POKERSTARS MAKES THREE MORE MILLIONAIRES IN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP OF ONLINE POKER MAIN EVENT
Belgian player crowned world champion, winning $1.3 million first prize
ONCHAN, Isle of Man – September 30, 2015 – Belgian player, ‘Coenaldinho7’, was last night crowned 2015 World Champion of Online Poker, winning the top prize of $1,300,000 (after a four-way deal), as two more players won $1 million-plus each at the final table of the $5,200 NL Hold’em Main Event on PokerStars, an Amaya Inc. (Nasdaq: AYA; TSX: AYA) brand.
‘Coenaldino7’ went into the final table as the shortest stack of nine, with little more than 10 big blinds, and before play had even begun was asking about a deal. But as the action resumed his pleas fell on deaf ears, which proved to be a lucky break as the Belgian gradually moved up the chip leaderboard, while others – most notably Alexander ‘joiso’ Kostritsyn, who was chip leader going into the final table – were eliminated.
THREE MILLIONAIRES
When play reached four-handed a deal was negotiated and agreed upon. That gave three players seven-figure sums, with an additional $200k for which to play. ‘Nolet20’ from Canada, champion of the MicroMillions 11 Main Event this past July, ended up finishing third for $1,223,000, before heads-up play began between ‘Coenaldinho7’ and Polish player ‘AlwaysiNduCe’. ‘Coenaldinho7’ started with a 2-to-1 chip deficit, but the Belgian quickly surged ahead after winning a series of big pots, before a cooler finished things off with a title-deciding river card…
The players saw a flop of 5d-2d-Tc and ‘Coenaldinho7’, holding 7c-Th, checked; ‘AlwaysiNduCe’, with Kh-5c, bet 2 million chips, ‘Coenaldinho7’ raised to 6 million and ‘AlwaysiNduCe’ called. The turn brought the Ks, giving ‘AlwaysiNduCe’ two-pair and a near-lock on the hand. At that point both players’ remaining chips went in and an incredibly fortuitous Td on the river handed ‘Coenaldino7’ the title, an extra $200,000 in prize money, and a horrible bad beat to ‘AlwaysiNduCe’, who still pocketed a cool million for his hard work.
A short time ago ‘Coenaldinho7’ was interviewed by the PokerStars Blog and revealed that he is a 36-year-old head of transport for a Belgian meat producer, living in Limburg. He has a five-month-old baby and is now “thinking of quitting my stressful job, enjoying life more, and maybe becoming a frequent visitor of online and live poker events”.
To read the full interview, go to http://psta.rs/1QL6ziw. The PokerStars Blog also has a full tournament report: http://psta.rs/1FHB5sX.
WCOOP $5,200 NL Hold’em Main Event
Entries: 1,995
Prize pool: $10,000,000
- Coenaldinho7 (Belgium) $1,300,000*
- AlwaysiNduCe (Poland) $1,000,000*
- Nolet20 (Canada) $1,223,000*
- beertjes79 (Belgium) $800,000*
- Ravic85 (Russia) $400,000
- Rory ‘Mr.Kingball’ Brown (Ireland) $273,000
- K.T.A.-1985 (Czech Republic) $200,000
- Alexander ‘joiso’ Kostritsyn (Russia) $150,000
- bindernutnut (Canada) $100,000
* denotes four-way deal
The highest-placed Team PokerStars Pro was Aditya ‘Adi Agarwal’ Agarwal from India, who came 13th for $53,000. There was also nearly a repeat of an FPP qualifier making the final table of the WCOOP Main Event (remember ‘maratik’s win in 2013? http://psta.rs/1JC2vvt), with eventual 53rd-placed player ‘DomMarty’ qualifying for just 12 FPP – the fewest ever used to satellite in via the Mega Path route. At one point on Day 2 the player from the Czech Republic was among the top 10 chip-stacks, but was unlucky to lose a huge pot with Q-Q to 5-5 versus Kevin ‘ImaLuckSac’ MacPhee and never recovered. Check out the PokerStars Blog interview with ‘DomMarty’ where he talks about his incredible run: http://psta.rs/1VmxYxV
Team PokerStars Pro, Jason Somerville, also streamed and commented on the final table action via his hugely popular Run it UP! Twitch show, where he had more than 20,000 concurrent viewers at peak times on Tuesday night.
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
After 70 events the WCOOP 2015 Leader Board winner is Shaun ‘shaundeeb’ Deeb, who finished ahead of second-placed ‘vovtroy’. Deeb receives the Champion’s Trophy, $20,000 cash and a 2016 TCOOP Main Event ticket. Prizes of various amounts will also be handed out to players ranked 2nd to 10th.
WCOOP 2015 RECORDS
The 2015 World Championship of Online Poker has broken records with a total prize pool of $66,245,305 across its 70 events, making it the richest World Championship in its 14-year history. It surpassed the previous record of $63,157,150 (WCOOP 2010) by more than $3 million.
Shaun ‘shaundeeb’ Deeb finished with the highest number of cashes (18), two more than ‘nizmo jiz’ and ‘vovtroy’ who were tied joint second on 16, while ‘Adamyid’ and Mike ‘goleafsgoeh’ Leah made the most final tables (4 each). No player won two WCOOP events this year.
Despite finishing third for Cashes by Country, Final Tables by Country, and Entrants by Country, players from Russia won the most WCOOP titles this year (8) – one more than Canada and two more than United Kingdom and Sweden. Canada and the UK occupied first and second places respectively for Cashes, Final Tables and Entrants.
For more information and stats about WCOOP 2015, go to http://psta.rs/1JK20DG or email press@pokerstars.com.
About PokerStars
PokerStars operates the world’s most popular online poker sites, serving the global poker community. Since it launched in 2001, PokerStars has become the first choice of players all over the world, with more daily tournaments than anywhere else and with the best security online. More than 130 billion hands have been dealt on PokerStars, which is more than any other site.
PokerStars.com and PokerStars.eu operate globally under licenses from the Isle of Man and Malta governments, respectively. PokerStars also holds separate government licenses in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
PokerStars is the key brand of Rational Group, which operates gaming-related businesses and brands, including PokerStars, Full Tilt and the European Poker Tour. In 2012, 2013 and 2014, Rational Group companies in the UK and Isle of Man won recognition as one of the best workplaces in the UK being awarded a top 25 position by the Great Place to Work Institute’s Best Workplaces – Large category rankings. Rational Group entities in Costa Rica and Dublin also achieved the same accolade in their respective local rankings in 2014. PokerStars is owned by Amaya Inc. (Nasdaq: AYA; TSX: AYA).