 points coming from a number of deep runs. He has 170 points from high buy-in events, 170 from medium buy-ins and 280 from low buy-ins. That puts him 40 points clear of Oliveira, who has done most of his best work in the smaller fields with the higher buy-ins.
Here’s the high-quality top eight in the overall standings, with the the top three in all categories below. With 90 events completed, we’re not even half way through yet.
The latest overall standings
High buy-in: 1- Filipe “Zagazaur” Oliveira (295 points), 2- Stefan “mindgamer” Jedlicka (265), 3- Claas “SsicK_OnE” Segebrecht (260).
Medium buy-in: 1- Alan “Mr Negreanu” Gold (250 points), 2- Filipe “Zagazaur” Oliveira (205), Leonardo “LeoMattosAK” Mattos (185).
Low buy-in: 1- “TruthBeTold7” (280 points), 2- “FONBET_RULIT” (240), =3- Joao Manuel “joaommr” Ribeiro (225), =3- “krakukra” (225).
A reminder, there’s $20,000 for the overall winner, $7,500 for the high buy-in champion, $5,000 for the medium and $2,500 for the low.
ONGOING TOURNAMENTS
Only six tournaments are currently paused at their half-way stage, comparatively few for this WCOOP. However, there’s plenty of interest in all of them, particularly yet another deep run for Team Pro’s Celina Lin. Lin is currently 40th of 55 remaining (from a 573-entry field) in the $1,050 buy-in WCOOP-31-H, with $101K up top. Her opponents include Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira, Shaun “buck21” Buchanan, Vladimir “vovtroy” Troyanovskiy, Cai “Pessagno” Pessagno, Ole “wizowizo” Schemion and Sean “MonkeyBudg” Prendiville, who leads.
In the 8-Game tournaments, players get a chance to showcase their all-round poker skills, which is probably why all of the following are in the last 18 of the $2,100 buy-in event: Shaun “shaundeeb” Deeb, Luke “lb6121” Schwartz, Joao “Naza114” Vieira, Niki “RealAndyBeal” Jedlicka, Jussi “calvin7v” Nevanlinna, Chris “Big Huni” Hunichen, Denis “aDrENalin710” Strebkov, Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira, Julian “jutrack” Track and Jon “PearlJammer” Turner. However, it’s Denmark’s “CMoosepower” leading at this stage.
STARTING TODAY
It’s Saturday, and that means 15 tournaments starting today. If you can’t find something that takes your fancy in the following, maybe try chess.
WCOOP-34: Afternoon Deep Stack – Buy-ins: $11, $109, $1,050
WCOOP-35: Limit Stud H/L – Buy-ins: $11, $109, $1,050
WCOOP-36: NLHE PKO – Buy-ins: $5.50, $55, $530
WCOOP-37: PL Omaha 6-Max: Buy-ins: $55, $530, $5,200
WCOOP-38: NLHE Buy-ins: $22, $215, $2,100
PREVIOUS ROUND-UPS
DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4 | DAY 5 | DAY 6 | DAY 7 | DAY 8