A round-up of the final weekend of the PokerStars’ World Championship of Online Poker including two wins for Dzmitry Urbanovich, a fourth title for Mike Watson, and the biggest win of the series thus far for Linus Loeliger.
Poker players from around the globe are about to grow accustomed to the shaking of hands again, as their sole reason for hibernating in their bedroom like a vampire draws to a close.
The 16th Annual PokerStars’ World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) has waved bye-bye to its final weekend. So far, 714,544 entrants have competed in 165 events, creating $70,588,896 in prize money dished out to 111,764 people, and that’s not including the Main Event data yet to come.
The King Cobra in the PokerStars’ snake charming kit is the $5,300 buy-in, $10m Guaranteed Main Event (H), and yesterday Stars surpassed that guarantee thanks to 2,044 entrants (1,572 unique, 472 re-entries) creating a $10.22m prize pool. The winner will take home $1,529,002.94, and the likes of Noah Boeken, Lex Veldhuis and Liv Boeree are still in with a chance of winning that incredible sum of money.
At the other scale of things, the $55 buy-in (L) Main Event attracted 39,817 entrants (27,118 unique, 12,699 re-entries), creating a $1.99m prize pool, and the winner will have the joy of seeing $192,036.92 sitting in their PokerStars account.
The two winners will emerge on Monday 17 September.
In Other WCOOP News:
The PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Champion, and partypoker ambassador, Dzmitry “Colisea” Urbanovich, became one of the many people to win multiple WCOOP titles in 2018. The superlative Pole battered 158 entrants to collect $34,365 in the $1,050 buy-in HORSE for his third career WCOOP title and then won #4 a few days later in winning the $10,300 buy-in 8-Game, beating 71 entrants to claim the $225,000 first prize.
Joining Urbanovich in the #4 WCOOP Club was Mike “SirWatts” Watson who won the $215 buy-in 2-7 Triple Draw event beating 396 entrants to capture the $15,325.20 first prize, two days before finishing second to Arseniy ‘josef_shvejk’ Karmatskiy in the $2,100 6-Max Shootout.
In a poker world that’s fast-evolving, Watson is becoming ‘old school’, but not as ‘old school’ as Noah “Exclusive” Boeken. The Dutchman took down the $1,050 buy-in 8-Game competition beating 181 entrants to bank $41,630 and is second WCOOP career title. Boeken is still alive in the WCOOP Main Event sitting in 28th place.
Luke “Bit2easy” Reeves won the $5,200 No-Limit Hold’em 8-Max Turbo PKO beating 203 players to send $219,742.31 into his virtual piggy bank, Ognjen ‘psjebemvas Šekularac beat 662 entrants to win the $2,100 No-Limit Hold’em event for $228,348.36. And Alexei “AS Leshiy” Smirnov topped a field of 5,010 entrants in the $215 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em event for $131,349.41.
Joao “Naza114” Vieira won the $2,100 buy-in 91-entrant 2-7 Triple Draw event for $49,595.00 before winning a $5,200 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em event for $136,124.88. And the outstanding online cash game star, Linus “LLinusLLove” Loeliger, beat 104 entrants in the $25,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em Super High Roller earning $587,747.32, the most outlandish sum of money handed to anyone during the 165 events.
Here is that final table
Final Table Results
1. Linus “LLinusLLove” Loeliger – $587,747.32
2. Henrik “hhecklen’ Hecklen – $451,251.38
3. frozZy – $346,454.88
4. Michael ‘mczhang’ Chi Zhang – $265,995.69
5. Chris ‘Big Huni- Hunichen – $204,221.95
6. Rachid ’SkaiWalkurrr’ Ben Cherif – $156,794.30
7. Bartek901 – $120,391.17
8. Patrick ‘pads1161’ Leonard – $92,424.30
In 2013, a fresh-faced Loeliger (then only 19), opened a thread on 2+2 explaining how he was going to document his rise from $10NL to $100 NL starting with a $240 bankroll.
“I’ve read a few books,” posted Loeliger at the time.
I would love to know who wrote them.
