With the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker in full swing, you’d think some attention would be diverted away from the site’s cash game scene. A number of high stakes regulars including socutiesf, Phil Galfond, Rui Cao and Ilari Sahamies defied expectations last week, though no player was more successful than Rafi “rafaelamit” Amit.
Amit was especially prolific in online poker this past week, playing 10,803 hands spread across 126 sessions to win over $592k. Brian Hastings, Rui Cao and Alari Sahamies were among his victims. Axelf82 finished as the second-biggest money earner for the week, although his $247k won over 3,918 hands and 48 sessions was paltry relative to Amit’s win. Next was socutiesf, who played 95 sessions comprising just over 6,500 hands to win $210k.
Phil Galfond, who has been consistently strong on the online scene since moving to Vancouver, went on a bit of a downswing this past week. He lost nearly $274k after playing 58 session totaling 4,613 hands. Rui Cao, the former Full Tilt pro who now plays on PokerStars as PepperoniF, didn’t fair much better with losses of just under $217k. Zypherin and Ben Grundy saw their bankrolls depleted as well, losing $207k and $208k, respectively.
Also noteworthy was the return of Finland’s Sami Kelopuro, who has been absent from the online poker scene for much of the year. Kelopuro made a very strong showing at this year’s WSOP, winning $503k with a runner-up finish in the $10k PLO Championship and $55k with a 111th-place finish in the Main Event. Kelopuro largely erased a $177k online poker deficit this past week with a $149k win, most of which came from Ilari Sahamies. Kelopuro would have won more had it not been for a losing 4-handed match with Amit.
In a press release issued on Thursday, Card Player Magazine announced the creation of a Spanish-language Latin American news site, CardPlayerLa.com. The new arm of the poker outlet will feature news geared towards Latin American poker players such as news, views, features, blogs, gossip, results, strategy, lifestyle, interviews and profiles.
According to the press release the new website will cover the following aspects of the Latin American poker scene:
- An archive database of most poker players in Latin America, including tournament results, as well as a Regional Player of the Year Award.
- Regular blogs from some of the region’s top players including Juan “Proggrezive” Copani (SuperNova Elite), Daniel Ospina (current leader of the LAPT POY), Ernesto “Flaco” Panno (South American poker legend).
- Strategy videos from Latin players discussing different types of strategy as well as videos from US players with Spanish subtitles.
- Strategy articles from some of the most recognized players in the world including Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, and Argentine Pro Damian Salas
- News: the most up to date news in Spanish from the LATAM region and the rest of the globe.
As stated above, the vast majority of the content will be written in Spanish, although some of the guest contributors like Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth will either have their articles translated or they will appear in English.
This is the second offspring of CardPlayer.com as the site has already spawned a European-based website, CardPlayerEurope.com.
As the World Championship of Online Poker continues on PokerStars, the events are starting to get a bit more varied in terms of game types and structures. WCOOP 29 was a No Limit Omaha Hi-Lo Six-Max Knockout with a $250 buy-in. 685 players registered for the awkwardly titled event, each paying $200 towards the normal prize pool and another $50 towards the bounty pool.
The event was running long at 9.5 hours before the final table was even set, and got a whole lot longer once it was – Horns_Halos, cutitup, nkeyno, Zbad, nasud 11 and PlayWMyNuts battled it out for a total of 4.5 hours, making the event an outright marathon at 14 hours total.
Zbad and nasud 11 were the first players eliminated, though it took almost 1.5 hours for that to occur. PlayWMyNuts was eliminated when Horns_Halos got the upper hand with two-pair. A three-handed deal was then struck between cutitup, nkeyno and Horns_Halos. The latter player was ultimately victorious, winning $23,555 and the title.
WCOOP 31 was an 8-Game mix with a $300 buy-in. PokerStars’ expectations were exceeded once again when 632 players showed up to generate a $189k prize pool, nearly doubling the $100k guarantee.
There was only room for six players at the final table: Chillolini, Elliot Nicholls, ElmanOne, Vincent Van Der Fluit, Adrienne Rowsome and jokanavic, from highest chip stack to lowest. Jokanavic was first eliminated in a massive four-way pot after Van Der Fluit tabled a full house. He would then continue building his stack in PLO and NLHE.
Nicholls, Rowsome and Chillolini were next to hit the rail, leaving just Van Der Fluit and ElmanOne for heads-up play. Van Der Fluit closed out the event in a game of Omaha Hi Lo, winning $35k. ElmanOne received $26k for his runner-up finish.
The 28th event of the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker played to completion on Wednesday and the winning player was Alexander “Schildy1984″ Debus who earned $206k for his impressive performance.
A total of 1,146 players paid $1,000 buy-ins to WCOOP 28, a Two-Day NLHE event, creating a prize pool of $1,146,000 and nearly doubling the $600k guarantee. Only 65 of those players made it to Day 2 and the field was studded with big name pros including Mark Radoja, Chris Lee, Adam Levy, Will Molson, Christian Kruel and Christina Lindley.
The only player from that list to make the final table was Christina Lindley, who competed against players such as Ben Delaney, Valentyn Shabelnyk and the aforementioned Debus. Delaney eliminated two online regulars early on in the action. Lindley was next to hit the the rail after her Q-10 suited fell to TheFan83′s pocket aces.
Shabelnyk, djibh and d-mon-d were eliminated thereafter, leaving only TheFan83, Debus and Delaney to compete three-handed. Debus quickly passed TheFan83′s chip stack by winning a 3.7 million chip pot. A few hands later, Delaney was drawing dead towards a straight while Debus held two-pair. Delaney pushed all-in and was eliminated, taking home $110k and leaving TheFan83 and Debus for heads-up action.
Just 10 hands later, the tournament was over. On the final hand, Debus completed trip queens on the turn while TheFan83 showed J-4 suited to score a two-pair on the flop. The river was no help to either player and Debus walked away with the title and the top money prize.
The top 3 money finishes are as follows:
3. Ben Delaney – $110,016
2. TheFan83 – $147,031
1. Alexander “Schildy1984″ Debus – $206,280
Day 10 of the World Championship of Online Poker on PokerStars was a whirlwind of action, with z_balata, Mike Leah and Team PokerStars’ very own Noah Boeken all receiving huge scores.
The first even to play to completion was WCOOP 23, a Four-Max NLHE event with a $200 buy-in. The pace of play was incredibly fast, and only 0.3% of the 2,622 entrants made it to Day 2 of the event. A number of notable pros hit the rail on Day 1, including Mickey Petersen, Richard Toth, Anders Berg and Randy Law.
BrightStripe and kekim1 were eliminated first on Day 2, leaving five players for the unofficial final table. Loverat of the UK was first to hit the rail, followed by claypole, KingRakker and Da3dalus. z_balata finished in first for just over $77k.
Next up was WCOOP 26, a $300 Six-Max Mixed HE event with 841 players and $252k up for grabs. Noah Boeken had to face an incredibly talented final table that included Shaun Deeb and Steve Gross, both of whom have over $5 million in career online tournament cashes, and both of whom exited the U.S. to resume their careers. Deeb was eliminated in 5th for $12.6k, and Gross went next to earn $17.6k.
After the elimination of Fulham8, heads up play began between gangst3rn1 and Boeken. Boeken had roughly five times as many chips and it took 49 hands for him to secure the outright win and $44.4k.
Finally, 292 players entered WCOOP 27, a $300 buy-in Badugi event with an $87k prize pool. The top three spots belonged to nada123455, Kevin “ImaLuckSac” MacPhee and Mike “goleafsgoeh” Leah, who earned $9,636, $12,702 and $17,082, respectively, for their finishes.
WCOOP 28, a Two-Day NLHE with a $1,000 buy-in, is currently in progress. Top pros including Adam Levy, Chris Lee, Ben Delaney, Will Molson and Christina Lindley will face off for the $206k top prize.
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