There’s only one day left of the 2019 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP). That means we still need to find our ultimate champion. Here’s what’s going on as the curtain gradually comes down.
TODAY’S HEADLINES
• Shakerchi eyes historic double
• Finnish 1-2 in low buy-in Main Event
• 18,000 watch Fintan “easywithaces” Hand’s streamed deep run
• More than $15 million earned by WCOOP winners
BEHIND THE HEADLINES
Can Shakerchi set a new mark? Every online poker series produces a handful of double champions, and a few of the very best have won multiple tournaments across several years. In May, we even saw Gianluca “Tankanza” Speranza complete a sensational title defence in the SCOOP Main Event.
After action last night in this year’s World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), the scene is set today for more history. Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi, pictured above, is already a SCOOP Main Event champion, and now he sits as the dominant chip leader going into the final table of the WCOOP Main Event. From 2,236 entries, of $5,200 apiece, Shakerchi is one of only nine players left and leads by a long distance the hunt for the $1.67 million first prize.
Nobody has ever won WCOOP and SCOOP Main Events before.
Even disregarding his chip lead, Shakerchi is a strong favourite. In addition to his SCOOP Main Event, he has won two other major tournaments in the spring series, from 2012 and 2014. As we put it in a preview post in 2018, Shakerchi was “%$&^ing due to win” in WCOOP. By this time tomorrow, the 55-year-old Brit, a hedge fund manager turned high rolling poker player, may have fulfilled that prediction.
The first prize from this event is larger even than the $1.188 million he won for fourth place in the $300,000 buy-in Super High Roller Bowl in Las Vegas last December, which remains his largest live score. It also outstrips that SCOOP Main Event triumph, which banked him $1.468 million.
His closest challenger is Belgium’s “XMorphineX”, who has been one of the standout performers in this tournament series. He won the $530 Sunday Million special edition on WCOOP’s first weekend, for $202,420.81, and lies 64th in the overall leader board.
Brazil’s Danilo “dans170′” Demetrio is currently third in the counts and the UK’s “BigBlindBets”, who once wrote that he hopes to “make enough baked beans to start up my own baked beans company” is fourth. There are then two Estonian players — “NeedBeat” and “Leitnant” — ahead of representatives from Sweden, Hungary and Germany.
WCOOP Main Event final table line-up:
1 – Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi (UK) – 122,626,562
2 – XMorphineX (Belgium) – 82,023,949
3 – Danilo “dans170′” de Lima Demetrio (Brazil) – 81,843,549
4 – BigBlindBets (UK) – 68,825,817
5 – NeedBeat (Estonia) – 56,071,362
6 – Leitnant (Estonia) – 44,901,942
7 – TheMakrill7 (Sweden) – 42,717,905
8 – 19Pistike93 (Hungary) – 31,260,220
9 – moglimiranda (Germany) – 28,728,694
Heading into Level 45 – Blinds 600K/1.2m
Payouts:
1 – $1,665,962.04
2 – $1,187,553.01
3 – $846,528.35
4 – $603,434.91
5 – $403,148.26
6 – $306,624.91
7 – $218,572.35
8 – $155,805.59
9 – $111,063.23
****
Fintan Hand’s run ended on the penultimate day
Stream ends in 23rd for Fintan “easywithaces” Hand: Keen-eyed observers will notice that there’s no place at the final table for the PokerStars Ambassador and Twitch streamer extraordinaire Fintan “easywithaces” Hand. After the most thrilling run of his career, Hand was knocked out in 23rd, for $50,800. Seeking a double-up, he lost the last of his chips with pocket sevens to TheMakrill7’s pocket kings. “GG us.”
Finnish duo there at the finish in Low Main Event: Finland’s “jesseonboss” is the new champion of the WCOOP-L Main Event, beating his or her fellow Finn “Tobotheman” heads-up after the pair were part of a four-way deal. The tournament had a buy-in of only $55, but “jesseonboss” is one of three players who turned that into a six-figure score. The winner’s cheque totalled $130,035.12, an extraordinary increase on that buy-in, but rich reward for beating a field of 37,065 entries, including 12,588 re-entries.
“Tobotheman” won $96,681.68, but the two players who went out in third and fourth both negotiated a greater payday. Ramiro “RamiroUY” Miqueiro, from Uruguay, won $128,412.08 and Hungary’s Bela “SlyderS1” Toth took $107,118.88 for fourth. With little known at this stage about the true identities of the Finns (beyond the fact that “Tobotheman” is a former Sunday Warm-Up winner), Toth is arguably the best known of the final four. He won a SCOOP title in 2013 and has documented earnings of close to $1.9 million in online tournaments. He also won a $1,000 side event at UKIPT/EPT London in October that year. This, however, is his biggest score.
The same applies to all the players involved in the deal towards the end of the tournament. We will endeavour to find out more about them over the coming days, so look out for our “How The WCOOP Was Won” posts coming this way soon.
World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP)
Event: WCCOP-70-L NLHE Main Event
Dates: Sept 22-24, 2019
Buy-in: $55
Entries: 37,065 (inc. 12,588 re-entries)
Prize pool: $1,853,250
1 – Jesseonboss (Finland) – $130,035.12*
2 – Tobotheman (Finland) – $96,961.68*
3 – RamiroUY (Uruguay) – $128,412.08*
4 – SlyderS1 [2] (Hungary) – $107,118.88*
5 – Thomastom3 (Germany) – $45,156.10
6 – alexxt7 [3] (Romania) – $31,930.38
7 – Klimbo (Canada) – $22,578.33
8 – Oreo+Coke (Brazil) – $15,965.37
*denotes deal
6,007 players were paid.
STAT TRACKER
We are now getting close to finalising the totals for this series. With only the stats from the $5,200 Main Event still to be added, here’s where we stand:
Events: 219
Entries: 1,219,969
Prize pools: $104,733,898.76
First prizes so far: $14,099,092.90*
In-the-money finishers so far: 173,364
*Does not include Main Event, where players may yet do a deal.
INTERVIEWS! INTERVIEWS! INTERVIEWS!
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.
• Maxim “Pylusha” Pylev: From 15 big blinds to NL08 champion
• “Mr. No way”: It’s not easy beating “Colisea” heads up. Or is it?
• Germany’s “Gaul4200”: “$44K is a lot of money for a 20-year-old student in Germany”
• 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.
• Filipe “Zagazaur” Oliveira: The 2019 breakout star on winning three titles in a week
• 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
Fintan “easywithaces” Hand wasn’t the only player streaming a deep run in the WCOOP Main Event. Jordan “bigbluffzinc” Drummond also had his cameras rolling, as he went all the way to 12th. Want to know how Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi got all of his chips? Well, he won some flips among other things:
TOP TWEETS
What’s your go-to meal at the end of a major tournament series? Pity some of these American players, such as Daniel Strelitz, who have had to set up shop in Canada for their WCOOP grind:
For someone who doesn’t like gravy very much I love poutine. RIP WCOOP pic.twitter.com/Ky1gv66xW7
— Daniel Strelitz (@dDeoxyribo) September 25, 2019
It was a great run for Chris “Big Huni” Hunichen in this WCOOP, where he came close to a title multiple times, but fell short. The latest, and the last, was the main event.
Busted 19th in wcoop main triple barreled allin AK on AQ275 against bb defend and lost to Q7. This one hurts
— Chris Hunichen (@BigHuni) September 24, 2019
LEADER BOARD UPDATE
Jussi Nevanlinna, back in 2009. He’s still doing it.
None of the players in leader board contention made deep runs in the Main Event, which means the standings below are very close to being confirmed. The final results will only be known after the completion of the Main Event, but it is pretty much sure that Jussi “calvin7v” Nevanlinna can start thinking about what he’s going to do with his $20,000 prize for winning the overall title. Can I make a suggestion: how about playing poker?
Overall:
1 – calvin7v Finland 1,400
2 – Zagazaur Netherlands 1,330
3 – RuiNF Netherlands 1,280
4 – TruthBeTold7 Canada 1,205
5 – shaundeeb Mexico 1,150
6 – krakukra Russia 1,045
7 – Colisea Latvia 1,040
8 – goleafsgoeh Canada 955
9 – FONBET_RULIT Russia 880
10 – WTFOMFGOAO Russia 845
Low buy-in:
1 – FONBET_RULIT Russia 575
2 – -Rebus1980- Russia 465
3 – Voziyanov15 Russia 455
4 – krakukra Russia 440
5 – TruthBeTold7 Canada 395
Medium buy-in:
1 – Colisea Latvia 580
2 – shaundeeb Mexico 450
3 – pantri Paraguay 400
4 – Zagazaur Netherlands 375
5 – calvin7v Finland 370
High buy-in:
1 – RuiNF Netherlands 705
2 – Zagazaur Netherlands 685
3 – calvin7v Finland 675
4 – Naza114 UK 600
5 – theNERDguy Brazil 495
COUNTRIES LEADER BOARD
Finland’s win in the low main event was the 10th title for our friends in the north. It wasn’t enough to put them in overall contention, but maybe it’s something to keep them warm.
The result of the High Main Event is, however, significant. If either Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi or “BigBlindBets” wins then the UK ties with Russia for most titles during this series. And it won’t matter one jot that at least half of the titles were earned by displaced Spanish, Portuguese or Irish players, who have set up in London to pursue online poker careers.
28 titles – Russia
27 – UK
23 – Brazil
14 – Netherlands
13 – Canada, Germany
10 – Finland
7 – Austria, Romania
6 – Norway, Mexico
5 – Ukraine, Lithuania, Sweden, Poland
4 – Malta, Hungary, Belgium
3 – Denmark, Czech Republic
2 – China, Argentina, Lebanon, Ireland, Bulgaria, Japan, Croatia
1 – Thailand, Uruguay, Georgia, Latvia, Moldova, Serbia, Chile, Macau, Taiwan, Greece, Armenia, Luxembourg.
PREVIOUS ROUND-UPS
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