Event 13 of the World Championship of Online Poker featured one of the most popular events of the series: the $215 rebuy tournament. The popularity of this tournament was reflected in the turnout – 2234 players participated, inflating the prize pool up to $1,278,600, and past its original $1 million guarantee.
As to be expected, some of the very best made their way deep, playing well into the night while doing so. Rami “arbianight” Boukai has been a well-known player in the high stakes games online for quite some time now, and he went deep, busting in 14th place for $7,671.60. Finishing just three places behind him was Zachary “nofingclue11” Clark, coming in at 17th for $5,114.40. Zachary hasn’t been one to draw a lot of attention to himself, much like his late uncle, Chip Reese. However, Zachary definitely deserves a great deal of attention, as he has become a feared player online and live, building his resume with finishes like 3rd place in the recent WPT Legends of Poker (scoring big for $281,645). JohnnyBax was able to outlast 2214 players, but he couldn’t quite make it all the way. He ended up in 20th place, taking home $2,685.06 in the process.
There were still plenty of other big name available for the final table. Josh “nitbuster” Arieh is mostly known for his live play (with his 3rd place finish in the 2004 World Series of Poker Main Event), but he has had plenty of success online, as well. He final tabled last year’s toto hk Main Event and recently made a deep run in the $10,000 WCOOP Event, as well. Joining him at the final table was BeL0WaB0Ve, who may very well be the hottest player online right now. BeL0WaB0Ve had an amazing August, winning a $100 rebuy on Full Tilt Poker for $34,650, as well as dominating the recent FTOPS series by taking 2nd in a $300 rebuy event, and 4th in a $1,000 event. Those two massive scores totalled to over $270,000 in prize money.
Going into the final table, it was already 5:14 AM EST, and the players had been playing for nearly 15 hours already. Here were the chips counts as the remaining nine players headed into the final table:
- nitbuster – 4,245,760 chips
- BeL0WaB0Ve – 2,657,000 chips
- ACESEDAI – 2,015,663 chips
- imcastleman – 1,795,958 chips
- moe32746 – 1,257,246 chips
- TheKaas – 1,173,020 chips
- omalos – 1,052,006 chips
- lrdvoldemort – 981,113 chips
- Sykoen – 648,214 chips
The blinds were still at 20,000/40,000 with a 4,000 ante, so most of the table still had plenty of time. However, if you’re a regular No Limit Holdem player, you understand that it only takes one hand to change everything.
This was displayed as ACESEDAI’s chance for a WCOOP title quickly wilted away after getting his chips in with KJ on a JT78 board against moe32746, who had ACESEDAI outchipped at the time. Unfortunately for ACESEDAI, he was drawing to a chop as moe32746 held T9, good for the straight. The chop cards didn’t come and ACESEDAI busted in 9th place for $14,192.46. Less than half an hour later, TheKaas followed suit, getting it in with AQ versus lrdvoldemort’s KQ. The flop came a heart-breaking K high, and TheKaas couldn’t improve on the turn or the river. He finished in 8th for $23,014.80.
The bad beats continued as Sykoen got his remaining chips in against imcastleman. Imcastleman was in terrible shape when the cards were shown, holding the A9 of diamonds against Sykoen’s AQ. However, imcastleman was able to spike the nut flush by the river, and sent Sykoen out of the tournament with a bad taste in his mouth. His 7th place finish earned him $35,800.80.
The prolific BeL0WaB0Ve was next to fall. He got into a massive confrontation with nitbuster, finding himself all-in on a K9T flop holding QT of diamonds against nitbuster’s AA. Not only did he have a gutshot straight draw and the five remaining queens and tens, BeL0WaB0Ve also had a flush draw. He unfortunately did not get there, and he busted in what must have been a disappointing 6th place for $48,586.60.
Lrdvoldemort’s good run continued 5-handed, when he was able to eliminate not only one, but two more people. imcastleman and omalos got their short stacks in with 77 and AK respectively, and Lrdvoldemort came along for the ride with QQ. The flop came QK2, all but extinguishing hope for imcastleman and omalos. Although the turn brought omalos some outs, the river did not help and both players busted. imcastleman was out in 5th place for $61,372.80 due to having the shorter stack, and omalos busted in 4th place for $74,158.50.
Nitbuster seemed to dominate the majority of the final table with his aggressive style, but he unfortunately met his demise at the hands of a cooler. It was 3-handed at this point, and he ran his AJ into lrdvoldemort’s stronger AQ. Nitbuster couldn’t catch his 3-outer, and so he finished in 3rd place for an impressive $110,215.32.
Heads-up play took nearly an hour, as lrdvoldemort and moe32746 traded the chip lead several times. Lrdvoldemort was finally able to build a massive chip lead near the end of the hour, holding over 12 million in chips to moe32746’s 3.6 million. The blinds were up to 60,000/120,000 with a 12,000 ante. The players found themselves battling it out on a 559 flop with two clubs and 500,000 in the pot. Moe32746 checked and lrdvoldemort bet 300,000. Moe32746 raised to 786,300, and lrdvoldemort responded with a shove. Moe32746 called all-in with 98, but he was dominated by lrdvoldemort’s 75. Moe32746 wasn’t able to spike a 2-outer, and he finished in second place for a handsome $153,432.
Congratulations to Lrdvoldemort for his triumph in Event 13, where he demonstrated that winning tournaments requires solid play and also plenty of luck. His first place efforts earned him an impressive $207,772.50 and a coveted WCOOP bracelet. For a list of everyone who cashed (as well as where they live and how much their cash was), please see below.
