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At first glance, it was a Sunday like so many other Sundays that have come before. Thousands of players launched the PokerStars client. They then registered for a $215 no-limit hold’em tournament that featured a guaranteed prize pool of seven figures. But this was no ordinary Sunday tournament on PokerStars. This was the first event of the 2010 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), a three-week festival of online poker that, in its nine years of existence, has kick-started the careers of several promising young players. On this Sunday, it would be AlexKP who would best 9,001 players after 18.5 hours to collect the first WCOOP title of 2010.

Any of the 9,001 players that registered for WCOOP Event #1, $215 six-handed no-limit hold’em, could have been forgiven if they had proverbial visions of sugar plums as the tournament began. The $1.8 million prize pool crushed the $1.25 million guarantee that PokerStars made for the tournament and ensured that the account of the eventual winner would be credited with more than a quarter million dollars.

Randy “nanonoko” Lew was the pace-setter for the 56 members of Team PokerStars that played Event #1. Lew finished a very respectable 33rd-place finish and collected $5,400.60 in prize money. He was joined on his deep run by Noah “Exclusive” Boeken (87th) and venerated poker icon Barry “barryg1″ Greenstein (110th). Eight other Team Pros also made the money.

But even Boeken’s impressive deep run came up well short of the final table. That honor went to these six players:

Seat 1: AlexKP (27904440 in chips)
Seat 2: inhidonks (7378980 in chips)
Seat 3: Stephen “stevie444″ Chidwick (10804952 in chips)
Seat 4: Tutanhamon1 (20274472 in chips)
Seat 5: Drateks (5440084 in chips)
Seat 6: ROOJAR_M (18207072 in chips)

Chidwick was perhaps the most well-known player at the table. Over the last several years, he has won more than 200 seats in the WSOP Main Event and has collected a slew of other seats for live events on the EPT and other poker tours. But his laurels alone wouldn’t be enough to collect a WCOOP title. Stacked 4th of the final six players, he’d need to move up the counts.

The final table started off with a bang. On the second hand of play, chip leader AlexKP opened pre-flop to 550,000. When the action came around, Drateks re-raised all in for approximately 5.1 million. AlexKP quickly called with a pair of nines. That left the two sevens that Drateks held drawing very thin. Neither player improved from that point, allowing AlexKP to knock Drateks out in 6th place.

From there AlexKP started relentlessly attacked the blinds of the short-stacked players to his left, inhidonks and Chidwick. Chidwick eventually fired back in a pot that AlexKP opened to 550,000 pre-flop, his standard open. Chidwick re-raised to 1.475 million, then bet just more than 1 million on a flop of [6h][jc][js]. AlexKP called to see the [ac] fall on the turn. That’s where AlexKP tried a raise, raising Chidwick from 1.75 million to 3.75 million. Chidwick responded by shoving for 6.5 million total. AlexKP snap-folded, allowing Chidwick to add 6 million chips to his stack without a showdown.

At the 5:55am break, with five players still remaining Tutanhamon1 proposed a “friendly deal”. AlexKP, who had 35 million of the 90 million chips in play, quickly quashed that idea.

inhidonks was the next player out, and the only player at the final table not eliminated by AlexKP. Inhidonks opened all in for 4.5 million with [ah][9d]. ROOJAR_M made an easy call with [kd][kc], then flopped a matching king to remove almost all doubt from the outcome of the hand. ROOJAR_M then suggested looking at chop numbers. Chidwick, the new short stack, declined. “I’m too short,” he said of his 30-big blind stack. “Let’s gamble.”

AlexKP’s lead continued to widen. Tutanhamon1 fired two bullets against AlexKP on a board of [2s][th][3h][4c][kh], leading the flop for 1.1 million and the turn for 2.0 million. AlexKP check-called each time, leading Tutanhamon1 to shut down on the river and check behind. AlexKP dragged the pot with an unimproved pair of sevens to climb to 47.6 million in chips. But Tutanhamon1 returned the favor three hands later by turning a club flush and inducing AlexKP to pay off a 5.2 million-chip river bet.

The very next hand, the short-stacked Chidwick found the spot he was looking for. ROOJAR_M opened pre-flop to 822,799, then shoved over the top of Chidwick’s re-raise to 2,041,394. Chidwick instantly called with pocket queens, which held up against ROOJAR_M’s pair of sixes. The hand doubled Chidwick to 24.4 million and left ROOJAR_M with just 5 million in chips. It all ended for ROOJAR_M in 4th place about ten minutes later, when AlexKP’s flopped a set of jacks against ROOJAR_M’s [kc][qc], who had flopped top pair. ROOJAR_M did turn a flush draw, but it failed to fill on the river.

Chidwick didn’t have long to enjoy his newfound chips. Just a few hands after his double up, he found himself on the rail. He opened the button with a minimum raise to about 1 million. AlexKP, in the big blind, re-raised to 3 million. Chidwick four-bet shoved for 24.8 million and was immediately called by AlexKP, creating a pot worth 50 million chips.

Chidwick showed [ac][th]. He was a big underdog to AlexKP’s [ah][kh] but found a great flop of [ad][5d][ts], to make two pair, aces and tens. The turn [4c] left Chidwick needing to fade only the remaining three kings in the deck to take over the chip lead. He couldn’t do it; the river fell the [kd], giving AlexKP an improbable two pair and the winning hand. Instead of becoming the chip leader, Chidwick was retired to the rail in third place.

Stephen “stevie444″ Chidwick

As heads-up play began, Tutanhamon1 was down to about 18.5 million in chips against AlexKP’s 71.5 million and tried again for some sort of chop. AlexKP’s reply was blunt. “If you get to 30 million we can talk.” With a total of 180 big blinds between the two players, Tutanhamon1 had plenty of time to reach that point.

The two players made incremental gains back and forth for about 20 to 30 minutes. The moment that Tutanhamon1’s count crested the 30-million chip mark, he again proposed a chop. Good to his word, AlexKP agreed to take a look. “I’m not taking an even chip [chop] though,” AlexKP warned Tutanhamon1. “I’m a HU cash player and you’re obviously not – no offense.”

The chip-chop numbers came in at $225,370.42 for AlexKP and $204,904.06 for Tutanhamon1. AlexKP countered with $232,000 for himself, a number to which Tutanhamon1 immediately agreed. The deal was in place; all that was left was to play for the $25,000 set-aside.

Five hands after the deal, Tutanhamon1 took down a 15 million pot without showdown to further narrow the gap between the two stacks. When Tutanhamon1 subsequently took down another large pot without showdown, AlexKP’s lead was narrowed to just 10 million chips, 50 million to 40 million. It seemed most of the pressure was being applied by Tutanhamon1.

But that momentum came crashing down around Tutanhamon1’s ears just a few hands later. AlexKP opened with a minimum raise to 1.2 million that Tutanhamon1 called. On a flop of [qh][tc][3h], Tutanhaon1 checked and called another 1.2 million. On the [4h] turn, Tutanhamon1 checked, then made a huge over-raise shove of 33 million after AlexKP bet 3.8 million. It was the over-aggression that AlexKP had been waiting to pounce on. He quickly called with a set of treys, [3s][3d]. Tutanhamon1 showed top pair with no draw, [qc][7s]. That left the river [2d] as a mere formality in front of AlexKP’s win.

WCOOP Event 1 $215 No-Limit Hold’em [6-max] results (includes two-way deal):
1st place: AlexKP ($257,000.00)
2nd place: Tutanhamon1 ($198,274.48)
3rd place: Stephen “stevie444″ Chidwick ($130,514.50)
4th place: ROOJAR_M ($76,508.50)
5th place: inhidonks ($40,504.50)
6th place: Drateks ($27,003)

AlexKP is the first winner of the 2010 WCOOP, but there are 61 more events to come. You can find the schedule of all of those events, along with all types of other statistics, at the WCOOP homepage.

Tags: WCOOP

Two years ago PokerStars first introduced the “High Roller” $10,000+$300 buy-in no-limit hold’em event as part of the World Championship of Online Poker schedule. As was the case in 2008 — when dorinvandy won — and in 2009 — when Sumpas came out on top, this year’s version of the event again attracted an elite class of poker talent, with familiar names from both the live and online arenas turning up in practically every seat around the virtual tables.

The event’s $2 million guarantee was smashed to bits when 313 runners arrived Sunday afternoon to play. That made for a $3.13 million prize pool to be distributed among the top 45 finishers, with the victor scheduled to kick off his or her 2010 WCOOP with a nifty $605,655 payday.

As play began, Shawn “buck21″ Buchanan, David “Chino23″ Rheem, and MUSTAFABET jumped out as early leaders during first few levels. At the two-hour mark Scott “gunning4you” Seiver had cruised into the top spot and would increase his lead over the next hour or so before falling back to the pack. Then, after five hours of play, psuNYY51 was in front with 170 players left, closely followed by Jonathan “MONSTER_DONG” Karamalikis and Ben “KidCardiff6″ Warrington.

Soon, however, Shaun Deeb and PureProfitFo, having drawn seats right next to each other from the tourney’s start, were next to each other at the top of the leaderboard as well with 125 players left. Deeb would slip a bit, though, and had relinquished the lead to CrabMaki just before the latter was moved to the 2010 SCOOP Event #17-M winner’s table. Soon the two big stacks got involved in a huge hand against one another.

Preflop back-and-forthing between Deeb and CrabMaki had built a pot of 18,410 when the flop came [7c][10h][6h]. Deeb led for 11,230 and CrabMaki called. The turn was the [9c], and when Deeb checked CrabMaki shoved all in. Deeb went into his time bank, then called with his remaining 57,465. Deeb showed [Kd][9d] for nines, but was in desperate shape against CrabMaki’s [Qd][8c] — a turned straight. Deeb needed one of the remaining eights on the river just to chop, but the [Jd] meant he was suddenly out in 94th place.

That hand bumped CrabMaki up over 170,000, well ahead of Unicum next in second place with 101,000. Rheem and Karamalikis would continue to build their stacks, while the others (Buchanan, MUSTAFABET, Seiver, Warrington, psuNYY51, PureProfitFo) would be among those departing shy of the money.

As players continued to fall, Team PokerStars Pro Chris “Money800″ Moneymaker moved into the top ten. A total of 21 Team PokerStars pros entered this one, and with 60 players remaining there were still a half-dozen PS pros left with chips. At that point some shuffling of players put four Team PokerStars pros at one table — Moneymaker, Pat Pezzin, Anh Van Nguyen, and Ville Wahlbeck.

The Canadian Pezzin was the last to join the others:

Pat Pezzin: hi guys
Money800: hi pat, gl
A Van Nguyen: hi pat
Pat Pezzin: gl
Pat Pezzin: too many team pros at this table
Pat Pezzin: rest of the players must be licking their chops

Whatever their opponents were thinking, those four managed to hold their own, and each survived into the top 45 and the money. And for Money800, he wasn’t just surviving — he was thriving, and in fact Moneymaker held the chip lead briefly just before the bubble burst after 10 hours and 15 minutes of play.

Team PokerStars Pro Chris Moneymaker

Pezzin would ultimately exit in 33rd (knocked out by Wahlbeck), followed by Team PokerStars Online player Randy “nanonoko” Lew in 32nd. “Chino23″ Rheem would go out in 31st. Van Nguyen would hit the rail a little later in 29th, then Team PokerStars pro Jason Mercier would be eliminated by “MONSTER_DONG” Karamalikis in 28th, leaving only Moneymaker and Wahlbeck to represent Team PokerStars.

A couple of mistimed moves sent Moneymaker back to a below average stack, and he’d ultimately fall in 24th. Karamalikis would follow him in 18th, as would James “mig.com” Mackey in 16th, and Unicum next in 15th. Eventually Wahlbeck knocked out a short-stacked Paul “paulgees81″ Volpe in 10th, and after almost 13 hours of play, the final table was set:

Seat 1: pokerjamers — 209,275
Seat 2: Team PokerStars Pro Ville Wahlbeck — 476,130
Seat 3: sms9231 — 50,466
Seat 4: bmwmcoupe — 493,057
Seat 5: LooneyGerbil — 429,022
Seat 6: antesvante — 189,125
Seat 7: Also11 — 366,100
Seat 8: Vick Is God — 478,227
Seat 9: CrabMaki — 438,598

Mohsin “sms9231″ Charania, winner of 2010 SCOOP #20-H, had been nursing his short stack for some time prior to reaching the final nine. Charania continued to fold through the first orbit of the final table, then watched as CrabMaki opened with a 2.5x raise to 12,500 from middle position. All folded to antesvante who called from the big blind,

The flop came [3d][9c][Js]. antesvante checked, CrabMaki bet 22,750, antesvante check-raised all in for 174,125 total, and CrabMaki called. antesvante showed [Td][Qd] for an open-ended straight draw, while CrabMaki showed [Jd][Ad] for top pair of jacks. The turn and river brought a couple of deuces, and antesvante was out in ninth.

“gg ante,” typed sms9231 after the elimination. Then: “i <3 him."

Charania continued to fold, and watched again as pokerjamers opened with a 2x raise to 12,000 from middle position. It folded to Jean-Francois “bmwmcoupe” Talbot in the small blind who reraised to 30,000. The big blind folded, pokerjamers jammed for 139,845 total, and Talbot quickly called, showing [Kc][Kd] to pokerjamers [9c][9d]. The board came [Tc][Qs][Ac][4s][Ad], pokerjamers was out in eighth, and Charania — sitting with just over 45,000 chips — had moved up another spot.

Charania would manage to double up once with pocket queens, but soon was all in before the flop for his last 114,864 with [Ah][Qd] and got called by Ville Wahlbeck who held [9d][9s]. The community cards came [5h][7d][7h][Js][8d], and sms9231 was out in seventh.

The blinds moved to 3,500/7,000, and a hand came in which CrabMaki opened with a raise to 16,500 from UTG+1. Wahlbeck, sitting to CrabMaki’s left, called, as did bmwmcoupe. Then LooneyGerbil reraised to 48,850 from the small blind. Only Wahlbeck called the reraise, so the two of them saw the flop come [6c][Ac][Js]. LooneyGerbil bet 68,800, and Wahlbeck called.

The turn brought the [9h]. This time LooneyGerbil checked, which Wahlbeck took as an invitation to shove all in his stack of 408,780. LooneyGerbil had but 254,525 left, and thought a while before making the call with [Qd][Qh]. It was a good call, as Wahlbeck had [Qs][Ts] for the straight draw. Alas for LooneyGerbil, the river was the [Kh] and Wahlbeck won the massive pot. Take a look:

LooneyGerbil was out in sixth, while Wahlbeck assumed the chip lead with more than 940,000 chips. At that point Also11 was Wahlbeck’s closest competitor with just over 684,000. “Vick Is God” Schneller and “bmwmcoupe” Talbot were close behind Also11, while CrabMaki had the short stack with about 262,000.

Play reached the 14-hour mark and a scheduled break, at which point Vick Is God proved himself fallible, apparently having a mishap in which he spilled water on his laptop. Schneller asked if the break could be extended a few minutes while he took care of the situation, and his request was granted.

When play resumed, however, Vick Is God didn’t fare too well after the flood.

Just a few hands back from the break, Also11 raised from the cutoff seat to 16,558, and Schneller reraised to 46,000 from the button. The blinds got out, then Also11 reraised to 96,255. Vick Is God shoved all in over the top for 493,253 total, and Also11 called. Also11 showed [Td][Th], and Schneller was needing help with his [5h][5d]. The board came [2s][Ac][9s][4d][7h], and Vick Is God was out in fifth.

With four left, Also11 and Wahlbeck had the big stacks with 1.36 million and 1.14 million respectively, while bmwmcoupe and CrabMaki both hovered around 300,000. The balance shifted over the next half-hour, though, and Also11 had become the short stack with just 165,401.

With the blinds 4,000/8,000, CrabMaki then opened with a raise from UTG to 19,750, it folded to Also11 who shoved all in from the big blind, and CrabMaki called. Also11 had [Kh][Jc] and was hoping to outrun CrabMaki’s [4d][4h]. But the board came [8c][2h][8s][3d][3c], and Also11 was out in fourth.

The tournament was then paused while the remaining trio considered a deal. A “chip chop” was proposed, but CrabMaki said he wanted a bit more than he was being offered. The other two quickly declined considering that possibility, and cards thus went back in the air, with Wahlbeck the leader with 1,480,537, Jean-Francois “bmwmcoupe” Talbot in second with 850,380, and CrabMaki with 799,083.

Team PokerStars Pro Ville Wahlbeck

By the time they’d reached Level 28 (6,000/12,000), bmwmcoupe had slipped to 328,150 while CrabMaki had moved out in front just past Wahlbeck with a stack of 1,540,708. bmwmcoupe opened by raising to 24,000, and both of his opponents called, CrabMaki in the small blind and Wahlbeck in the big blind.

The flop came all babies — [6c][2d][4c]. CrabMaki checked, Wahlbeck bet 48,000, and bmwmcoupe raised to 132,000. CrabMaki folded, and Wahlbeck called. The turn was the [6h], pairing the board. Wahlbeck checked, and bmwmcoupe pushed all in with his last 170,650. Wahlbeck called, showing [6s][4s] for a full house, and bmwmcoupe was drawing dead with [Ac][7c]. Jean-Francois “bmwmcoupe” Talbot was out in third.

The two remaining players were nearly even when heads-up play commenced, with Wahlbeck at 1,614,792 chips to CrabMaki’s 1,515,208. The pair quickly fought through more than 60 hands, with CrabMaki taking the lead and then gradually building to a better than 3-to-1 chip advantage. Finally, with CrabMaki sitting at 2,423,166 and Wahlbeck 706,834, the last hand of the tournament was dealt — nearly 16 hours after Event #2 had begun.

With the blinds still 6,000/12,000, CrabMaki raised to 36,000 from the small blind/button and Wahlbeck called. The flop came [5s][Ad][6d]. Wahlbeck checked, CrabMaki bet 57,500, and Wahlbeck called. The turn was the [8d]. Wahlbeck again checked, and this time CrabMaki bet 142,500. Wahlbeck once more made the call, leaving himself 469,334 behind.

The river was the [2c]. Wahlbeck checked one more time, and CrabMaki pushed all in. Wahlbeck thought about it, then called with his remaining chips, showing [Ac][2d] for two pair, but CrabMaki had turned the diamond flush with his [Kd][9d].

Congratulations to CrabMaki, 2010 WCOOP Event #2 Champion!

WCOOP Event #2 ($10,300 High Roller NLHE) Results

1st place: CrabMaki ($605,655)
2nd: Team PokerStars Pro Ville Wahlbeck ($453,850)
3rd: bmwmcoupe ($344,300)
4th: Also11 ($258,225)
5th: Vick Is God ($178,410)
6th: LooneyGerbil ($137,720)
7th: sms9231 ($106,420)
8th: pokerjamers ($75,120)
9th: antesvante ($54,775)

What a start! And things are only beginning to get cranked up WCOOP-wise. For more coverage from the first day of play and throughout the series, head over to PokerStars.tv. And visit the WCOOP site for the full schedule, results and player-of-the-year stats, information about satellites, and more!

Tags: WCOOP

Young Brit Jake Cody is having quite the year. Not only did he take down the European Poker Tour Deauville in January but he is now also the champion of …

by Joep van den Bijgaart
First of all welcome to my blog about the WCOOP, the greatest, biggest and best online tournament series in the world. For those guys who were interested in my Supernova Elite Challenge, I will give a short update on that first.

Last week I decided to quit my challenge for two reasons. First of all, because I’ve been traveling a lot for the EPTs, vacations and WSOP I missed a lot of time grinding online. I was 40k behind pace with only 4.5 months to go. It shouldn’t be that hard to get back on pace but because of the EPTs and the Master Classics of Poker in Amsterdam I’m playing before the first of January, I don’t have enough time to grind enough to have earn all those VPPs. The second reason has to do with my RSI-problems. My arms and shoulders hurt a lot lately cause of grinding. I have had these problems quite some time now, also way before starting the SNE Challenge. Although I feel disappointed that I can’t pursue the challenge anymore, I feel that I made the right decision at this point.

Now back to what really matters: WCOOP! I’m really excited to play this year’s WCOOP. I’m especially looking forward to several events. Out of all the events, there is one that I would really like to win. Although you guys might suspect I am talking about the Main Event here, which seems like a logical option, the event I would like to win is Event 26, the $320 Mixed Hold’em 6-max. During the year I am making a lot of final tables on Sunday at the $215 weekly Mixed 6-max. This sounds more special than it is, because only 30 players register. Nevertheless, I like the format of this tourney a lot. First of all it is 6-max, the game I like to play most. Second, most people who are really good at No Limit Hold’em, aren’t at Limit Hold’em. I’m not saying that I’m really good at Limit Hold’em but overall I think I have a edge over the other players.

A big difference between this year and the last couple of years, is that the WCOOP doesn’t overlap the EPT Barcelona. I am very glad that there aren’t any EPTs scheduled during the WCOOP because when you have to play the WCOOP from your hotel you have to depend on the hotel’s internet connection which unfortunately isn’t good most of the time. It tilts me pretty hard most of the time when I get timed out for the 432th time in one evening and folded my aces again. On the other hand it’s very cool to play with a lot of poker players in a hotel lobby and see everybody grind away on the laptops.

I am very happy I can play WCOOP this year at home, although I’m not in the best time zone. Therefore my daily rhythm will be turned upside down which means that I have to sleep during the day and play poker at night. Although it is definitely worth it: how can people ever say that being a poker player is not a hard-knock life?!

Good luck at the table – visit the official WCOOP site for more info.

Tags: Joep van den Bijgaart

Recently the induction to the Women in Poker Hall of Fame was completed with poker babe Jennifer Harman making the grade. Now it is tome for the gender neutral and more acknowledged WSOP sponsored Poker Hall of Fame to take center stage. The nomination process was underway from July 1 to August 31 and WSOP [...]

Tags: Annie Duke, Daniel Negreanu, Full Tilt Poker, High Stakes Poker, Phil-Hellmuth, Phil-Ivey, Poker Babes, Poker Players, WSOP

Sorry, meant to get this out to y’all earlier … occurred to me tunes might work better than video for the holiday weekend, and poker podcasts better than that … so here’s some stuff that caught my ear for an extended period of time in recent days/weeks … I’m gonna presume you already listen to, [...]

Tags: Ante Up, BARGE, Coolio, DonkDown, Florida, gambling-laws, instapoker, law, Phil Laak, podcast, Podcasts, poker-law-review, WSOP News & Speculation

I decided to do a 4th day of running this week in preparation of my new program on Tuesday. I figured I would try a nice trail run. It was interesting. My legs in general felt really good. The run was peaceful and enjoyable. I however could not do a fu…

Alexia Portal Photo Image
Alexia Portal is a well-known French actress. She’s best known for her role as Beatrice Romand’s son’s girlfriend, Rosine, in the film, Autumn Tale, released in 1998. However, in addition to her role in the popular film, she has also be seen in French theater productions, as well as, making [...]

Tags: hot poker girls, Online Poker, Poker

Out in 11th. Fucking moron calls my pot bet with a flush draw on the turn. I have like 3/4 my stack in by that time. Fucking asshole. River’s his only out of course.

Out in 11th. Fucking moron calls my pot bet with a flush draw on the turn. I have like 3/4 my stack in by that time. Fucking asshole. River’s his only out of course.