Superstars and streamers. Streamers and superstars. This year’s World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) has been dominated by those two types of player, and it’s the same old story in today’s round-up from the WCOOP tables.
TODAY’S HEADLINES
• Country-hopping Vieira back among the winners
• Nomadic Portuguese player narrowly misses double
• Team Online’s Spraggy going deep in $530 NLHE
• Latest PKO builds two more $1m+ prize pools
BEHIND THE HEADLINES
Joao “Naza114” Vieira last night pulled off what must be a WCOOP first. He won his second title during the same festival, but representing a different country from his first success. To explain: back on Day 8, we reported on Vieira, who is originally from Portugal, winning the $530+R 6-Max PLO for $87K, while based in the Netherlands. But he’s been on the move since, and is now living in the UK to play poker. And it was from his new base that he won WCOOP-52-H, the $530 NLHE “Midweek Freeze”. That was worth another $86,876.70 after outlasting a field of 1,064. With his similarly displaced colleagues of Filipe “zagazaur” Oliveira and Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira also profiting repeatedly in this WCOOP, it seems like a great time to be an itinerant Portuguese player.
João “Naza114” Vieira: Country-hopping champion
And that’s not all for Vieira. On the same night that he was barrelling to victory in the Midweek Freeze, he also found himself heads-up for the $1,050 fixed limit Omaha hi/lo event. Nobody this year has won two events on the same day…and nobody has still, as Vieira was pipped to the title by Mexico-based “sprocketsAA”, a former WCOOP runner up. “sprocketsAA” won $29,806.19 for denying Vieira his second historical moment of the day.
Back in May, Finland’s “serkku21” picked up a SCOOP title in a medium buy-in Razz event, and this time around he was top of the WCOOP class with success over a field of 591 in the $109 limit Omaha hi/lo. That victory, secured after beating Canada’s “shakentoucan” heads-up, was worth $10,408, and comes a day after “serkku21” finished fifth in the $2,100 Limit 207 Triple Draw.
TODAY’S RESULTS
| Tournament | Entries | Prize pool | Winner | Country | Prize |
| WCOOP-52-L: $5.50 NLHE Midweek Freeze | 10,415 | $51,034 | sontz88 | Romania | $6,826.57 |
| WCOOP-52-M: $55 NLHE Midweek Freeze | 5,166 | $258,300 | jaggalo1231 | Czech Republic | $32,452.24* |
| WCOOP-52-H: $530 NLHE Midweek Freeze | 1,064 | $532,000 | Naza114 | UK | $86,876.70 |
| WCOOP-54-L: $11 NLHE 6-Max, PKO | 9,344 | $91,571 | AlexGC1989 | Romania | $9,402.94† |
| WCOOP-54-M: $109 NLHE 6-Max PKO | 3,499 | $349,900 | ImThereNow | UK | $40,364.85† |
| WCOOP-54-H: $1,050 NLHE 6-Max PKO | 533 | $533,000 | HITRII999 | Russia | $87,533.72† |
| WCOOP-56-L: $11 FLO8 8-Max | 2,003 | $20,000 | grossmasster | Poland | $2,991.49 |
| WCOOP-56-M: $109 FLO8 8-Max | 591 | $59,100 | serkku21 | Finland | $10,408.61 |
| WCOOP-56-H: $1,050 FLO8 8-Max | 142 | $142,000 | sprocketsAA | Mexico | $29,806.19 |
*denotes deal
†inc. bounties
STAT TRACKER
Events completed: 163
Entries so far: 692,434
Prize pools so far: $64,447,183
First prizes so far: $9,971,870.73
In-the-money finishers so far: 109,392
Tournaments starting today: 12
(Note: completed events only)
INTERVIEWS! INTERVIEWS! INTERVIEWS!
Joris Ruijs at EPT Barcelona
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.
• Joris “BillLewinsky” Ruijs: Two-time winner says “It’s like when you jump out of a plane”
• Russia’s “myIT4”: A friend told him to “fight to the end!”. He did.
• Espen “_sennj_” Sandvik: “It’s my first win in an official tournament”
• Rodrigo “guinHuuh” Freire: Brazilian’s roller coaster ride turns $11 into $13K
• Patrick “prepstyle71” Serda: No more pizzas for the three-time winner
• Jeffrey “Jefffrr8” Reardon: He wanted a five-figure score. He got one.
• Maxime “Daghemuneguu” Chilaud: Malta-based Frenchman wins first WCOOP of the series
• Norway’s “19_Kumite_79”: First two-day event, biggest field, biggest cash
• Viktor “TsiTool” Kovács: Puts Hungary on the WCOOP map
• Italo “sep_itl1914” Carandinas: Brazilian chooses his own adventure
• 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
TWITCH WATCH
Benjamin “Spraggy” Spragg is on the deepest run of his WCOOP so far in the $530 buy-in WCOOP-55-H. He ended the nigh 14th of 44 remaining, from a field of 763. This pot, against Dmitri “yurasov1990” Yurasov was crucial: Spraggy induced the bluff, got Yurasov to make it, and then, cha-ching. There’s $65K up top when it resumes tonight.
TOP TWEETS
Adam “The_Reynold” Reynolds is building a Twitch following the best way possible: by giving away plenty of his action. Last night Reynolds finished second in the $1,050 PKO, which meant silver-tinged disappointment:
2nd in the WCOOP $1k. Disappointed but still take it!
Be giving away 2.5% of $50k to my loyal twitch rail over the next week, thanks guys 👊 pic.twitter.com/rxr5eP7jFP
— Harry Angel (Adam Reynolds) (@HarryAngelPKR) September 20, 2019
Spraggy is “gonna try really really really hard” to win a WCOOP title. And if he doesn’t, I’m sure all his many friends will congratulate him heartily on his honest efforts and never in their wildest dreams start ripping into the loser:
For my 16th cash of the WCOOP series, I present to you a Day 2 in the $530 Event #55. We are 14/44 coming back tomorrow with ~$65,000 up top. $1,873 locked up and plenty of room to play. Gonna try really really really hard to win. Goodnight. pic.twitter.com/6SFzRQfacp
— Benj Spragg (@spraggy) September 20, 2019
PSPC TAKES ON A SPANISH FLAVOUR
The race is already well under way for Platinum Passes to next year’s PokerStars Players Championship (PSPC) in Barcelona — and the host nation has flown out into an early lead. Six players from Spain have already won passes, hoping to follow in the footsteps of Ramon Colillas, who won $5.1 million last year. Team Spain already features:
• Adrian Viñuela – DJ and student
• Danielle Summer – Carer, English living in Tenerife
• Steve Zander – Gardener and house keeper, German living in Spain
• “SrEducado6”
• Veronica Caneda – Hotel housekeeping attendant
• Eliseo Pascual – agricultural engineer
Keep up to date on the latest about the PSPC in our dedicated section.
COUNTRIES LEADER BOARD
The great Brazilian WCOOP drought continues into its third day as the leader board favourites continue to miss out on all the titles. Brazil now lies four wins behind Russia, with the UK — thanks to Joao “Naza114” Vieira’s defection — also now pulling away. Meanwhile, Romania won two titles on Thursday night, edging them into the top 10.
22 titles – Russia
21 – UK
18 – Brazil
11 – Canada
10 – Germany
9 – Netherlands
8 – Finland
6 – Austria
5 – Ukraine, Romania
4 – Lithuania, Norway, Mexico
3 – Hungary, Malta, Poland
2 – Sweden, China, Argentina, Lebanon, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Czech Republic
1 – Thailand, Uruguay, Japan, Croatia, Georgia, Latvia, Bulgaria, Moldova, Serbia, Chile, Macau.
ONGOING TOURNAMENTS
In addition to Spraggy’s run in WCOOP-55, there’s a terrific railing opportunity in WCOOP-57, where the high buy-in players are contesting a $1.48 million prize pool and the medium players are splitting up $1.33 million. Michael “imluckbox” Addamo leads the 17 left in the $10K, only a week or so after his first high roller win of this WCOOP, but the field is stacked. Connor “blanconegro” Drinan is second, Adrian “Amadi_017” Mateos is fourth, David “dpeters17” Peters is seventh. Steve “Mr. Tim Caum” O’Dwyer is alive in both high and medium buy-in events.
Meanwhile, the last 16 of the high buy-in HORSE event reads like my spreadsheet of winners from this year’s WCOOP. All of Mike “goleafsgoeh” Leah, “ThomiDaHomi”, Benny “RunGodlike” Glaser, Patrick “prepstyle71” Serda, “sprocketsAA” and Naoya “nkeyno” Kihara are champions already this year, and they’re all still in the HORSE hunt. And if you’re wondering where nine-time champion Denis “aDrENalin710” Strebkov has been this time, he’s leading the medium buy-in HORSE.
WCOOP-55: NLHE – Buy-ins: $5.50, $55, $530
WCOOP-57: NLHE 8-Max PKO – Buy-ins: $109, $1,050, $10,300
WCOOP-58: HORSE – Buy-ins: $22, $215, $2,100
WCOOP-59: NLHE with re-buys – Buy-ins: $5.50, $55, $530
STARTING TODAY
Two big hold’em events (played nine-max and six-max) keep things standard while all around goes nuts. WCOOP-60 promises to be a whole lot of fun with no limit Omaha hi/lo appearing on the schedule again, which will mean tons of big pots (and plenty of chops). Later on, the no limit 2-7 Single Draw is also going to be wild. Expect the following pattern: Draw one, all-in.
WCOOP-60: NL Omaha H/L – Buy-ins: $11, $109, $1,050
WCOOP-61: NLHE – Buy-ins: $22, $215, $2,100
WCOOP-62: NL 2-7 Single Draw – Buy-ins: $11, $109, $1,050
WCOOP-63: NLHE 6-Max – Buy-ins: $5.50, $55, $530
PREVIOUS ROUND-UPS
DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4 | DAY 5 | DAY 6 | DAY 7 | DAY 8 | DAY 9 | DAY 10 | DAY 11 | DAY 12 | DAY 13 | DAY 14