The 2008 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker is drawing to a close, but PiKappRaider made the most of the final events, taking home $211,133 for first place in the $530 Rebuy No Limit Hold’em Six-Handed event (#29). His win capped off an exciting Friday in the WCOOP, which concludes on Sunday with the start of the two-day Main Event.
PiKappRaider bested a field of 852 entrants. The top 132 finished in the money and places 121 to 132 cashed for a healthy $2,205. The 852 players generated a prize pool of $1,260,500, which means that, on average, each person contributed about $1,500 to the $530 rebuy event. French PokerStars player AceOfSpade11 finished in second, making his country $157,562 richer. Well-known online poker player DuckU finished in third, pocketing $119,747. Rounding out the six-handed final table were isuckoutonu (fourth place for $81,932), grunter321 (fifth place for $56,722), and Roothlus (sixth place for $37,815).
Coming in seventh in the $530 Six-Handed Rebuy event was none other than Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen, who is fresh off finishing 12th in the World Poker Tour’s Borgata Poker Open. He was bounced from the event just a few days ago and has already returned with vigor to the virtual felts on PokerStars. Other notable finishers included PokerStars sponsored player ElkY, who finished in 15th place for $10,714, and online poker player BKiCe, who finished in 16th for the same amount.
There are two events that kicked off today in the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker. Both have $500,000 guarantees and should see plenty of action just one day before the start of the $10 million guaranteed Main Event:
Event #31: Saturday at 14:30 ET
$1,050 buy-in Limit Hold’em Six-Max
$500,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
Event #32: Saturday at 16:30 ET
$10,300 buy-in HORSE
$500,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
The $10,300 buy-in horse event is the third five-figure buy-in WCOOP tournament to take place. In Event #5, a $10,300 buy-in High-Roller No Limit Hold’em tournament, dorinvandy took home a massive $617,925 payday. In Event #19, the $25,500 buy-in Heads-Up No Limit Hold’em tournament, stevesbets bested a field of 64 of the world’s top poker pros en route to a $560,000 payday.
The $5,200 buy-in WCOOP Main Event begins on Sunday at 16:30 ET, the first of two days of the high-stakes tournament. It accounts for one-third of the total guarantee of the WCOOP, or $10 million. PokerStars is essentially funding a 2,000 player prize pool. The tournament concludes on Monday night, when a multi-million dollar winner will be determined.
Expect every single member of Team PokerStars Pro to be in attendance for the Main Event. After all, they are part of the reason the site has been so successful and represent a group of highly accomplished poker pros. Team PokerStars Pro members include Barry Greenstein, Daniel Negreanu, and three recent World Series of Poker Main Event Champions: Chris Moneymaker (2003), Greg Raymer (2004), and Joe Hachem (2005). Others include Victor Ramdin, Vanessa Rousso, Tom McEvoy, and Steven Paul-Ambrose.
