Much was made of the plans by Caesars and WSOP officials announced they would have an online event as part of the 2015 World Series of Poker Schedule. People wondered if there would be anyone who would show up for the $1000 buy-in event; people pondered whether the WSOP.com online poker software would stand up to a sizeable influx of players taking part in the tournament online. Finally, some groused that it was simply a tool that would drive traffic towards the WSOP.com online poker site in the underwhelming Nevada market.
All those questions were answered on Thursday as Event #64, the $1000 WSOP.com No Limit Hold’em tournament, took to the virtual felt at noon yesterday. The players came out in decent numbers, bringing 905 players to their computers instead of the Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino (where the tournament may have drawn twice that number), and the general mood of those players was supportive of the efforts. Of course, with the ability to play sitting at home (or your hotel room), many made the joke of playing in their underwear (as poker pro Kristy Gazes did on her Facebook account). While we cannot independently verify that Gazes played sans clothing, there were some other pros who made their presence known.
WSOP.com sponsored pro and former World Champion Greg Merson was a part of the festivities, actually joining pretty much from the start of the tournament rather than waiting until later in the late registration period as most professional players do. Merson wouldn’t be around by the time the tournament determined the 100 players who would earn an official WSOP cash (joined on the rail by Mohsin Charania), but two other pros would pick up some ducats for their efforts. Natasha Barbour and three-time WSOP bracelet winner Dutch Boyd were part of the contingent who stuck around on Thursday to get something back for their $1000 investment.
It took almost nine hours to get to the final nine players who would try to make it to the Rio’s six-handed final table for this event (more on this in a minute). From the original 905 player field, ‘imgrinding’ had emerged as the dominating chip leader with 3,558,771 in chips. He was joined by ‘casedismised’ as the only players over the million chip mark (‘casedismised’ sat on 1,093,354 in chips) as poker professional David ‘TuttyBear’ Tuthill hung in the third place slot with over 900K in chips. Just like the run-up to the final nine players, it wouldn’t take long to determine the official final table.
Over the span of 40 minutes, that official final table was determined. ‘CindrllaMan’ would be the first to go at the hands of ‘SLOPHOUSE’ for a $11,177 payout for ninth place. On the very next hand, ‘AAwwwAA’ was sent to the virtual rail in eighth place by ‘imgrinding,’ picking up a $16,335 payday for ‘AAwwwAA’s’ nine hours of work. After ‘Stonerboner’ received a timely double-up through the chip-stacking ‘imgrinding,’ ‘MrTerry007’ would be the player eliminated on the “live final table” bubble after sending a huge amount of chips to ‘casedismised’ to set up the official final table.
1. ‘imgrinding,’ 2,572,767
2. ‘casedismised,’ 2,290,637
3. ‘Stonerboner,’ 1,832,138
4. ‘SLOPHOUSE,’ 1,104,863
5. ‘GringoLoco72,’ 1,059,089
6. David ‘TuttyBear’ Tuthill, 467,813
There are several questions left to be answered for Event #64. First off will be the identities of the other five players who step to the felt for the conclusion of the tournament. Other than Tuthill, the other five player’s identities are a mystery; they could be a notable pro or they could be the next online superstar to emerge on the poker scene. Secondly, how will the WSOP handle the odd chip counts? It is most likely that the players will see their stacks rounded up to the nearest 5000 chips so that the live tournament staff can put together stacks for the players.
These six players will receive a minimum of $33,530 for making their appearance at the Rio on Saturday (WSOP officials are giving the players a day to come to Las Vegas). For the first-ever champion of the hybrid online-live tournament, a WSOP bracelet and a $197,743 payday awaits them.
