There were four differents attempts at making a deal in this event. Four. I'll tell ya, they're a stubborn bunch, these PLO geniuses. But we'll get into the deal-making squabbles a bit later.
Tonight was the second and final day of event 35 of the 2015 WCOOP, a $320+R PL Omaha [6-Max] tournament with a guaranteed prize pool of a quarter of a million. When there's rebuys involved, that amount was always likely to grow, and grow it did to $490,500 after 553 entries, 649 rebuys and 433 add-ons.
The most familiar face was that of Russian high roller Vladimir 'vovtroy' Troyanovskiy, a man who - if his performance at EPT Deauville in February was anything to go by - needs little sleep to crush at the poker tables. Any guesses at what he got up to last night would be pure speculation.
But the player who came out on top tonight was Israel's viebu, who took home a monster pay day of $83,040.17. Back in 2009 he won $38,991.05 plus an Audi TT RS in a $1 Million Turbo Takedown tournament, but we're sure his first ever WCOOP title is even sweeter than that sweet ride.
Day two kicked off with just seven players remaining, each guaranteed a $10,300.50 pay day. It meant we needed just one bust out to get our final table of six, and within 15 minutes of play resuming the spotlights were on. The first player leaving the tournament was the shortest stack coming into the day, Supernova player ComptonMasta from Canada, who exited in 7th.
Under the spotlights
Here's a look at the chip counts at the beginning of this final table:
1. rmdr (Germany) 1,706,855
2. viebu (Israel) 1,212,106
3. Vladimir 'vovtroy' Troyanovskiy (Russia) 1,082,641
4. Shhh00kem (Canada) 1,038,180
5. Konstantinos "arxigos" Nanos (Austria) 441,843
6. Joel "Odonkor1" Nordkvist (Sweden) 289,375
Konstantinos "arxigos" Nanos has a TCOOP PLO victory for $55K, Sunday Warm-Up win for $112K, and several SCOOP and WCOOP final tables, so a win here would have given him his second COOP title. Meanwhile, Shhh00kem is a very accomplished player, having taken down the Super Tuesday and scoring a massive $430,650 with a runner-up finish in the 2012 $10,300 NLHE High Roller.
We also had chipleader rdmr from Germany, a former SCOOP final tablist, as well as Joel "Odonkor1" Nordkvist, an extremely talented high stakes cash game player.
rdmr wasted no time in proposing a deal, something he would continue to deal throughout, despite being the chip leader for much of it. "You guys want to take an early look on numbers? Fine playing it all the way out but just throwing it out there," he said, but got no response.
Entering the final table with just under ten big blinds was always going to making things challenging for Sweden's Odonkor1, but unfortunately anything resembling a comeback wasn't to be in this event. With the blinds at 12,500/25,000, viebu min-opened to 50,000 and arxigos called from the small blind. Having seen his stack drop to just 138,175, Odonkor1 raised all-in and viebu called the 88,175 more. Now arxigos decided to put all his remaining chips at risk too, and also moved all-in for 532,686 total. Veibu called the 384,511 more and the cards were flipped.
arxigos: [Ac][Ad][7h][Kc]
viebu: [4h][7d][Qd][Kh]
Odonkor1: [Qs][9s][2d][Qh]
The flop fell [ks][2h][5c], meaning the aces of arxigos were in front. The [4s] on the turn gave Odonkor1 a flush draw and saw viebu take the lead with two pair, kinds and fours, but the [5d] on the river paired the board, meaning the aces were back in use. With a higher two pair, aces and fives, arxigos scooped both pots and Joel "Odonkor1" Nordkvist was sent to the rail with 6th place money worth $15,696.
More talk of deals, more players bust
At this point the five remaining players were considering a deal and opted to see the chop numbers. Rdmr, who posed the question of seeing the numbers at the very beginning of this final table, was chipleader at the time and again suggested that the table take a peek. After tournament host and Team PokerStars Online's Randy 'nanonoko' Lew presented the numbers, rdmr then requested more than the ICM figures presented - something which other members of the table didn't take too kindly to, notably Vladimir 'vovtroy' Troyanovskiy. The players didn't reach an agreement, and Vlad and rdmr would develop something of a trolling rivalry moving forward.
Shortly after the first of three potential deals fell through, we lost another player. It was a roller coaster orbit or two for arxigos, who had gone from having roughly a million in chips after the big hand which eliminated Odonkor1, to a stack of just 135,605. With 45,000 in the middle as the cards were dealt, arxigos put out a committing bet of 105,000 which chipleader rdmr called. Now viebu bumped the price of poker up to 450,000, leading to arxigos calling off his remaining 30,605 and rmdr getting out of the way.
viebu: [6h][Td][Ad][Ah]
arxigos: [Jh][Qh][9d][Th]
The flop was the [3c][8h][6d], giving arxigos a gutshot, but veibu's aces were still in the lead. The turn was the [6s], which discounted the aces giving viebu a set of sixes, and the [4c] on the river changed nothing. Konstantinos "arxigos" Nanos collected $24,525 for 5th.
Now down to four, the players decided to consider a chop once again. Vovtroy had won a few pots off of rdmr by this point, giving him the chiplead.
"Oh you're that rich Russian whale. don't worry, we'll deal when he busts," said rdmr of vovtroy, perhaps with a tongue firmly in his cheek, as one quick Google of Vlad shows he could very well be rich, but he's far from a cash machine.
The next player to exit was Shhh00kem of Canada. With just under 18 big blinds he held the shallowest stack of the final four, so would need to make something happen to get back in this thing. After rdmr made it 75,000 to go, Shhh00kem raised to 240,000 - a large percentage of his chips. Rdmr wasted no time in setting his opponent all-in, which was called.
Shhh00kem: [As][Jd][Ks][3d]
rdmr: [Qs][Ah][Ad][6d]
To the flop we went, and it arrived with the [7c][6c][4h] - nothing for Shhh00kem. The [7s] on the turn changed nothing, and although the [js] on the river gave him two pair, it wasn't enough to beat rdmr's aces and sevens. For 4th place Shhh00kem won $34,335.
Once again the tournament was paused to discuss a deal, and once again there was no agreement.
As rdmr's stack grew, vovtroy's shrank. With the stacks at 3M for rdmr, 1.7M for viebu and 947,466 for vovtroy, the Russian found a much needed double up through the chip leader. The blinds had gone up to 20,000/40,000 and vovtroy opened for 84,000 only to see rdmr raise to 292,000, which was called.
We went to a flop of [7s][Ts][Jd] and after rdmr bet 624,000 - just about all of his opponents stack - vovtroy put his remaining chips in and was called.
rdmr: [8s][Qs][2h][Ah]
vovtroy: [Qh][3h][7d][Ks]
Both players had draws a plenty, and the turn was always going to be an action card. It was the [8c], giving rdmr a pair, but the [9h] gave both players a straight. As vovtroy's was higher, he took down the pot and shot up to 1,934,932.
Not long after vovtroy became chipleader again, taking the role of consistent aggresor, but soon lost a big to his rival rdmr. Vlad dropped to around 1,000,000 while the other had about 2,300,000 each. Just a few hands later with the blinds at 25,000/50,000 it was viebu's turn to take a commanding lead, with roughly 2,800,000 to vovtroy's 1,400,000 and rdmr's 1,500,000.
The fall of vovtroy
We would lose Vladimir 'vovtroy' Troyanovskiy in third. The blinds were now 30,000/60,000 and vovtroy opened to 120,000, finding a caller in his nemesis rdmr. The flop of [8s][4c][3s] saw rdmr fire out 144,000, which was called, resulting in the [kc] on the turn. Leading out again was rdmr with a bet of 588,000, and now vovtroy moved all-in for 767,652 which was called.
rdmr: [6s][7h][5s][7c]
vovtroy: [Jd][9c][Jc][3h]
Troyanovskiy was ahead but rdmr had a huge drawing hand. The [kc] on the turn only improved vovtroy's hand, adding a club flush draw, but the [4s] on the river completed rdmr's spade flush draw and sent the Russian to the rail with third place money of $50,276.25.
It would take just one hand of heads-up play before another deal was discussed. "Fine to just play for bracelet and 5k, so up to u," said rdmr, to which viebu responded "50 50 buddy, that's my minimum".
But after the numbers were presented - $78,824.83 for rdmr, $78,040.17 for viebu with $5,000 left to play for - both players agreed and after four attempts, a deal was made. With a ton of money each locked up, the players wished each other luck and we got right back to the action.
The final stretch
It was a topsy turvy head-up war which at times saw both players have a demanding lead over the other. Ultimately though it was Israel's viebu who would come out victorious.
At the beginning of the final hand, rdmr had just 671,228 to viebu's 5,099,772. It was a timid start to the hand, with viebu simply completing the 80,000 big blind and rdmr checking his option. The flop came the [2s][Th][6h] and rdmr bet 99,200, only to see viebu raise 358,400 to 457,600. Now rdmr moved all-in for 591,228 and viebu called the remaining 133,628.
rdmr: [Td][Jc][5s][3s]
viebu: [7s][6s][8s][2c]
viebu's twos and sixes were ahead of rdmr's tens, but there was still hope. The [ad] on the turn didn't provide much help though, and the [8d] on the river only improved viebu's hand to eights and sixes.
A big congratulations to our winner, viebu, who took down $83,040.17 for his first WCOOP championship, and also to rdmr, who wins a mighty fine $78,824.83 for finishing second.
WCOOP-35: $320+R PL Omaha [6-Max]
Entries: 553 (649 rebuys and 433 add-ons)
Prize pool: $490,500
Places paid: 72
1. viebu (Israel) $83,040.17*
2. rmdr (Germany) $78,824.83*
3. Vladimir 'vovtroy' Troyanovskiy (Russia) $50,276.25
4. Shhh00kem (Canada) $34,335.00
5. Konstantinos "arxigos" Nanos (Austria) $24,525.00
6. Joel "Odonkor1" Nordkvist (Sweden) $15,696.00
*indicates prize money after a heads-up deal was made
There are plenty of WCOOP events left for you to play leading up to the Main Event on September 27th - check out the schedule here.
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Jack Stanton is a professional journalist and a freelance writer for PokerStars.
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