The $5,200 buy-in PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker Main Event began on Sunday, the first of two days of the world’s largest online poker tournament. When registration closed around 5:00pm ET, there were 2,185 entrants, meaning the prize pool was a hefty $10.925 million. Registration remained open through the end of the first level of play.
As expected, the Main Event shattered its already healthy $10 million guarantee. In fact, the prize pool was 9.25% above its guarantee, making it the richest tournament ever held online, according to PokerStars. The members of Team PokerStars Pro were out in full force. The field included Alexandre “allingomes” Gomes, Barry “barryg1” Greenstein, Bill Chen, Chad Brown, Dario Minieri, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Noah “Exclusive” Boeken, Gavin Griffin, Greg “FossilMan” Raymer, Humberto “Humberto B.” Brenes, Joe Hachem, Katja Thater, Alex Kravchenko, Vanessa “LadyMaverick” Roussso, Lee Nelson, Luca Pagano, Chris “Money800” Moneymaker, Isabelle “NoMercy” Mercier, Hevad “RaiNKhaN” Khan, Raymond Rahme, Steve “stevejpa” Paul-Ambrose, Tom McEvoy, Tuan Lam, Vicky Coren, and Victor Ramdin.
Three PokerStars players – awilli7333, Shafeeq, and thebirdman84 – were sent packing in the first 10 minutes of play. Others in the field included Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad, the winner of the 2007 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event, and HelmetSky, who took home third place in last year’s WCOOP Main Event.
The numbers from the 2008 WCOOP have been mind-blowing. The winner of the Main Event will take home several million dollars. However, check out the other big winners:
dorinvandy (United States) – $652,529.95
DuckU (United States) – $580,564.13
stevesbets (United States) – $560,000.00
Calvin32 (United States) – $452,086.50
#1PEN (United States) – $391,713.31
Through 32 events of the 2008 WCOOP, there have been 53,573 buy-ins for over $29 million in total prize money. Entrants came from 118 countries and 78 countries saw their citizens cash. In the Main Event, 78 countries had participants in the tournament and the total prize pool should swell to $11 million. Entering the tournament series, PokerStars has guaranteed at least $30 million total. The tournament series featured three tournaments with five-figure buy-ins, including a $25,000 High-Roller Heads-Up No Limit Hold’em tournament that featured 64 of poker’s elite.
At the end of the second hour of play, here were the top 10 chip counts on the virtual felts of PokerStars:
1. capinhabr – 114,756
2. Gbet007 – 101,036
3. Rekrul – 97,128
4. bigegypt – 91,850
5. BISCUTTIN – 88,304
6. 4ofaKindBud – 83,520
7. Bjorg0010 – 82,692
8. New Shawboy – 80,933
9. rmh123 – 79,628
10. Olia – 75,100
Others among the chip leaders at the end of the second hour were Boris Becker (68th with 57,169 chips), Annette_15 (71st for 56,913 chips), and Tony Holden (100th for 53,355 chips). The chip average was about 28,500. The only member of Team PokerStars Pro to appear in the top 100 was Andre “Aakkari” Akkari, who was in 56th place.
We’ll have a full update for you right here on Poker News Daily. Good luck to everyone still in the 2008 WCOOP Main Event.
