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Home / Uncategorized / WCOOP Event #33 $5,200 NLHE Main Event: ckingusc wins the championship bracelet and $1.26 million

ckingusc takes down the WCOOP Main Event

Day 2 of the World Championship of Online Poker Main Event began with 60 players vying for the $1.775 million first prize. Those were the survivors of 2,185 runners who started the event on Sunday. The number of entrants created an online poker record prize pool of $10,925,000.

That record prize pool was a fitting end to the largest WCOOP ever. The final tallies – 33 events, 55,758 buy-ins and $39,958,000 in prize money – exceeded expectations in every way. Players from 118 countries participated in the 2008 edition of the WCOOP. PearlJammer and thedonator each had 10 cashes to lead the field. Dorinvandy was the top earner prior to the Main Event, with $652,529.95 in winnings. But everyone knew that record would go down on Monday.

August35 came into the final day of play as the chipleader, but with plenty of play in each player’s stack (an average of more than 36 big blinds) it was still anybody’s game.

Play began quickly on Day 2, with the short stacks praying for double ups. In fact, 10 players of the 60 remaining were gone in the first 20 minutes of play, and we were down to 32 after the first hour of play. Not surprisingly eliminations slowed after that as the remaining participants had enough ammo in their stacks to fire a few bullets and dodge a few mortars.

August35 suffered a major freefall and finished in 23rd. The last remaining Team PokerStars Pro, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, who had a heck of a series with seven cashes and more than $400,000 in winnings, exited in 21st.

Final table play began just after 8:30pm EST after nearly 15 hours of play over two days. The seating and chip counts heading into the final were:

Seat 1: kovi99 561,348
Seat 2: klslcz 4,828,175
Seat 3: ckingusc 8,056,086
Seat 4: liberace 13,111,107
Seat 5: AJKHoosier1 3,700,250
Seat 6: BOLLDOZER 3,310,739
Seat 7: Sumpas 2,959,856
Seat 8: ShoesRDurrty 6,547,232
Seat 9: Markush13 11,433,207

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With blinds of 65,000/130,000 and antes at 13,000, the short-stacked players didn’t have time to wait. Kovi99 got right at it and managed to triple up early by getting all-in twice as an underdog and winning (K-3 versus K-6 and K-Q versus A-3). Kovi99 wasn’t so lucky a third time when while playing with blinds of 80K/160K he raised to 320K under the gun and Markush13 called from the big blind. After a flop of 3d-Kc-8s, Markush13 checked and kovi99 bet 640K. Markush13 put kovi99 all-in for his last 300K and he made the call with Ah-Js. Markush had him dominated with Kh-7h and won the pot after the turn and river came 9h-Th.

BOLLPOKER would exit in 8th only two hands later. He shoved all-in for 1.3 million with 3h-3d and ckingusc (who has the South Carolina Gamecock as his avatar photo) made the call in the big blind with Ad-Qh. The race looked good for BOLLPOKER at first, but didn’t end well on a board of 5d-9s-Jd-Kh-Tc.

Klslcz would go out in 7th place in disgusting fashion only a few minutes later. He raised to 420K from under the gun and Markush13 re-raised to 1.3 million from the big blind. Klslcz flat called and the two players saw a flop of 9h-9s-Qc. Here is how that hand concluded:

This WCOOP Main Event was not to be for klslcz when the final two cards came 8c-Ks to give Markush13 a set and a nice 15.78 million stack.

Sumpas was the next to go in 6th with blinds still at 80K/160K. ckingusc raised to 404K and liberace called from the cutoff. Sumpas pushed all-in for 4.74 million from the small blind. Ckingusc folded, but liberace called. Sumpas was well behind with Ac-Qd versus Ad-Kh and the board didn’t help him with Td-Ts-3c-8d-Jh. The hand put liberace in a dominating position over the final five with 28.5 million of the 55 million chips in play.

The table knew liberace was running good when he put AJKHoosier1 all-in a short time later with Qd-Kh versus 7h-7c, the flop came 8d-7d-6c and he still didn’t lose the hand. That’s because the turn and river came 9c-Tc to put a straight on the board.

The players then discussed and finally agreed to a deal after a few tries. AJKHoosier1, a tournament force in the online poker scene, managed to carve out an additional $100K in the arrangement. He then proceeded to double up with 7-7 versus the 2-2 of ShoesRDurrty, leaving ShoesRDurrty crippled.

ShoesRDurrty was next to go in 5th. Ckingusc raised to 487K and ShoesRDurrty re-raised all-in for 1.1 million from the big blind with 3s-3c. Ckingusc made the call with Qh-Qd and won when the board came 4h-8h-6c-7d-Jh.

Markush13 was able to wrestle the chip lead away from liberace when he hit a set with his pocket sevens to crack liberace’s pocket eights, and a few hands later when he pushed liberace out of a 10 million pot with an all-in bet on the flop. However, over the next 20 minutes liberace regained the lead and finally put an end to Markush13 in 4th place. Liberace, sitting with 23.3 million chips, raised the 200K big blind to 600K preflop. Markush13, with about 12 million, re-raised to 1.8 million in the small blind. Liberace called and the two chipleaders saw the flop of Qs-9s-9d heads-up. Both checked. The turn brought the 6d and Markush13 led out for 2.33 million. Liberace called. The river was the 7h and Markush13 fired again – this time for 9.31 million, or all of his chips. Liberace quickly called with Th-8h for the rivered straight and had amassed 37 million chips after all Markush13 could produce was ace high with Ad-Ts.

After play got down to three handed, ckingusc made a move. First he doubled through AJKHoosier1 with kings versus A-T and then he played aggressive poker with liberace to take down a couple of pots uncontested. Ckingusc then put out AJKHoosier1 when AJKHoosier1 pushed over the top of a ckingusc 600K raise from the button for 4 million all-in from the big blind. Ckingusc called with 9h-9c and was well ahead of the Ad-7c of AJKHoosier1. The nines held and we were down to two.

When heads-up play began, liberace held the lead 34.5 million to 20 million, but that would change very quickly. Liberace raised to 500K from the button and ckingusc called. After a flop of 8c-3d-7d, ckingusc checked, liberace bet 1 million and ckingusc check-raised to 3 million. This didn’t sit well with liberace who immediately shoved all-in. ckingusc made the call with Kd-Jd for two overcards and a flush draw while Liberace held Qh-7s for second pair. The Kc on the turn did the trick, making the 6d on the river overkill. Regardless, ckingusc now had control with 40 million chips.

The match would end just a few hands later. Here is the final hand of the 2008 World Championship of Online Poker:

Liberace can take solace in the fact that he made the most money thanks to the five-handed deal in this marathon final event that lasted close to 17 hours over two days. So concludes two and a half weeks of the biggest online poker event in history. See you next year!

WCOOP Main Event Final Table Results (payouts reflect five-way chop based on chip count)

1. ckingusc $1,265,432 and bracelet
2. liberace $1,375,249
3. AJKHoosier1 $782,542
4. Markush13 $961,718
5. ShoesRDurrty $801,153
6. Sumpas $415,150
7. klslcz $305,900
8. BOLLPOKER $196,650
9. kovi99 $121,267

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