Tournament poker has recently begun moving towards bigger antes and running them out earlier. WCOOP Event 14 took both of those concepts and created a big tournament for the late week players. The Event 14 antes kicked in on the very first level and were at least 20% of the big blind, often 25% in the early going.
Some players prefer to late register tournaments, waiting until antes increase pot sizes. The early, big antes in Event 14 meant the tournament filled quicker than normal and it turned out to be a great field to nearly double the $200,000 Guarantee.
The tournament drew 1,454 players with more than a few of them opting to re-enter the tournament when their stack hit the felt. All combined, they added up to a $374,400 prize pool with nearly $60,000 reserved for the next WCOOP champion.
They played down over 28 levels until they could see their day coming to an end. There were plenty of top players among the late participants but no representatives from Team PokerStars among the counts when play paused for the day.
The big name among the leaders at the end of the day was someone who's been in this position before. WCOOP titles are tough to earn but WCOOP Main Event champions are a rare bird. Mike "munchenHB" Telker is one of the few players in the world who can boast about winning one of the biggest online tournaments in the world when he won the WCOOP Main Event in 2011.
Telker didn't just flirt with the top of the leaderboard, he took over the lead when play was halted for the evening. He was followed closely by DaNuts90 with no other players within 150,000. The 34 surviving players had an evening to unwind and regroup before returning to determine a champion.
Returning Day 2 Top Ten Counts:
1. Mike "munchenHB" Telker - 791,928
2. DaNuts90 - 735,150
3. BtrGetThere - 572,466
4. Alen "lilachaa" Bilic - 474,998
5. sosickPL - 451,962
6. Virgilik - 424,408
7. chopi7 - 380,329
8. Slavik_Krs - 361,895
9. leitalopez - 355,819
10. surprisefirm - 344,882
Blinds: 3.5K/7K with 1.4K Ante
The last two tables were chock full of successful players besides Telker. It was setting up to be a stacked final table but 2010 WCOOP champ joao bauer wasn't meant to be among them. He was part of a double knockout along with Rebel FishAK when Telker's [9d][9c] held against [ah][ks] and [as][5c].
The next COOP winner to fall short was Alen "lilachaa" Bilic. The former TCOOP champion dropped out in 11th and chopi7 was gone shortly after to set the final table.
Telker continued to lead the way but he was followed closely by three-time WSOP final table member Ryan "ProtentialMN" Laplante and two other COOP winners. Rui "RuiNF" Ferreira won the SCOOP High Heads Up title in 2014 and sosickPL picked up his WCOOP title in 2011 before adding a Sunday Warmup victory.
Ferreira and sosickPL populated the bottom of the counts while Telker and Laplante were at the top.
Seat 1: serhiy1989 (207,404 in chips)
Seat 2: leitalopez (1,423,996 in chips)
Seat 3: sosickPL (250,011 in chips)
Seat 4: Ryan "ProtentialMN" Laplante (1,720,772 in chips)
Seat 5: Mike "munchenHB" Telker (1,746,840 in chips)
Seat 6: funwheel (965,641 in chips)
Seat 7: Rui "RuiNF" Ferreira (403,460 in chips)
Seat 8: pkace666 (1,409,057 in chips)
Seat 9: imluckbox (1,232,819 in chips)
Blinds: 12.5K/25K with 5K Ante
Long stretch of little action, ducks fail funwheel
This final table had an odd pace at the beginning, generally you see the short stacks happy to get this far and someone gets knocked out fairly early. Not this time.
They played 45 minutes without an elimination though Rui "RuiNF" Ferreira was at risk early. He doubled through funwheel shortly after they gathered as one and they settled in for a grind.
The log jam cleared when funwheel tried to get some of his chips back. He open shoved from the button for 567,681 with [2c][2d] and pkace666 called in the big blind with [ad][9d]. A standard flip and pkace666 took the lead after the [ah][jc][4s] flop.
The [ac] turn was a little cruel before pkace666 rivered the overkill quad [as] to send the first player off the final table. funwheel had a nice stack coming in but was gone in 9th place for $3,744.
serhiy1989 ladders up and heads home
Ukranian serhiy1989 did a nice job of getting up the payout structure despite starting the final table with less than ten big blinds. Sooner or later someone had to fall and it wasn't him in 9th. He took a shot after funwheel was gone.
He shoved from middle position with [jh][9h] and the move made it all the way around until Ferreira called in the big blind with [qd][ts]. serhiy1989 needed help and picked it up quickly on the [jd][7s][6c] flop.
serhiy1989's hopes were just as quickly dashed thanks to the [qh] turn and no saving love came on the [as] river. He picked up nearly $3,000 for moving up one position and earned $6,552 for the 8th place result.
imluckbox gets unlucky, finds monster under the bed
imluckbux was the latest to move to the bottom of the chips counts and was hovering right around the magical ten big blind mark when he found a nice little pair. There was no action ahead of him and he shoved with [9d][9h] from the cutoff.
The button released but he couldn't be happy to see sosickPL reship from the small blind. Laplante let his hand go and imluckbox saw he was up against [qh][qc]. It was a dominating hand and it never had a sweat as the board ran out [ks][6d][4s][kc][6s] to send imluckbox out in 7th place for $10,108. The first double digit payout of the tournament.
sosickPL can't double his stack or WCOOP trophies
Pocket Nines made a few appearance in late action and sosickPL took them into battle with his 550,000. He was chasing leitallopez for shortest stack honors when he found a good spot with [9s][9h].
Laplante opened from under the gun and Ferreira three-bet from the cutoff. sosickPL was in the big blind and shoved with his Nines to get a fold from Laplante and call from Ferreira with the racing [ks][jh].
It was a quick race when Ferreira flopped topped two on the [kh][jd][3c] board. The [qd] turn was no help and Ferreira's full house [jc] river just added salt to the wound. A good run for sosickPL but he was unable to match his 2010 WCOOP victory, settling for 6th place and $13,852.
leitalopez tries to catch up but gets straightened out
leitalopez was looking up and three other players with much bigger stacks. The others were growing down his stack and until he had to mix it up. That happened with an under the gun shove for 353,448 with [ts][8s] and was called by pkace666 in the big blind with [js][jh].
A double up looked all but locked up for leitalopez when he flopped top two when it came [td][8h][3s]. pkace666 needed to pick up something special to get the knockout and it started with the [7c] turn to add a gutshot draw.
The runner runner fun (for pkace666, not leitalopez) ended on the [9h] river to give pkace666 the Jack-high straight to send leitalopez out in 5th place for $17,784.
Telker falls short of double WCOOP
Telker's quest for another WCOOP trophy fell short when he couldn't run hot late at the final table. The big antes and blinds caught up with him during four-handed play to grind him down short.
He took a shot when action folded to him in the small blind and his [kc][6s] shove was called by Ferreira in the big blind with [ah][2c]. Telker needed to catch one of his live cards to stay alive but missed the [ts][5c][3h] flop.
Ferreira hit the [2h] turn but it changed nothing for Telker. He needed to pair up to stay alive but the [8c] river did not help. Telker has that rare WCOOP Main Event title to his credit, but he'll have to wait to add another trophy to his mantle.
Tough flop sends Laplante out in 3rd
Ryan Laplante has plenty of success at the poker table, both live and online, but he will also have to try again for a WCOOP title. The stacks were relatively equal between the final three players but Laplante dropped behind after losing a 2 million chip pot to Ferreira.
He was not in desperate shape when he found [ac][9s] in three-handed action. A hand more than big enough to move all-in from the small blind and Ferreira called in the big blind with [kd][qs]. Laplante needed to fade the big live cards but the [qh][qc][ts] was not what he wanted.
The flop left Laplante looking for running miracle cards but the [td] left him drawing dead against Ferreira's Queens full. The hand dropped Laplante out of the tournament in 3rd place for $33,696.
Rui "RuiNF" Ferreira survives long battle to win second COOP title in Event 14
Seat 7: RuiNF (5592332 in chips)
Seat 8: pkace666 (3767668 in chips)
Blinds: 30K/60K with 12K Ante
Ferreira and pkace666 paused the clock early in the heads up battle to discuss a deal but Ferreira decided he wasn't getting enough for his lead. That could have been a critical error as pkace666 quickly erased the deficit and took a lead of his own.
pkace666 was in a great position for the win when he found [ac][9c] against [8h][8d]. The virtual coin flip kept the status quo when Ferreira magically hit a full house on the [2d][2s][2c] flop before pkace666 took the lead on the [9h] turn.
pkace666 only needed to dodge the two remaining Eights in the deck but it wasn't meant to be. The two outter came along on the [8s] for the tough beat to switch the advantage back to Ferreira.
That hand set up a long match between the two players which stretched over 60 minutes. The lead bounced back and forth until another crazy hand settled the matter for good.
It took three bets preflop to get the chips in the middle with Ferreira ahead holding [ac][ah] and more chips than pkace666 with [kc][jh]. pkace666 picked up a piece on the [jd][tc][4h] flop and jumped ahead on the [ks] turn.
It was another tough beat for pkace666 when the [qh] river gave Ferreira the Broadway straight for the winning hand and the WCOOP trophy.
WCOOP-14: $215 NL Hold'em (Big Antes, Optional Re-Entry)
Entrants: 1,454 (418 re-entries)
Prize pool: $374,400
Places paid: 234
1. Rui "RuiNF" Ferreira (Czech Republic) $59,904.00
2. pkace666 (United Kingdom) $44,928.00
3. Ryan "ProtentialMN" Laplante (Canada) $33,696.00
4. Mike "munchenHB" Telker (Cyprus) $24,616.80
5. leitalopez (Argentina) $17,784.00
6. sosickPL (Poland) $13,852.80
7. imluckbox (Australia) $10,108.80
8. serhiy1989 (Ukraine) $6,552.00
9. funwheel (Thailand) $3,744.00
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