The World Poker Tour haven’t been running as many events as some other tours during the global pandemic, but with a tight structure, great prizepool and their historic prestige, the WPT Online Poker Open was another example of how much kudos a win on the WPT still brings.
The WPT Online Poker Open posted strong numbers from the start, and by the time the partypoker-hosted event closed its late registration for the $365+$35 event with 868 entries in the books. That meant a prizepool of $317,540, a good amount over the $300,000 guarantee that had been put up for the tournament.
It was a very special event, too. Exclusive to players physically playing from the Garden State, the most densely-populated state in the U.S.A. could take part, and plenty did, playing either on the New Jersey partypoker site, BorgataPoker.com or BetMGMPoker.com.
All the action took place on Sunday, with the trophy joined by an $11,000 VIP package from partypoker to play in the next WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic that takes place at the Bellagio in Las Vegas for the winner, that being a $10,400 buy-in and $600 towards travel and other expenses.
By the time the final table was reached, the eventual winner Coleman was second in chips of the nine remaining players. It was the player known as ‘A.Jackson1767’ who would be eliminated first, his all-in move with ace-jack called by Kevin Durant, whose pocket fives held on to reduce the field to eight.
That number was trimmed further when ‘anthonely’ was all-in and ahead, but at risk of losing his tournament life with pocket kings. It was ‘jbg82’ who had made the call with ace-jack and when an ace landed on the river, only seven players still had hopes of taking the title.
A quick couple of bustouts followed. First, ‘BV511’ moved all-in for next to nothing with ace-seven and ran into David Coleman (a.k.a. his presumptuous screen name of ‘TheKing411) who held ace-queen which continued its domination through five community cards.
Next to go was Josh Rothberg, who was all-in and at risk with ace-queen, but called by the pocket sixes of ‘jbg82’, the small pair again holding comfortably through the board.
With five players left, it was ‘jbg82’ again who did the busting, with a dominant ace-queen against Kevin Durant, who had ace-jack. Two queens on the board ended Durant’s chances. If that wasn’t enough, ‘jbg82’ would end another player’s chances, with ‘ShutUPnDANCE’ hot-stepping their way from the table after running ace-eight into the ace-king of ‘jbg82’. The player known as ‘lucky’ couldn’t live up to their name and the action moved into the heads-up domain.
Despite such domination, ‘jbg82’ would not win the heads-up battle. It was a case of being flushed out, too, as both players had one, but Coleman’s was higher in the final hand. That valuable pot going Coleman’s way ended the challenge of ‘jbg82’, and secured a $42,233 runner-up score, not so far shy of Coleman’s $56,586 top prize.
For David Coleman, it was a remarkable victory in more ways than one. Last month, he took down the partypoker U.S. Network Online Series Main Event for $21,233 and took down the Borgata Spring Poker Open Online Series Main Event for $28,605 in April of this year.
WPT Online Poker Open Final Table Results:
Place |
Player |
Prize |
1st |
David Coleman |
$56,586 |
2nd |
“jbg82” |
$42,233 |
3rd |
“lucky” |
$29,690 |
4th |
“ShutUPnDANCE” |
$22,545 |
5th |
“KevinDurant” |
$17,306 |
6th |
Josh Rothberg |
$13,019 |
7th |
“BV511” |
$9,844 |
8th |
“anthonely” |
$7,145 |
9th |
“A.Jackson1767” |
$5,239 |