Pizza servers, new fathers and six-way tournament chops all feature in another packed round-up from the tables of the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP). Let’s crack on…
TODAY’S HEADLINES
• Machon, Serda and Leah among well-known winners
• Eighth ‘COOP victory for new father “goleafsgoeh”
• Celina Lin’s hot streak continues
• Prize pools now top $40 million
BEHIND THE HEADLINES
Bartlomiej “bartek901” Machon has recorded winnings of more than $4 million on PokerStars, including a $636,113 score in the WCOOP $25K High Roller in 2017. That was the largest slice of a three-way deal with Bryn “brynkenney” Kenney and Nick “caecilius” Petrangelo, even though Machon ended up going out in third. Last night, there was no sign of either Kenney or Petrangelo as Machon won WCOOP-31-H $1,050 NLHE for $101,148. It was his second WCOOP title, and third ‘COOP overall. From a field of 573 entries, Machon defeated the highly decorated “merla888” heads up. Team Pro’s Celina Lin made the final table, before falling in ninth.
The brilliant Bartlomiej “Bartek901” Machon
Speaking of “merla888“, at the same time that he was defeated heads-up by Machon in WCOOP-31-H, he was also at the final table in WCOOP-32-H – the high-buy-in 8-Game event. Having outlasted all of Shaun “shaundeeb” Deeb, Luke “lb6121” Schwartz, Joao “Naza114” Vieira, Niki “RealAndyBeal” Jedlicka, Jussi “calvin7v” Nevanlinna, Denis “aDrENalin710” Strebkov and Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira, only Chris “Big Huni” Hunichen and the UK’s “rick7v” were left. But “merla888” was again left disappointed. He went out in third. “rick7v” was able to overcome Hunichen to claim a second WCOOP title, having previously triumphed in a heads-up event in 2011.
Patrick Serda: A better paid day job
Back in December 2016, Patrick “prepstyle71” Serda told his local Canadian news station that he would carry on working as a waiter in a Winnipeg pizza restaurant despite winning more than $1 million at the EPT High Roller tournament in Prague. One can only assume that there were a lot of disappointed customers on Saturday night as Serda spent a late shift at the WCOOP tables, picking up $17,480 for winning the medium buy-in 8-Game title. Serda also won a WCOOP High Roller in 2017 and a PLO WCOOP title in 2016, so there might just be a career for him in this game should the appetite for pizzas in Winnipeg ever dry up.
Mike Leah: Eight COOPs
On the subject of Canadians, it’s not often you get this far through a major tournament series without mentioning Mike “goleafsgoeh” Leah, but the Canadian tournament superstar needed not much more than four-and-a-half hours on Saturday night to come to the WCOOP 2019 party, besting a 219-player field to win WCOOP-38-H: NLHE Turbo. He won $85K in that period, beating Andreas “mrAndreeew” Berggren heads-up and kept Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira in third. The SCOOP champion “Daenarys T”, Luke “Bit2Easy” Reeves and Kahle “ROFLshove” Burns were also at this final table. Leah now has lifetime recorded cashes of more than $3.6 million, which includes three WCOOP titles, four from SCOOP and a TCOOP. (See below for news of his new railing section.)
Six-way deal?
All the mixed games masters found their way to the tables for WCOOP-35, otherwise known as the Limit Stud Hi/Lo event, and there were final table appearances for Dzmitry “Colisea” Urbanovich, David “WhooooKidd” Baker, Tobias “Senkel92” Leknes and “nilsef”. However, the three titles went to Lebanon’s “kimokh” (High; $27,250), Norway’s “_sennj_” (Medium; $8,694) and the UK’s “theguzzler” (Low; 1,961.79), three players about whom relatively little is known. (That might all change today, however, as “kimokh” is also chip-leading the $5,200 PLO Six-Max High Roller.) “theguzzler“‘s success, meanwhile, is notable because it came after the final six players, representing five different countries, arranged a deal. I have no idea how they managed that one. (Incidentally, the low buy-in of WCOOP-38 also ended in a five-way chop.)
INTERVIEWS! INTERVIEWS! INTERVIEWS!
Naoya Kihara: Kicked into action
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.
• Naoya “nkeyno” Kihara: Woken up by a kick from his 3-year-old, plays Razz and wins!
• “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 | Prize pool | Winner | Country | Prize |
| WCOOP-31-L: $11 NLHE | 16,843 | $165,061 | denimblodturbo | Germany | $16,917.37* |
| WCOOP-31-M: $109 NLHE | 4,049 | $404,900 | leotoledo96 | Brazil | $57,885.92 |
| WCOOP-31-H: $1,050 NLHE | 573 | $573,000 | bartek901 | UK | $101,148.83 |
| WCOOP-32-L: $22 8-Game | 2,304 | $46,080 | 29dandaman29 | Canada | $7,259.01 |
| WCOOP-32-M: $215 8-Game | 460 | $92,000 | prepstyle71 | Canada | $17,480.00 |
| WCOOP-32-H: $2,100 8-Game | 116 | $232,000 | rickv17 | UK | $60,320.00 |
| WCOOP-35-L: $11 Stud Hi/Lo | 1,788 | $17,522 | theguzzler | UK | $1,961.79* |
| WCOOP-35-M: $109 Stud Hi/Lo | 460 | $46,000 | _sennj_ | Norway | $8,694.00 |
| WCOOP-35-H: $1,050 Stud Hi/Lo | 91 | $100,000 | kimokh | Lebanon | $27,250.00 |
| WCOOP-38-L: $22 NLHE Turbo | 6,981 | $139,620 | firsohn | Brazil | $10,338.16* |
| WCOOP-38-M: $215 NLHE Turbo | 1,384 | $276,800 | Aziz.Mancha | Brazil | $42,819.04 |
| WCOOP-38-H: $2,100 NLHE Turbo | 219 | $438,000 | goleafsgoeh | Canada | $85,476.67 |
*denotes deal
STAT TRACKER
Events completed: 102
Entries so far: 417,743
Prize pools so far: $40,429,413
First prizes so far: $6,337,757.20
In-the-money finishers so far: 64,597
Tournaments starting today: 16
(Note: completed events only)
TWITCH WATCH
After Lex Veldhuis’s heroics of Friday night, it was a relatively quiet night of WCOOP Twitch streaming. But Arlie Shaban was full of admiration for his friend and team-mate’s achievement:
HUGE shoutout to @LexVeldhuis for his massive 2nd place yesterday in a @PokerStars $2,100 WCOOP for $91,000!! Congrats man, you were right at the top of my twitch directory! 21,000 concurrent viewers is PURE INSANITY🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/ClGddDGPAz
— Arlie Shaban (@ArlieShaban) September 14, 2019
TOP TWEETS – A MIKE LEAH FAMILY SPECIAL
As a poker pro, Mike “goleafsgoeh” Leah is probably used to solitary nights staring at a computer screen. But he was delighted last night to have been accompanied by two special people as he won his eighth COOP title:
Me and Grayson railing daddy the entire time at his final table @PokerStars WCOOP 2100 Turbo event. Congrats daddy for taking it down! 🏆 your #1 fans 💛🥰🙌🏼 #wcoop pic.twitter.com/kmMQ9xdRn6
— Christine Do (@Chri57ined) September 15, 2019
🏆👶🏻🙌🏻#WCOOP title #3 to go with 4 Scoop + 1 Tcoop = 8 COOP’s @PokerStars
🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆#BabyRunGood pic.twitter.com/lXuovLTYMW— Mike Leah (@GoLeafsGoEh) September 15, 2019
COUNTRIES LEADER BOARD
Thanks in a large part to Spanish and Polish players now living in London, the UK is enjoying a terrific WCOOP this time. Bartlomiej “bartek901” Machon’s victory overnight was the 11th for British-based players. Obviously, that’s still not quite as many as Brazilians have managed, and the South Americans still lead the standings with 17, from Russia’s 13. Canada’s three wins yesterday brings their total to nine. In all, players from 28 countries have won events this year so far.
17 – Brazil
13 – Russia
11 – UK
9 – Canada
6 – Germany
5 – Austria
4 – Finland, Netherlands
3 – Lithuania, Norway
2 – Mexico, Sweden, China, Argentina, Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, Romania, Lebanon
1 – Malta, Czech Republic, Belgium, Thailand, Ireland, Uruguay, Japan, Denmark, Croatia.
ONGOING TOURNAMENTS
WCOOP-37: PL Omaha 6-Max: Buy-ins: $55, $530, $5,200
The $5,200 PLO High Roller is the pick of the tournaments that started on Saturday, attracting 179 entries to build a prize pool of $895,000. With the bubble now burst, Lebanon’s “kimokh” leads on the same day that he won his first WCOOP title. There’s close to $180K waiting for the winner.
WCOOP-34: Afternoon Deep Stack – Buy-ins: $11, $109, $1,050
WCOOP-36: NLHE PKO – Buy-ins: $5.50, $55, $530
Huge fields turned out for the Saturday hold’em events, with a spectacular 25,829 entries to the $5.50 buy-in PKO. All of those events will finish on Sunday, just in time for the other enormous hold’em events to get going.
STARTING TODAY
It’s Sunday, and that always means a lot of no limit hold’em. But there also a special tournament to look out for: WCOOP-41 has a “micro” buy-in in addition to the regular low, medium and high. So you can join in for $11, $109, $1,050 or $10,300. There are three tournaments today with a guarantee of $1 million or more, and a cheeky NL Omaha H/L event to keep the four-card enthusiasts happy.
WCOOP-39: NLHE Sunday Kickoff – Buy-ins: $11, $109, $1,050
WCOOP-40: NLHE Sunday Warm-Up – Buy-ins: $22, $215, $2,100
WCOOP-41: NLHE PKO – Buy-ins: $11, $109, $1,050, $10,300
WCOOP-42: NL Omaha H/L PKO: Buy-ins: $22, $215, $2,100
WCOOP-43: NLHE: $5.50, $55, $530
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