The 2012 PokerStars' World Championship of Online Poker started just 24 hours ago, and has already awarded millions to the five event winners. In all, the first five events beat their guaranteed prize pools by more than $1.6 million.
Below is a breakdown of those events and their winners. With a remaining 60 events spread across almost three weeks of play, there are still plenty of opportunities to buy-in and get your game on.
Event 1: $25 No-Limit Hold'em 6-Max
A field of 7,322 players pulled up to the virtual tables for the start of Sunday's Event 1. 63 returned Monday. Within the first few hours of day 2 play, most of the contest's notable players had busted.
Jim “Mr. BigQueso” Collopy, famous for his heads-up match versus Gus Hansen at the 2010 WSOPE – a battle that landed him in second place and gave Hansen the win – made a solid run that earned him a 14th place finish and a $8,786 payday.
The final table was dominated by Argentinean player, ezepoker90, who walked in with 22 million chips and took home the tournament title.
Event 1 Final Table Results (*indicates four-way deal)
1) ezepoker90 – $184,388*?
2) EspBju – $132,213*?
3) moyerboide – $120,415*
?4) TEENageTuRtL – $112,135*
?5) Phantom4444 – $36,610?6) flysohigh – $21,966
Event 2: $215 No-Limit Hold'em
Event two witnessed an incredible turnout of 10,608 players, garnering a prizepool of more than $2 million. Only 133 of those players made it through to Monday. One of them was Sandra Naujoks, the only Team PokerStars Pro to play on Day 2, but she didn't last long. Naujoks was eliminated in 129th place.
Two players – ASIAAN and gorogheee – entered the final table with 22 millions chips each, putting them at a tie for chip leader. Their fates, however, were quite different. gorogheee went out in sixth and ASIAAN took home the win.
Event 2 Final Table Results:
1) ASIAAN – $231,221*?
2) Kotovi – $129,526*?
3) SLUMMDOGG51 – $160,291*
?4) KevBoyStar – $135,322*?
5) pablotavi – $127,894*?
6) goroghee – $154,025*
?7) jollyholl914 – $42,432?
8) tommytight – $23,337?
9) daveyt86 – $14,851
Event 3: $320 Pot-Limit Omaha
The first non-Hold'em event was entered by 1,714 players in hopes of winning the $500k prize pool. Several Team PokerStars Pros showed up, among them Richard Toth, George Danzer and Lex Veldhuis. But it was online player, utvekklo2, who outlasted them all.
Event 3 Final Table Results (*indicates three-way deal):
1) utvekklo2 – $65,717*?
2) JAAKARHU99 – $68,926*?
3) Huiiiiiiiiii – $57,692*?
4) Sick Pastorr – $34,451
?5) Hustla16 – $24,424?
6) 4DTitle – $19,282
?7) ShankingYou – $14,140?
8) I_Mr_U_Bean – $8,998?
9) Paris Dedes – $5,142
Event 4: $320 No-Limit Hold'em 6-Max Shootout
Event 4 saw several pros take a seat at the virtual tables. Among these were Alex Kravchenko, Daniel Negreanu, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, George Lind and Shane Schleger.
But of the 1,296 player field, it was online player, Raaadzio91, who shot out like a cannon at the final table and emerged the victor.
On a side note, a notable performance was given by former WCOOP winner, Steve “gboro780” Gross, who played heartily but finished just shy of the final table in ninth position.
Event 4 Final Table Results:
1) Raaadzio91 – $62,208
?2) C-Mor87 – $46,656
?3) Andrzejeczek – $34,992
?4) Spyver – $23,328?
5) Allucan3at – $15,552?
6) xSuPrA – $9,642
Event 5: $215+R No-Limit Hold'em Turbo
A field of 1,807 players bought into the first rebuy tournament at the 2012 WCOOP. More than 2,834 rebuys grew the total prize pool to $1.1 million, with 234 players getting paid.
Mickey “mement_mori” Petersen was the last Team PokerStars pro standing, finishing in 29th place for a $3,769 payday.
But it was RenRad 01, an online player from Mexico, who took home the win. He entered the final table as a middle stack, but acquired the chip lead shortly after an early flip with ace-queen against pocket sevens. He would later beat arnon shraga in heads-up play to pick up $144k – the biggest payday in the tournament thus far – and the title.
Event 5 Final Table Results:
1) RenRad 01 – $144,086*?
2) arnon shraga – $111,774*
?3) Lermonad – $135,130*?
4) Efffel – $110,294*
?5) Daskalos20 – $54,644?
6) wowKKa – $42,564?
7) Aduobe4 – $31,060?
8) Joe soprano – $20,132?
9) El17@bk – $11,504
