The VOid Wins PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCCOP) Main Event
2,998 on-line poker players made the $2,600 buy-in for the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Main Event, a Texas No Limit Hold’em Freezeout tournament. PokerStars already guaranteed a prize pool of $5 Million, but after registration, the total pot reached a whopping $7,495,000 with a first place cash out of $1,378,330.50 and of course the WCOOP Main Event Championship title.
Many notable players were in the field among them were the poker pros of Team PokerStars including JC ‘area23JC’ Tran, Chad ’stelladora’ Brown, Greg ‘FossilMan’ Raymer, Katja Thater, Daniel ‘KidPoker’ Negreanu, Chris ‘Money800′ Moneymaker, Vanessa “LadyMaverick” Rousso, Tom McEvoy, Luca Pagano, Humberto Brenes, Jon ‘PearlJammer’ Turner, ‘Lilholdm954′ and ‘THAY3R.’
It took over 7 hours for the No Limit Hold’Em Tournament to reach the bubble when ‘alkemizt’ was eliminated, and then over 16 hours until the final table was reached. The participants in the final table was made up of ‘TheV0id’, ‘mao15′, ‘E-Daddie’, ‘ka$ino’, ‘nitbuster’, ‘HelmetSky’, ‘Fischer80′, mpg1000 and Vanessa ‘LadyMaverick’ Rousso - the only PokerStars pro to make the final table.
mpg1000 was the big chip leader in the final table with nearly 20 million in chips. ka$ino was in a distant second with 10 million. The first elimination of the table was Fischer80 who moved all in with 
against the 
of ka$ino. The held up, and finished Fischer80’s tournament life in the Main Event in ninth place, earning a decent $59,960 for his achievement.
The next elimination was mao15 who pushed all-in under the gun with pocket 8s. The VOid went all-in on top of mao15’s bet, and everyone folded behind. The VOid showed 
, which hit a set on the flop and eventually eliminating mao15 in eight place and a prize of over $100,000.
E-Daddie was eliminated next when his 
couldn’t improve against HelmetSky’s 
. E-Daddie got over $160,000 for his 7th place finish.
Three hands later, nitbuster was eliminated when his 
went up against TheV0id’s 
. The flop came 
, giving TheV0id top pair, while nitbuster was left drawing to a queen for a better pair or a king for the straight. The turn brought the 
, giving nitbuster even more outs to the river, but the 
wasn’t one of them, and nitbuster was eliminated in sixth place, earning over $230,000 for his achievement.
mpg1000, who had started the final table with nearly 20 million chips before losing his lead to ka$ino, was the next to be eliminated when mpg100’s 
went up against ka$ino’s . The flop came 
, giving both players top pair but leaving mpg1000 out-kicked. mpg1000 was left drawing to a club or a queen, but did not find any, and so he was eliminated in fifth place, earning over $300,000.
HelmetSky was eliminated in fourth place seven hands later when HelmetSky pushed all in with Pocket Queens. The VOid called with 
. The flop didn’t help TheVOid, but the on the turn had bis Big Slick overtaking The Ladies, and eventually maintaining that lead to eliminate HelmetSky from the event, earning over $380,000 for his 4th place finish.
Vanessa ‘LadyMaverick’ Rousso, representing Team PokerStars was the next player to be eliminated. LadyMaverick called ka$ino’s pre-flop raise, and both players got to see the flop of 
. Rousso check-called an 880,000 bet from ka$ino. The turn brought the 
and both players checked. The river was the and Rousso led out for 2,000,000, while ka$ino moved all-in for 34,000,000. Rousso called with her remaining 4,374,864 and was all in. Rousso showed 
for flopped two pair while ka$ino held 
for the backdoor flush. Rousso was eliminated in third place, earning for herself over $460,000.
During heads up, ka$ino had a two-to-one chip lead over The VOid.
Heads-up play came to an end after nearly two hours. At this time TheV0id had a 14-million chip lead over ka$ino. The final showdown showed ka$ino holding versus TheV0id’s 
. kas$ino’s big slick was the favorite, but the board from flop of , followed by the turn of and a river of gave The VOid a straight and eliminated ka$ino at second place, and earning over $850,000 for the second place finish.
The VOid was crowned 2007 PokerStars WCOOP Main Event champions and earned an awesome prize of over $1,200,000, one of the biggest prizes ever in the history of on-line poker.
For sure, the 2008 PokerStars WCOOP Main Event will have a bigger field and a bigger prize pool.
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