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Grayson Ramage Takes Half a Million From the WCOOP Challenge; and PokerStars Team up With Hard Rock.
Grayson Ramage takes the top prize of over half a million dollars, from the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Challenge Series Main Event, and PokerStars make life easier for their online crew by allowing them to buy-in online through their Stars account for the upcoming $10m Guaranteed Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship (SHRPO).
You start to understand the power of WCOOP when you learn that their warm-up event has just handed out $502,165 to Grayson Ramage after topping the WCOOP Challenge Series Main Event field.
Half a milly.
That’s a lot of bloody money.
The victory pushes Ramage’s online tournament earnings over the $4.7m mark, and with over $1m in live tournament earnings also banked, the former New York State native is not going to be worrying about the electricity bill for a few months yet.
Ramage was one of 1,243 players who paid $2,100 to enter the WCOOP Challenge Series Main Event, and after 256 second bullets were also fired, the total prize pool stood at $2,998,000.
It was a tough final table with Sebastian ‘P0cket00″ Sikorski also making the grade. Not many people remember the second of anything, but I do. Sikorski is the number two all-time online tournament money earner with over $7.5m in winnings, nestled behind Chris Moorman with over $11m.
Sikorski would have to settle for an eighth place finish worth $56,962, and Ramage would overcome the Danish pro Andreas Hogo to take the top prize.
Ramage is an American citizen and has to travel to Canada to grind online, and one imagines he is one of several players who are a little alarmed at PokerStars withdrawal as the sponsor for the Montreal Poker Festival due to be held later this month.
WCOOP will run 7th Sep – 28th Sep and will offer $40m in guarantees as well as a $10m Guaranteed Main Event.
Final Table Standings
1st Grayson “gray31″ Ramage (USA) $502,165
2nd Andreas “Hoegh93″ Hogo (DEN) $367,255
3rd guyguy12 (ISR) $277,315
4th Kyle “weekesy333″ Weekes (CAN) $203,864
5th Andreas Christoforou (CYP) $146,902
6th GR8MIND (CAN) $116,922
7th Ssick_OnE (GER) $86,942
8th Sebastian “p0cket00″ Sikorski (CAN) $56,962
9th Matias “Festivuss” Grebanja (MEX) $30,879
PokerStars Allow Easy Access to the $10m Guaranteed Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship
Talking about $10m guarantees, PokerStars have taken the unprecedented step of creating a tournament lobby that allows their players to buy-in to the $10m Guaranteed Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship due to take place Aug 20 – Sep 3.
What makes this move so unusual is the fact that Stars are not a brand sponsor for the event, and seem to be doing this purely as a way to help their players shift their funds in a safe and secure manner.
Players can choose a variety of starting flights, but can only purchase one $3,500 bullet and they will not be able to reload online during the tournament.
You imagine this is one of many brick and mortar relationships that Amaya Gaming and its children will start to forge in the coming months.
