All six Main Events of the 2024 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) at PokerStars are now in the money, and some familiar names are troubling the top of the chip counts.
Three no-limit hold’em (NLHE) events and three pot-limit Omaha (PLO) events - with buy-ins of $109, $1050 and $10,300 available - each got started on Sunday and played past the bubble on Monday. Players will return today at 6:30pm CET; the NLHE events will play down to a final table, while the PLO events will play to a winner.
Altogether over $12.9M in prize money will be awarded as these showcase tourneys come to a head, and that’s not including the $25K Super High Roller, which has another $1.4M in prize money to win when play resumes later today. More on that below, but first to the business of those all-important Main Events.
NLHE World Championship to play down to final table
The High $10,300 edition of the NLHE Main Event (ME) beat its $5M guarantee by a narrow margin, as 502 entries created a prize pool of $5,020,000. There’s a cool $1,007,058 for the winner, but whoever takes it down first has to negotiate a Day 3 field of 40, which as expected includes a number of well-known crushers.
Firstly, though, spare a thought for ‘elmerixx’, who was the unfortunate player to go out on the bubble, missing out on a min-cash of $21,354. And to rub salt in the wound, it would happen when their pocket aces were cracked in cruel fashion (is there any other way?). 
looks great preflop against 
, but these things can change very quickly.
You can watch the horror unfold right here.
High-stakes reg and poker coach Darrell ‘FourFourSix’ Goh currently sits atop the World Championship of NLHE chip counts with 8.1M, while at the other end of the scoreboard Sam ‘Str8$$$Homey’ Greenwood is the shortstack with fewer than 4 big blinds in his stack. In between the two you can find the likes of Boris ‘b.angelov’ Angelov (4.5M, 11th), Andras ‘probirs’ Nemeth (2.7M, 24th) and Ole ‘wizowizo’ Schemion (2.3M, 25th). Johannes ‘Jepser8’ Straver (4.3M, 12th) and Mark ‘AceSpades11’ Radoja (3.1M, 17th) are also in the mix, and when play restarts will be juggling this with the final table of the $25K Super High Roller - see below.
Boris Angelov is still in the hunt.The Medium $1,050 NLHE ME has 80 remaining of 3,856, with a total prize pool of $3,856,000 and first place money of $551,205. Bruno ‘bal-bruno’ Cardoso has a big lead heading into Day 3, with his stack of 20.8M way ahead of ‘DrawindDead’ in 2nd, who has 13.6M.
One to watch is Mikhail ‘FAL1st’ Yakovlev (5.1M, 21st), who has five WCOOP wins already this year, adding his most recent just last Sunday with the $530 7-Max Sunday Supersonic. With five titles under his belt, Yakovlev is leading the WCOOP 2024 Player of the Series race, and a strong contender in any field.
The Low $109 NLHE ME has more players remaining with 159 of 25,075 entries still competing for the $254,806 up top. Stacks are shallower than the other NLHE MEs - chip leader ‘Andr the gun’ has 13.4M which equates to just 83 big blinds - so despite the larger field the tournament is still expected to play down to a final table of nine today, as are all the NLHE MEs. Play in each resumes at 6:30pm CET.
PLO Champion aiming to go back-to-back
The High $10,300 PLO World Championship is down to just 7 of 77 entries - just shy of the 80 needed to meet the $800,000 guarantee - and leading the pack is none other than defending champion Martin ‘Imbajimbaa’ Dam.
To bring home the trophy for the second time in a row would be a memorable achievement, especially considering the high quality of his opposition. Dam’s stack of 6.9M gives him the chip lead ahead of Gruffudd ‘d.apollo777’ Jones, who sits 2nd with 5M, while Benny ‘RunGodLike’ Glaser is in 5th with 1.4M. Linus ‘LLinusLLove’ Loeliger is currently 3rd with 2.3M - and coincidentally is also 3rd in the Super High Roller with 2.2M.
Linus Loeliger comes into Day 3 in third place... in both the $10K PLO and the $25K NLHE.More multi-tablers are involved in the Medium $1,050 PLO ME, which has 18 of 521 entries remaining. Gruffudd Jones may be second in the High PLO but is leading the field in the Medium with a stack of 7.6M, ahead of Player of the Series favorite Mikhail Yakovlev in 2nd with 6.6M. High PLO chip leader Martin Dam is also in the mix, his stack of 1.8M good for 10th heading into Day 3. There’s $92,442 set aside for the winner, from a prize pool of $521,000.
The Low $109 PLO ME may have fewer big names among the 18 returning players, but features perhaps the most recognizable in the form of Lex ‘L. Veldhuis’ Veldhuis (below). The popular Dutch streamer and PokerStars ambassador comes into the final day with a stack of 4.1M (4th), some way behind chip leader Vladimir ‘vavan199212’ Zhigarev’s 9.7M but with a chance of winning his second WCOOP title and the $31,377 that will come with it. Expect Veldhuis to stream the action when play restarts.
All PLO Main Events resume at 6:30pm CET and will play to a winner.
Lex Veldhuis is playing for his second WCOOP title. Astedt bubbles the Super High Roller
It happens to even the very best players, and many would argue that Niklas ‘Lena900’ Astedt is among the best there is. The online poker phenom went out on the stone bubble of the $25K Super High Roller, eliminated in 8th place, one short of the money. At least he can take solace in the fact he only fired one bullet, unlike Adriàn Mateos (3), Ole Schemion, Talal Shakerchi and Artur Martirosian (all 2), who all exited ahead of the the famous Swede.
Niklas Astedt, who final-tabled the WSOP Main Event a few months ago, won his most recent WCOOP title earlier this week.59 players have created a prize pool of $1,446,975, with $449,610 set aside for the winner. The former #1 ranked online player ‘Legenden’ holds the chip lead with 4.1M, ahead of a stacked final table of Roberto ‘DavyJones922’ Perez (3.5M, 2nd), the double final-tabling Linus Loeliger (2.2M, 3rd), Johannes Straver (1.4M, 4th), Mark Radoja (1.2M, 5th), top 5 all-time money winner Mikita ‘fish2013’ Badziakouski (1M, 6th) and Rodrigo ‘SELOUAN1991’ Selouan.
This magnificent seven will play down to a winner when play resumes at 8:05pm CET.
Additional images courtesy of Triton Poker/Eloy Cabacas/Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd.
