The PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) offers some of the biggest prize pools around, and so naturally attracts some of the game’s finest players.
Two of the biggest names in WCOOP history clashed over the weekend, as 9-time winner Niklas Astedt faced off against 10-time winner Patrick Leonard. The two reached heads-up play in Event 97, the $10,300 NLHE PKO High Roller, knowing only one of them could add to his title tally. In the end the victory went the way of Astedt, who joins Leonard on 10 WCOOP wins, not to mention collecting $188K for the win.
Another player celebrating multiple titles was Parker ‘Tonkaaaa’ Talbot (pictured above) who collected an impressive fifth WCOOP title of 2024 with victory in the $1,050 World Championship of Badugi on Saturday. Talbot won $18K, in a field of just 45 Badugi enthusiasts, for his ninth WCOOP title overall.
All the above players are now involved in the business end of WCOOP 2024, as the Main Events are in full swing.
The annual Main Events come with the choice of three buy-in levels for both no-limit hold’em (NLHE) and pot-limit Omaha (PLO), and all six tournaments kicked off on Sunday, September 29. But for one event (Low $109 PLO), late registration remains open until the start of Day 2, and the action is already fast and furious.
With virtual cards back in the air later today, here’s a round-up of how things stand after the first day’s play.
No-limit hold’em - $11m GTD across three events
The premier event of the series, the High $10,300 World Championship of NLHE has the largest guarantee of them all with at least $5M in the prize pool. At the time of writing 437 entries are already on the books (317 plus re-entries), leaving the event short of the 500 needed to meet the guarantee, yet with late registration still open the target is well within reach.
As things stand 164 players are in contention, and while that number is expected to rise the chip leader Boris ‘b.a. Angelov’ Angelov (below) has a decent lead at the top of the pile. Angelov has a stack of 2.2M chips, good for 220 big blinds when play resumes, and a lead of over 300K over Leon ‘RUMUKULUS’ Sturm in second spot.
Other notable names still in there and swinging include: Sam ‘Str8$$$Homey’ Greenwood, whose 1.48M stack is good for 9th place overnight; Ole ‘wizowizo’ Schemion (1.26M, 18th); Bryn ‘BrynKenney’ Kenney (958K, 37th); Michael ‘SirWatts’ Watts (949K, 38th); Adriàn ‘Amadi_017’ Mateos (919K, 41st); Benjamin ‘bencb789’ Rolle (344K, 120th); and Yuri ‘theNERDguy’ Dzivielevski who has a fresh starting stack of 250K on his third bullet, good for 145th.
PokerStars ambassador Sam ‘SamSquid’ Grafton is still in the High Main Event, with a stack of 378K (111th), and also has a decent stack in the Medium $1,050 NLHE ME where his 644K will see him return for Day 2 with around 128 big blinds. 3,401 entries so far have brought the Medium ME close to the 3,500 needed to meet the $3.5M guarantee. Late registration remains open until the start of Day 2, which means the field of 1,139 that advanced from Day 1 will be boosted by new entrants.
Also in the mix in the Medium NLHE ME are Michael ‘M_Acevedo’ Acevedo (below, 789K, 29th); Matt ‘MattStaples’ Staples (652K, 80th); Niklas ‘Lena900’ Astedt (472K, 195th); Parker ‘Tonkaaaa’ Talbot (451K, 218th); and Fintan ‘easywithaces’ Hand (342K, 397th). Chip leader for the start of Day 2 is ‘hahuaha’ of Brazil with 1.29M chips - around 258 big blinds.
The Low $109 NLHE ME is also still open for registration, and 21,152 entries have brought the numbers close to the 25,000 needed to meet the $2.5M guarantee. 5,806 advanced from Day 1 and the tourney is expected to pay out over 3,000 spots. A late entry to this one will give you a stack of 25K and 15 big blinds to play with. Hungary’s ‘S3XXYMUCK’ currently leads the way with 508K chips.
Pot-limit Omaha events - possible overlay?
The three PLO Main Events carry much smaller guarantees, but even so, after Day 1 of the High $10,300 World Championship of PLO there could be an overlay in the offing. 80 entries are needed to hit the $800K guarantee, of which - at time of writing - 44 are accounted for. 31 unique players and 13 re-entries have the event needing an influx of new entrants before registration closes to avoid the overlay.
Of those 44 entries at least 19 remain, headed by Andras ‘probirs’ Nemeth (above) who will wield the largest stack of 1.33M, or 133 big blinds, when the action restarts. Other names from the high stakes world are present and correct, including Arthur ‘mararthur1’ Martirosian (607K, 8th) and Talal ‘raidalot’ Shakerchi, whose fourth bullet fired sees him sitting low in the counts with 153K (16th).
Another player competing in the PLO Championship is Yuri ‘theNERDguy’ Dzivielevski, with his 359K stack good for 13th place overnight, but the Brazilian is also current chip leader of the Medium $1,050 PLO ME. His stack of 1.25m in this tournament sits ahead of another opponent in the High PLO ME, Arthur Martirosian, who has 973K chips in the Medium PLO, good for fifth spot. The tourney has 423 entries so far, well on the way to the 500 needed to cover the $500K guarantee. Other big names in the Medium PLO ME include Denis ‘aDrENalin710’ Strebkov (670K, 16th), Niklas ‘Lena900’ Astedt (633K, 23rd), Sam ‘Str8$$$Homey’ Greenwood (163K, 87th) and Patrick ‘pads1161’ Leonard (100K, 96th).
Blaž ‘Scarmak3r’ Žerjav is yet another multi-tabler doing well, with his 472K good for 39th in the Medium PLO while he is already in the money in the Low $109 edition of the PLO ME. Registration has closed, with 2,103 entries creating a prize pool of $210,300. Brazil's ‘renan0201’ has a healthy lead, with their stack of 1.01M well ahead of the UK’s ‘Cardiffbiker’, who sits in second with 702K.
Action in all Main Events resumes around 6:30pm CET on Monday, September 30.
