Back in April 2015, a player wrote a post on an online poker marketplace forum in which he told potential backers that he had been taking the game seriously for about two years, “where I started the baked bean grind”. He went on to describe a rise through the ranks to $100-$200 no limit hold’em cash games (“making many cans of baked beans a day”) and describing future hopes to “make enough baked beans to start up my own baked beans company”.
The player went only by the name of “BigBlindBets“, and that’s the only name the poker world still has for him. But the patent application for BigBlindBakedBeans should be heading to the relevant authorities right about now: the player already well established as one of PokerStars’ best cash-game players became the latest champion of the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), and $1,665,962.04 richer.
“BigBlindBets” beat a field of 2,236 entries (including 599 re-entries), costing $5,200 apiece, to win the most prestigious prize in the online game. His final opponent was Brazil’s Danilo “dans170′” Demetrio, who also became a millionaire, and earned $1,187,553.01 for second.
High stakes pokerstars cash reg just bunked the wcoop main for 1.7 milly. What an insane FT
— Dylan DeStefano (@DeStefano1017) September 25, 2019
Those two had outlasted Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi, whose overnight chip lead was only enough to secure him third place. Shakerchi’s $846,528.35 prize is ample consolation, but he fell short in his ambitions to become the first player ever to add WCOOP Main Event success to the equivalent in the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP). Shakerchi won that a couple of years ago.
In all, 271 players were paid, with the lion’s share handed out during a final table that lasted only four hours. Players from Sweden, Germany, Estonia (2), Belgium and Hungary were knocked out taking them down to the last three.
In his final hand, Shakerchi raised to 7.49 million (blinds were 2 million/4 million) and “BigBlindBets” three bet fo 24.08 million from the big blind. Shakerchi then pushed for about 102 million total and “BigBlindBets” called. Shakerchi’s J♣K♣ was in trouble against “BigBlindBets”‘ A♥J♥ and two aces on the flop pretty much sealed it.
Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi beaten into third
With Shakerchi out of the way, “BigBlindBets” had an enormous chip lead over Demetrio — around 485 million to 70 million — and didn’t take long to complete the deal. Demetrio limped with his A♦K♦ and got the shove from “BigBlindBets” he was surely hoping for. But “BigBlindBets”‘ A♠2♠ rivered a flush to end it all.
We will hope to catch up with as many of the finalists as we can over the coming few days.
World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP)
Event: WCCOP-70-H NLHE Main Event
Dates: Sept 22-25, 2019
Buy-in: $5,200
Entries: 2,236 (inc. 599 re-entries)
Prize pool: $11,180,000
1 – BigBlindBets (UK) – $1,665,962.04
2 – Danilo “dans170′” de Lima Demetrio (Brazil) – $1,187,553.01
3 – Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi (UK) – $846,528.35
4 – NeedBeat (Estonia) – $603,434.91
5 – 19Pistike93 (Hungary) – $403,148.26
6 – XMorphineX (Belgium) – $306,624.91
7 – Leitnant (Estonia) – $218,572.35
8 – moglimiranda (Germany) – $155,805.59
9 – TheMakrill7 (Sweden) – $111,063.23
STAT TRACKER
That’s it! Here are the final stats for this 219-strong tournament series:
Events: 219
Entries: 1,219,969
Prize pools: $104,733,898.76
First prizes so far: $15,765,054.94
In-the-money finishers: 173,364
COUNTRIES LEADER BOARD
“BigBlindBets”‘ victory in the Main Event had a profound effect on the overall countries leader board. From 219 events in this series, players based in the UK, including the final champion, won 28 tournaments, the same number as those from Russia. It means that those two countries share bragging rights at the end of another WCOOP. Brazil led at the start but faded during the final week, allowing both the Brits and the Russians to scoot past. See you back at SCOOP time for another chance.
28 titles – Russia, 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.
LEADER BOARD FINAL STANDINGS
The Player of the Series races are now all complete, with bonus prizes heading to Finland, Russia, Latvia and the Netherlands.
Overall:
1 – Jussi “calvin7v” Nevanlinna Finland 1,400 – $20,000 plus trophy
2 – Zagazaur Netherlands 1,345
3 – RuiNF Netherlands 1,280
4 – TruthBeTold7 Canada 1,205
5 – shaundeeb Mexico 1,150
6 – krakukra Russia 1,050
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 — $3,500 plus trophy
2 – -Rebus1980- Russia 465
3 – Voziyanov15 Russia 455
4 – krakukra Russia 440
5 – TruthBeTold7 Canada 395
Medium buy-in:
1 – Colisea Latvia 580 — $5,000 plus trophy
2 – shaundeeb Mexico 450
3 – pantri Paraguay 400
4 – Zagazaur Netherlands 375
5 – calvin7v Finland 370
High buy-in:
1 – RuiNF Netherlands 705 — $7,500 plus trophy
2 – Zagazaur Netherlands 700
3 – calvin7v Finland 675
4 – Naza114 UK 600
5 – theNERDguy Brazil 495
INTERVIEWS! INTERVIEWS! INTERVIEWS!
Seven years after the first, another WCOOP for Dan Scott
We caught 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.
• Dan “woodbine ave” Scott: Second victory was “a long time coming!”
• 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
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