Gavin Cochrane wins WPT World Online 8-Max Championship for $540,664

Gavin-Cochrane-wins-WPT-World-Online-8-Max-Championship-for-540664

Gavin Cochrane took down the WPT World Online Championships 8-Max Championship for a top prize of $540,664 and a $15,000-entry into the season-ending Tournament of Champions including flights and accommodation as he bested a field of top-quality players to come out on top.

With a total of 1,062 entries, there was over $3 million in the prizepool, and Cochrane it was who got his name on the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup, coming into the final table as chip leader and riding out a dramatic last battle to emerge as a deserved winner.

Going into the final table, Cochrane had over 34 million chips, which in real terms was 115 big blinds. His nearest challenger was the other Britain-based player at the final table, Thomas Boivin, but he sat on 60 big blinds.

Despite leading as play got under way, Cochrane would suffer an early setback as his missed straight draw saw Dmitry Yurasov double-up into the lead. It was the worst possible start for Cochrane, but he used the energy to carry on playing consistently excellent poker, dominating the late stages of an event which was as fun to watch as it looked to play in.

There was a lot on the action from many players perspectives, with Lars Kamphues hoping to emulate his brother by becoming a WPT champion, with Timo Kamphues taking down the WPT Shooting Stars event. Another who wanted to add the WPT Main Event win to his resume was Ognyan Dimov, who would have secured a famous Triple Crown (EPT, WSOP and WPT title) with the win, becoming only the tenth player in poker history to attain such an achievement.

Alas, for the Bulgarian’s many fans, he fell just short of emulating the achievement attained by Welsh poker wizard Roberto Romanello just a week ago.

The first player to leave the final table was British player Sam Grafton, who had pocket kings cracked then with his remaining chips, lost with pocket kings again in the very next hand to Dmitry Yurasov’s ace-ten, the Belarussian picking up a prime scalp with runner-runner.

Cochrane was hanging in there, but others fell. Dimov’s push for Triple Crown glory fell short before Jiachen Gong made his exit too. Cochrane took out Daniel Colpoys by winning a coinflip before ousting Kazakhstani player Shyngis Satubayev.

With four players left, Thomas Boivin managed to vault into the chip lead but when Cochrane received pocket kings, this time they won out as he eliminated Yurasov with them. When Kamphues was busted by Boivin in a standard shove-call-coinflip spot, it was Boivin who went into the heads-up battle with the chip lead, with just over 70 million chips to Cochrane’s 36.7 million.

It took a double-up for Cochrane with a straight – this time he didn’t miss – for him to go into the lead for the first time since losing that early final table pot and he made no mistake with it. Boivin, now at a chip disadvantage for the first time since four-handed play, moved all-in with ace-four but was called by Cochrane with ace-jack, and a jack on the river sealed a memorable victory for Cochrane against a very good opponent and final table full of exciting drama.

WPT World Online 8-Max Championship Final Table Results: 

Place

Player

Country

Payout

1st

Gavin Cochrane

United Kingdom

$540,664

2nd

Thomas Boivin

United Kingdom

$388,119

3rd

Lars Kamphues

Austria

$256,728

4th

Dmitry Yurasov

Belarus

$173,956

5th

Shyngis Satubayev

Kazakhstan

$123,298

6th

Daniel Colpoys

Mexico

$87,296

7th

Jiachen Gong

Canada

$61,171

8th

Ognyan Dimov

Bulgaria

$48,427

9th

Sam Grafton

United Kingdom

$40,144

You can catch up on the World Poker Tour round-ups of action on their YouTube channel, where Matt Savage’s weekly ‘Savage Beat’ is already into its second week.