PokerStars.com World Championship of Online Poker Event #1 - $500 No-Limit Hold ‘Em $800k Guaranteed
Jon Eaton
September 4th, 2005
PokerStars’ WCOOP got off with a bang yesterday in the first of fifteen events. The $500 No-Limit Hold ‘Em event promised $800k and nearly doubled that. 3,062 players entered, swelling the prize pool to $1,531,000. 324 players were paid.
A lot of well-known live tournament professionals, as well as the entire online poker community of pros, showed up for this event. Team PokerStars players Evelyn Ng (evybabee), Isabelle Mercier (NoMercy), Greg Raymer (Fossilman), and Chris Moneymaker (Money800) all entered, but none lasted too long. Mercier made it the deepest, but didn’t even make the money.
Phil Hellmuth (#1_Lucky_One) was cruising along with a lot of chips but went broke before the money as well. Our own Brett “Gank” Jungblut didn’t fare very well either. It appeared as though the name players weren’t destined to do well.
David Williams (Rugdoctor) maintained a top ten chip stack most of the day, but failed to make the final table, finishing a disappointing twentieth. A player rumored to be TJ Cloutier (J9 of clubs) stole the chip lead late in the going, but went broke just a short while later, busting out in thirty-second position.
Finally, Patrick Jackson (PMJackson21), our own PokerStars.com weekly tournament reporter, held the chip lead with about five tables remaining. He had grinded his way through the field and finally built up momentum. He was short stacked at the final two tables, then doubled through A K with pocket aces. His fate was met when his pocket jacks were all-in against A K and was out-flopped. Patrick made a valiant effort and took home a very nice payday of $10,410 for his thirteenth place finish.
Down to the final nine, none of which really are of notoriety in the online community… at least, until now. As is the nature of the game, you’re a no body until you’re dancing with the bracelet and the money. Here are the final nine players, chip counts in parenthesis:
Seat 1: MrSuperlove (547,095)
Seat 2: fixedset (578,176)
Seat 3: ziggy47 (348,382)
Seat 4: toprose (1,873,484)
Seat 5: bobcubed (559,838)
Seat 6: bibb (719,936)
Seat 7: mrrain (761,596)
Seat 8: Snow Leopard (1,658,085)
Seat 9: majic1111 (608,408)
As play began, the blinds were 15k-30k with a 1k ante. ziggy47 doubled through Snow Leopard early with A Q winning the race against threes. He followed that up by winning about a half-million off of mrrain, moving all-in on the turn with the board showing 3s As Jc 7h. mrrain tossed his cards in the muck, giving ziggy47 over 1.1m in chips.
Finally, we had our first elimination. bibb opened for 90k, and Snow Leopard flat-called. majic1111 put his final 327k in the middle for an all-in re-raise. Snow Leopard decided to call after bibb mucked. majic1111 showed Ad Qs, and was happy to see Snow Leopard’s Kd Qd. That is, until the flop came king high, and no cards saved him. majic1111 took ninth place and walked home with $16,534.80.
Just a few pots later, our second elimination occurred. The blinds were at 20k-40k with a 2k ante and bobcubed limped in from the small blind. bibb charged him another 80k to see the flop, and bobcubed made the call. bobcubed made a bet of 40k when the flop came Jd 7d 2s, and called the last few chips all-in when bibb made the raise. bobcubed had just Kd Qs, trailing bibb’s Jc 8c. A four and a six peeled off, which were of no relevance for bobcubed. He took eighth place and was credited $27,558 for his play.
mrrain and bibb would tangle in the very next pot for one of the most memorable pots of the final table. This time around, bibb opened the pot for 120k and mrrain pushed for 384k. bibb made the call with pocket tens, and mrrain had a race with Ac Jd. The flop was a beauty for mrrain, as it came down K J J. The turn was brutal-the Td gave bibb the best hand with a full house. However, as is the nature of Hold ‘Em, the river would save the short stack yet again, when the Kd made mrrain jacks full to beat bibb’s tens full.
The loan frequent player point qualifier (entering a grand total of $0 to play), MrSuperlove, would see his stack disappear just a few hands later. toprose opened for 80k, and MrSuperlove pushed all-in over the top for 530k total. toprose made the call with Ts Th, putting MrSuperlove’s Ac 9c in bad shape. The ten on the flop was all it took, and our freeroll qualifier was out in seventh, earning $39,806.
bibb doubled up with pocket sevens against Snow Leopard’s pocket fives, reenergizing him after that terrible river card against mrrain. A few rounds would go without much action, and then mrrain doubled through toprose. Following that, bibb would keep toprose’s stack shrinking, as he doubled through him by slow-playing a monster.
toprose made another minimum raise from the small blind to 80k, which bibb called. The flop was Jd 7c 6h. toprose checked, bibb made a 40k bet and toprose moved all-in for 2.1m total. bibb called nearly 600k all-in and they tabled their cards. toprose held Qs Jc and bibb Kd Ks. No queen or jack came and bibb raked in the 1.4m pot.
mrrain would record the first cracking of aces. He opened for 150k, which Snow Leopard called. ziggy47 re-raised to 350k, and mrrain moved in for 691k total. Snow Leopard got out of the way and ziggy47 called, showing black aces. mrrain was cold-decked with two red queens, but pulled a flush in hearts on the turn, leaving the aces drawing stone-cold dead.
fixedset would be our next cash out. With the blinds at 25k-50k and a 2,500 ante, toprose opened for 100k. fixedset re-raised 200k more to go from the big blind, and toprose called. On the flop of Ks 2d 5h, fixedset checked. We later learn he was trying to induce a bluff from the aggressive toprose. He finally bet 300k when the 5c fell on the turn. With the board showing K 2 5 5 4 rainbow on the river, he bet another 300k. toprose raised his last 346k all-in and was called. toprose showed As 5s for three fives, and fixedset was kicking himself with Ah Kh. He was still alive, but with just 50k in chips.
With fixedset still on the respirators, Snow Leopard challenged bibb, who had re-raised Snow’s opening bet before the flop. Snow Leopard pushed in and bibb, fearing a bust out before the crippled stack would be eliminated, mucked his hand.
The only player fixedset had covered, he would bust just a few pots later. ziggy47 moved all-in for 123k and it folded to fixedset in the big blind, who called the 73k raise (having a monster stack of 24k remaining). ziggy47 showed Ks Td and fixedset turned over Ah 2s. An ace on the flop gave fixedset the lead, and ziggy47 drawing with just a pair of tens on the flop. No help came and fixedset managed to eliminate the smallest stack while nearly doubling himself up in the process. ziggy47 took sixth place, and won $53,585.
bibb would make his last steal as he opened for 500k in the small blind. mrrain moved him all-in for his last 22k. mrrain showed two jacks, and bibb had just Q 9 off-suit to deal with. No queen appeared and bibb became the fifth place finisher, winning $68,895.
fixedset, still on the short stack, managed to double up again. Just a few rounds ago he was down to 50k in chips, and after his A 5 made a pair of fives to trump the A 2 of Snow Leopard, he was back to over a half-million in chips.
His luck would finally end, as he pushed all-in for that 524k stack in first position. Snow Leopard made the call with his luck Kd Qh, and made three kings to beat fixedset’s A T off-suit. For fourth place, fixedset took home $88,798.
Three-handed play began with the chip stacks as follows:
Seat 1: toprose (2,099,562)
Seat 2: mrrain (1,960,190)
Seat 3: Snow Leopard (3,595,248)
Raise and fold would be the play the next handful of rounds. Either an opening bet would take the pot down, or a re-raise would do the trick. mrrain would be cut down by a series of re-raises and all-in moves from toprose and Snow Leopard.
With the blinds maxed out at 30k-60k with a 3k ante, toprose opened for 120k. mrrain re-raised to 360k, and toprose got the ball rolling, pushing all-in. mrrain followed suit and got his whole 1m stack in the middle. toprose showed 3d 3c and mrrain was trailing with Kh Qh. The flop was huge for mrrain, as it fell Jc 6h 9h. With a total of eighteen outs with two cards to come, he was actually a favorite. That is, a favorite who still needed to catch to survive, which he did not do. For his third place efforts, mrrain took home $114,825.
Heads-up play began and no deal was made. Snow Leopard inquired, but toprose never entertained discussions. The battle lasted for a long time, with the chip lead being traded back and forth numerous times. Snow Leopard jumped out in front quickly but toprose kept battling back. toprose wasn’t able to get the chip lead back for a while, but finally managed to hold a 4.3m to 3.2m lead.
In a raised pot, the flop read Tc 3s Qs. toprose check-raised Snow Leopard’s 420k bet all-in and Snow Leopard made the call. Snow Leopard held Ac Qd and toprose was behind with Qc Jd. The turn and river were bricks and Snow Leopard now had a commanding 6.5m to 1.1m chip lead.
Just a few pots later, toprose pushed his last 1.1m into the middle. Snow Leopard obligingly called. toprose held just 3s 6c, and Snow Leopard had Ah 4h. The flop contained a three, but Snow Leopard ended the marathon 13-hour-plus tournament when the 4d fell on the turn. For second place, toprose took home $183,720.
Snow Leopard is our first bracelet winner of the WCOOP. He took home a whopping $306,200-which happens to be larger than the prize pool of the first WCOOP main event!
Final Results:
1st - Snow Leopard $306,200
2nd - toprose 183,720
3rd - mrrain 114,825
4th - fixedset 88,798
5th - bibb 68,895
6th - ziggy47 53,585
7th - MrSuperlove 39,806
8th - bobcubed 27,558
9th - majic1111 16,534
