It was a hectic Sunday in the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), with the biggest buy-in event getting under way. Fittingly, two of the game’s most familiar superstars claimed the biggest prizes, with another perfectly poised for one more huge payday. Read on…

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TODAY’S HEADLINES

• Mateos claims his customary WCOOP title
• Stokkan repeats SCOOP success
• $2.6 million in pot for Sunday Slam Super High Roller
• Holz leads hunt for $600K first prize
• Two day twos for Spraggy

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BEHIND THE HEADLINES

Three in three years for Mateos: The brilliant Spaniard Adrian “Amadi_017” Mateos added yet another title to his long list of achievements when he took a little over four hours to claim victory in the $2,100 Turbo PKO Freezeout last night, otherwise known as the Sunday Cooldown. Mateos, who is based in London, overwhelmed a field of 201, taking $45,234 in bounties alone, added to his $34,977 from the main prize pool. It’s his third career WCOOP victory in consecutive years, having previously won a $109 Turbo in 2018, followed by another $2,100 PKO last year. He also has two SCOOP successes in addition to his three WSOP bracelets and his EPT Grand Final win from 2015. Last night’s final stages also featured Stefan “mindgamer” Jedlicka, who finished third, David “dpeters17” Peters (fifth) and Rinat “Zapahzamazki” Lyapin (sixth), who continues to make deep runs in just about everything this year.

Stokkan repeats SCOOP success: The biggest prize of the night went into the bankroll of one of the online game’s best-known talents when Preben “prebz” Stokkan beat an ultra-tough field in the $5,200 6-Max PKO. With PokerStars Live cameras watching throughout, Stokkan, a Norwegian based in the UK, beat a final table that also included Michael “merla888” Gathy, Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi and Alexandros “Pwndidi” Theologis, with the latter defeated heads-up. Stokkan’s total haul for the night weighed in at $140,110.31, which included $86,484.37 in bounties, and earns him his second career WCOOP title. Stokkan also won in SCOOP this year — another $5,200 PKO event — so he has clearly found a very profitable niche. There were 108 entries and a prize pool of $540,000.

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MORE ABOUT WCOOP 2020:
OFFICIAL SITE | SERIES HIGHLIGHTS | SCHEDULE (pdf) |
SATELLITE GUIDE | LEADER BOARDS | RESULTS | ALL BLOG REPORTS

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Biggest prize pools in Sunday Slam: The three tournaments branded this time as the Sunday Slam have attracted some of the biggest prize pools of WCOOP so far, with $2.6 million being played for in WCOOP-25-H, the 8-Max Super High Roller. The buy-in was $25,000 and 71 players found the funds, with 35 re-entries added too. As you might expect, the final 13, all of whom are now in the money and seeking a $600K first prize, represents some of the best talents ever to play the game. Top of the pile is Fedor “CrownUpGuy” Holz, whose phenomenal dominance of poker a few years ago began with his 2014 WCOOP Main Event win. Holz leads a field also still featuring Luke “Bit2Easy” Reeves (2nd), Kahle “ROFLshove” Burns (4th), Wiktor “Iimitless” Malinowski (6th) and Chris “Big Huni” Hunichen (10th). Oh, and Adrian “Amadi_017” Mateos was also cruising his way to seventh overnight in this one as he was winning the $2K PKO. The tournament will be streamed to its conclusion tonight. The “low” buy-in has a prize pool of $1,435,400 and the “medium” $1,342,000.

Stadium Series champ returns for more: Fernando “fviana” Viana won the Stadium Series Grand Final last month and has returned to the tables in search of WCOOP glory. Viana leads the last 36 in the $215 5-Card Omaha, with the vast majority of the 767-entry field now departed. Ben “Spraggy” Spragg has chips still in the $22 “low” buy-in version (he sits 27th of 76 remaining; one of two tournaments he’ll restart tomorrow), while the formidable sight of Connor “blanconegro” Drinan lurks in 13th of 19 left in the $2,100 buy-in version. Our old friend Rinat “Zapahzamazki” Lyapin is still alive in that one too.

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TODAY’S RESULTS

†inc. bounties
*denotes deal

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STAT TRACKER

Events completed: 66
Entries so far: 275,459
Prize pools so far: $24,666,002
Players ITM: 36,686
First prizes so far: $3,705,275.28
Tournaments ongoing: 15
Tournaments starting today: 9

(Note: completed events only)

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INTERVIEWS! INTERVIEWS! INTERVIEWS!

In case you missed it, this week we’ve been talking with a few WCOOP winners to hear about their tourney triumphs (and perhaps to pick up a few tips for ourselves). Check out these interviews:

• A bountiful $10K Sunday Slam for Dimitar Danchev
• Heads up! Ankush Mandavia wins third title in $530 TKO HU Zoom
• Marksman_M casually streams huge WCOOP win to three Twitch viewers

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TWITCH WATCH

Ben “Spraggy” Spragg spent a long period last night as chip leader in the $1,050 buy-in PKO, before ending the evening in 28th of 52 remaining, with $57K up top. Here’s one of Spraggy’s finest moments from the night where his eyes lit up at the sight of a $625 bounty — and he snaffled it in fairly despicable fashion:

There was once a time when Arlie Shaban had to wear a suit and tie for a day job and “absolutely hated it”. (His life story is worth a read.) These days, he wears a tie wrapped around his head like Rambo and plays online poker for a living, which he loves. Well, most of the time. It’s not always fair…

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TOP TWEETS

How do you know Spraggy is having a good WCOOP? Well, he’s not shy in telling you:

Double Day 2 for WCOOP tomorrow. Nice stack in the $1050 PKO. Nearly $4,200ish locked up. $100,000 + for 1st.

More importantly made day 2 in the $22 5 card PLO! Low leaderboard points are within our grasp with just 76 players left! CC: @EasyWithAces @tonkaaaap ! pic.twitter.com/SEr6cbSQxq

— Spraggy (@spraggy) September 7, 2020

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LEADER BOARDS

Rinat “Zapahzamazki” Lyapin seems to be cashing everything at the moment, and he has moved neck and neck with our only double champion to date, Yuri “theNERDguy” Martins, in the overall leader board. Lyapin still has chips and is deep in at least one other event overnight, so he has guaranteed some more points. The remainder of the leader boards have a very familiar feel about them, with stalwarts such as Joao “Naza114” Vieira, Konstantin “krakukra” Maslak and atrick “pads1161” Leonard making their presence felt.

Overall

=1 – Yuri “theNERDguy” Martins, Brazil, 460 points
=1 – Rinat “Zapahzamazki” Lyapin, Russia, 460
3 – aleksandrs10, Latvia, 450
4 – Konstantin “krakukra” Maslak, Russia, 380
5 – Joao “Naza114” Vieira, Netherlands, 355

Prize: Overall – $25,000 plus trophy

High buy-in:

1 – Joao “Naza114” Vieira, Netherlands, 280 points
2 – Yuri “theNERDguy” Martins, Brazil, 260
3 – Patrick “pads1161” Leonard, UK, 195
4 – Konstantin “krakukra” Maslak, Russia, 180
=5 – Ludovic “ludovi333” Geilich, United Kingdom, 170
=5 – Adrian “Amadi_017” Mateos, United Kingdom, 170

Prizes: Winner $12,500; 2nd $10,000; 3rd $7,500

Medium buy-in:

1 – Murilo “Muka82” Figueiredo, Brazil, 205 points
2 – “Kaggis”, Norway, 195
3 – Yuri “theNERDguy” Martins, Brazil, 175
4 – Chris “ImDaNuts” Oliver, Costa Rica, 155
5 – three-way tie

Prizes: Winner $8,500; 2nd $6,000; 3rd $3,000 (top 15 are rewarded)

Low buy-in:

1 – aleksandrs10, Latvia, 215 points
2 – Rinat “Zapahzamazki” Lyapin, Russia, 195
3 – TS17Aveiro, Germany, 190
4 – bryn12, United Kingdom, 185
5 – mikelarock, Canada, 180

Winner $5,000; 2nd $3,000; 3rd $2,000 (top 25 are rewarded)

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COUNTRIES LEADER BOARD

Two displaced Europeans — the Spaniard Adrian Mateos and the Norwegian Preben Stokkan — added another two titles to the UK’s official haul in the countries leader board overnight, meaning Britain (and its imports) have 11 titles so far this WCOOP. Weirdly, Jersey is listed as its own country, so the UK might even have 12 otherwise. Brazil and Russia both drew a blank on Sunday night, with two titles going to Dutch and Canadian players, and Poland making a first appearance.

The most peculiar anomaly so far is that no Austria-based players have won a title. With so many top German players setting up home in Vienna to play, we usually have a handful of Austrians winning regularly. But five Germany-based Germans have risen to the top already, and none of the emigrants. That said, Fedor Holz leads the $25K, so it could all change tomorrow.

Latest standings

11 – UK
8 – Brazil
7 – Russia
5 – Germany, Canada
3 – Norway, Netherlands
2 – Argentina, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia
1 – Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Romania, Slovenia, Taiwan, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Hungary, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Ireland, Malta, Jersey, Serbia, Peru, Poland.

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ONGOING TOURNAMENTS

WCOOP-23-L: $5.50 Sunday Kickoff
Entries: 10,155 | Prize pool: $49,759.50
Players left: 59 | Chip leader: kotuhorosko (Ukraine)

WCOOP-23-M: $55 Sunday Kickoff
Entries: 4,886 | Prize pool: $244,300
Players left: 102 | Chip leader: HoffmanGC (Brazil)

WCOOP-23-H: $5,200 Sunday Kickoff
Entries: 859 | Prize pool: $429,500
Players left: 40 | Chip leader: ShippityShip (Canada)

WCOOP-24-L: $11 NLHE 8-Max, PKO Sunday Mini Warm-Up
Entries: 18,502 | Prize pool: 181,319.60
Players left: 139 | Chip leader: tweny1 (Romania)

WCOOP-24-M: $109 NLHE 8-Max, PKO, Sunday Warm-Up
Entries: 6,441 | Prize pool: 644,100
Players left: 158 | Chip leader: fansaki (Mongolia)

WCOOP-24-H: $1,050 NLHE 8-Max, PKO, Sunday Warm-Up
Entries: 789 | Prize pool: 789,000
Players left: 52 | Chip leader: jvieiradias8 (Luxembourg)

WCOOP-25-L: $215 8-Max Sunday Slam
Entries: 7,177 (inc. 2,019 re-entries) | Prize pool: $1,435,400
Players left: 287 | Chip leader: twirlpro (Hungary)

WCOOP-25-M: $2,100 8-Max Sunday Slam
Entries: 671 (inc. 198 re-entries) | Prize pool: $1,342,000
Players left: 87 | Chip leader: hotmark777 (Lebanon)

WCOOP-25-H: $25,000 8-Max Super High Roller
Entries: 106 (inc. 35 re-entries) | Prize pool: $2,599,650
Players left: 13 | Chip leader: Fedor “CrownUpGuy” Holz (Austria)

WCOOP-26-L: $22 5-Card PLO 6-Max
Entries: 3,130 (inc. 1,183 re-entries) | Prize pool: 62,600
Players left: 76 | Chip leader: 3666AJC (United Kingdom)

WCOOP-26-M: $215 5-Card PLO 6-Max
Entries: 767 (inc. 298 re-entries) | Prize pool: $153,400
Players left: 36 | Chip leader: fviana (Brazil)

WCOOP-26-H: $2,100 5-Card PLO 6-Max
Entries: 156 (inc. 62 re-entries) | Prize pool: $312,000
Players left: 19 | Chip leader: guinor (Brazil)

WCOOP-27-L: $11 NLHE Freezeout
Entries: 10,306 | Prize pool: $100,998.80
Players left: 146 | Chip leader: PAOLO89 (Canada)

WCOOP-27-L: $109 NLHE Freezeout
Entries: 3,752 | Prize pool: $375,200
Players left: 177 | Chip leader: LeoFara (Argentina)

WCOOP-27-L: $1,050 NLHE Freezeout
Entries: 438 | Prize pool: $438,000
Players left: 45 | Chip leader: soleeJ (Netherlands)

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STARTING TODAY

Pretty much the whole poker world agrees that nine-max is too many, and everyone says they’re a short-handed expert, so WCOOP 31 should appeal to everyone. It’s four-max, which turns it up a notch even for the six-max maestros. There’s also a rather tasty no-limit Omaha Hi/Lo, and the difference between NL and PL should become quickly apparent when play gets under way. For all that, the biggest guarantee of the day is still attached to the NLHE PKO event, with a $1,050 buy-in and $750,000 as the starting point for the prize pool.

1.05pm ET: WCOOP-29: NLHE PKO
Buy-ins: $11, $109, $1,050
Guarantees: $150,000, $500,000, $750,000

2.05pm ET: WCOOP-30: NL Omaha Hi/Lo
Buy-ins: $5.50, $55, $530
Guarantees: $100,000, $300,000, $500,000

3.05pm ET: WCOOP-31: 4-Max Hold’em
Buy-ins: $5.50, $55, $530
Guarantees: $35,000, $125,000, $250,000

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PREVIOUS ROUND-UPS

DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4 | DAY 5 | DAY 6 | DAY 7

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