WCOOP 2018: All the news from Day 14

The waiting is over. It's WCOOP Main Event day! Yes, at 1pm ET (6pm WET), all eyes of the online poker world will be on the PokerStars tables as the $5,300 World Championship of Online Poker Main Event gets under way. Why? Well, let's start with the $10 million guaranteed and go from there. But that's not all, as our latest daily round-up will tell you.

TODAY'S HEADLINES

• WCOOP Main Event starts today!
• $10 million prize pool guaranteed
• Last minute satellites running across the site
• Another $5 million in prizes given out Saturday
• Three more titles each for Brazil and UK

HEADS DOWN, MAIN EVENT BEGINS

We're drawing closer to the end of what we're calling the best ever World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP). And the best hits its high note today with the beginning of the three-day Main Event. There's a $10 million guaranteed prize pool in the $5,300 high buy-in tournament, and $1 million guaranteed for the $55 low buy-in event. What's not to love? Here's all you need to know:

Big money comes out for WCOOP closing weekend

Main Event What You Need To Know

Buy-ins: High: $5,200 | Low: $55
Guaranteed: High: $10m | Low: $1m
Time: 1pm ET (6pm WET)
Registration open: High: 6 hours | Low: 4hrs 35 mins.
Starting stack: High: 250,000 | Low: 50,000
Re-entry: 2 re-entries possible

Satellites still running, including some freerolls.

How do I get involved? Get yourself a PokerStars account and get depositing, and then you can take a stab at these enormous prize-pools for less than the cost of a coffee.

And don't forget: there's a Platinum Pass on the line for the winner!

TODAY'S RESULTS

*after deal
†including bounties

BEHIND THE HEADLINES

Bit2Easy for Luke Reeves: British high-stakes reg Luke "Bit2Easy" Reeves won biggest prize on offer on Saturday, beating field of 203 in the $5,200 NLHE PKO Turbo. He won $219,742.31 including bounties to boost his bankroll going into Main Event day.

Luke "Bit2Easy" Reeves: All in a day's work

Two timers: Both Brazil's "great dant" and the UK's "girafganger7" won their second career WCOOP titles. "girafganger7" has also won a TCOOP title among his $6.5 million tournament scores.

Deep runs for Somerville: With more than 10,000 people watching on Twitch, Jason "jcarver" Somerville had two deep WCOOP runs yesterday. He placed 18th of 203 in the $5,200 8-Max Turbo PKO for $6,127.60 + $3,125.00 in bounties. He also got $2,081.50 for his 13th/181 finish in the 54-M $1,050 8-Game.

STAT TRACKER

Events completed: 153
Entries so far: 673,004
Prize pool so far: $65,670,265
Players in the money: 105,218
First prizes awarded: $10,306,571.22

That last stat is new. And it's there because it just crossed $10 million!

Completed tournaments only

ONGOING TOURNAMENTS

WCOOP-52: PLO rebuy (Buy-ins: $5.50, $55, $530)
The Finns are back in the PLO, with Sami "Lrslzk" Kelopuro leading the last 29 in the high buy-in. Of those in the money, five are Finnish. It's a Nordic top four, with Sweden's "ShipitFTW911" and "TiltMeBig" trailing "Lrslzk" and "igor69"

WCOOP-54: 8-Game High Roller (Buy-ins: $109, $1,050, $10,300)
The $10,300 8-Game High Roller is a who's who of the best of the best. They're down to the last nine, all in the money, and the tournament's top four is: Joao "Naza114" Vieira, Benny "RunGodLike" Glaser, Dzmitry "Colisea" Urbanovich and Viktor "Isildur1" Blom. Only Blom hasn't won a WCOOP title this year. Sami "Lrslzk" Kelopuro is alive in sixth.

Viktor "Isildur1" Blom: Still looking for first title this year

The $1,050 medium is also spectacular, with Noah "Exclusive" Boeken leading, from Denis "aDrENalin710" Strebkov. Connor "blanconegro" Drinan is fifth. Leo "ISILDRooN" Nordin is eighth. Jason Somerville was knocked out in 13th.

Also under way: WCOOP-53: NLHE (Buy-ins: $22, $215, $2,100)

TOP TWEETS

Live poker vs. online poker, in one @SamGreenwoodRIO tweet:

Chance Cornuth can at least rely on the support of his wife @Srirachaaa. Can't he? Oh.

It's good to have goals. It's even better to achieve them. Just ask Joao "Naza114" Vieira:

Welcome to our world @OrpTheTurk:

@CelinaLin has a vase of flowers, a laptop running WCOOP and Molly Ringwald. What else does one need?

And Benny @BennyG444 Glaser is pumped for Day 2 (again):

COUNTRIES LEADER BOARD

Players from both Brazil and the UK won three titles apiece on Saturday. That leaves Brazil currently at the top the countries leader board with 19 titles to the UK's 18. But there are still 26 to play for.

The Czech Republic and Uruguay won their first titles yesterday.

TWITCH WATCH

We're Lex Veldhuis heavy today. And why not. He dishes out some excellent poker advice (really) in both Omaha and Hold'em. And then throws in a misclick just for fun too.

Here's Lex demonstrating a solid knowledge of Omaha odds. And then gets instant gratification:

And this is what's known as a solid satellite fold:

Meanwhile this is terrible. It's the perils of not paying attention.

LEADER BOARD UPDATES

All of the low, medium and high buy-in leader boards are going to the wire. But there's still no reigning in Denis "aDrENalin710" Strebkov in the overall race. He seems a certainty to win a Platinum Pass--and a trip to the PSPC will at least give us the chance to take his photo.

1: Denis "aDrENalin710" Strebkov, Russia - 1,215
2: ImluckNuts, Russia - 965
3: Phil "MrSweets28" Galfond, Canada - 840
4: Jussi "calvin7v"Nevanlinna, Finland - 835
5: Shaun "shaundeeb" Deeb, Mexico - 825
6: Joao "Naza114" Vieira, Netherlands - 790

Click for all of the Player of the Series leader boards.

COMING UP

It's the Main Event!

But also:

WCOOP-56 NLHE Buy-ins: $5.50, $55, $530
WCOOP-57 NLHE Buy-ins: $22, $215, $2,100
WCOOP-59 PLO Buy-ins: $22, $215, $2,100
WCOOP-60 NLHE PKO Turbo: Buy-ins: $11, $109, $1,050

PREVIOUS WCOOP ROUND-UPS

DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4 | DAY 5 | DAY 6 | DAY 7 | DAY 8 | DAY 9 | DAY 10 | DAY 11 | DAY 12 | DAY 13

Howard Swains @howardswains September 16, 2018 4:03 AM in WCOOP