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The biggest and most prestigious series in online poker comes to an end tonight as the $5,200 Main Event will crown its latest champion, with the victor set to pick up a life-changing sum of $1,612,843.75. That figure came from 1,825 entrants and a total prize pool of $9,125,000 – nearly $1 million more than last year’s Main Event.
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From the 245 players that will return for day 2 at 14.30 ET today, there are many big names still in the running for the title, including Team PokerStars Pros Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier, Jude ‘j.thaddeus’ Ainsworth and Jonathan Duhamel, along with Team Online members Kevin ‘WizardOfAhhs’ Thurman and Mickey ‘mement_mori’ Petersen.
It’s also worth noting that 51 players qualified for the WCOOP Main Event via the Mega Path series, which enables players to satellite in using frequent player points (FPPs). Of the 51 who started out last night, 11 have survived to day 2 and six of those managed to qualify for 3,000 FPPs or less.
8-Game High Roller
One high-profile event which did finish last night was the $10,300 8-Game High Roller. Team PokerStars Pros have bossed this event since it was introduced three years ago, with two winners – David Williams, (2009), Alex Kravchenko (2010) – and a runner-up finish (Eugene Katchalov, 2011). This year was no exception, with two of the poker world’s most famous Team Pros at the final table. Daniel ‘KidPoker’ Negreanu was going for his first WCOOP bracelet, but eventually came third (he came fifth last year), while Jason Mercier went on to grab his second WCOOP bracelet, beating ‘Gozoboro’ from Ireland heads-up, to pocket the first prize of $253,425.
Latest results
WCOOP-60: $700 PL Omaha [Heads-Up] – $100,000 guaranteed
Entrants: 418
Prize pool: $280,060
Cashes: 64
Final table result:
1. Danya Kop (Russia) – $54,211.40*
2. Mefisto661 (Russia) – $52,211.40*
* denotes final table deal
WCOOP-63: $215 NL Hold’em – $1 million guaranteed
Entrants: 9,569
Prize pool: $1,913,800
Cashes: 106
Players remaining: 106, including Nicolas ‘niccc’ Chouity, Joao ‘jomane’ Nunes (Team Online), and Marcin ‘Goral’ Horecki (Team Pro)
Resumes: 11. 00 ET
WCOOP-64: $10,300 8-Game [High Roller] – $400,000 guaranteed
Entrants: 93
Prize pool: $930,000
Cashes: 12
Final table result:
1. Jason Mercier (Canada, Team Pro) – $253,425
2. Gozoboro (Ireland) – $169,725
3. Daniel ‘KidPoker’ Negreanu (Canada) – $130,200
4. Niki ‘RealAndyBeal’ Jedlicka (Austria) – $88,350
5. Ben ‘BensBenz’ Yu (Mexico) – $65,100
6. Scott ‘gunning4you’ Seiver (Canada) – $48,825
WCOOP-65: $5,200 NL Hold’em Main Event – $5 million guaranteed
Entrants: 1,825
Prize pool: $9,125,000
Cashes: 225
Remaining players: 245, including Kevin ‘WizardofAhhs’ Thurman (Team Online), Calvin ‘cal42688’ Anderson, Kyle ‘KJulius10’ Julius, Mike ‘Tîmex’ McDonald, Mickey ‘mement_mori’ Petersen (Team Online), Adam ‘AJunglen7’ Junglen, Shawn ‘buck21’ Buchanan, Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier (Team Pro), Jude ‘j.thaddeus’ Ainsworth (Team Pro), Jonathan ‘johnduhamel’ Duhamel (Team Pro), Alexander ‘joiso’ Kostritsyn, Andrew ‘foucault82’ Brokos, Russell ‘rdcrsn’ Carson, Ben ‘BensBenz’ Yu and James ‘Asprin1’ Akenhead
Resumes: 14.30 ET
Stats comparison (after Day 21)
2012 WCOOP
Events: 65
Prizes awarded: $55,522,590
Entries: 126,041
2011 WCOOP
Events: 62
Prizes awarded: $48,016,800
Entries:119,832
(NB: prizes include bounties)
Team PokerStars challenges
ElkY vs Katchalov
Team PokerStars Pros Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier and Eugene Katchalov are taking each other on in a three-part WCOOP contest, where the loser of each individual challenge has to do a forfeit. The challenge criteria are as follows:
1) Player of the Series: lowest-placed person on the Leaderboard has until PCA at the Bahamas to learn the other person’s language and give a short interview to a TV/web broadcast. If ElkY loses he will have to do it in Russian, while Eugene will have to do it in French. If viewers can’t understand it, the loser will have three months to prepare and run a full marathon.
2) WCOOP winnings: whichever player posts the smallest amount of winnings at the end of the series must cycle from Cannes to EPT Sanremo (about 130km)
3) Total number of cashes: the player with least cashes must perform 1,000 push-ups in 12 hours
With just two events left to be completed, the stats are as follows:
ElkY
Earnings: $59,479.29
Cashes: 8
TLB: 160 points – tied 49th
Katchalov
Earnings: $83,427.15
Cashes: 10
TLB: 250 points – tied 9th
Despite starting slowly, ElkY is set to tie Katchalov for most amount of cashes, as the Frenchman has made the money in the two events which finish tonight. ElkY can even come from behind to win both other categories IF he becomes Main Event champion tonight! If he doesn’t win it, Katchalov will win the Player of the Series superiority bet, and ElkY will need to finish at least 45th in the Main Event to overtake Eugene’s $83,427.15 in earnings.
Event #64: ($10,300) 8-Game High Roller Results:
1: Jason Mercier: $253,425
2: Gozoboro: $169,725
3: Daniel “KidPoker” Negreanu: $130,200
4: Niki “RealAndyBeal” Jedlicka: $88,350
5: BensBenz: $65,100
6: gunning4you: $48,825
7: Anders “Donald” Berg: $34,875
8: George “Jorj95″ Lind: $34,875
9: cal42688: $34,875
10: Andy McLEOD:$23,250
11: GlassOfBeer: $23,250
12: Sorel “zangbezan24″ Mizzi: $23,250
