The Main Event of the 2008 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker concluded on Monday night, the second of two days of the tournament. It awarded $1.2 million to its winner, ckingusc. The 22 year-old student from South Carolina took home one of the largest amounts of money ever awarded in an online poker tournament. According to a press release distributed by PokerStars on Tuesday, the $5,200 buy-in Main Event was the largest online poker tournament ever held.
There were 2,185 entrants in the Main Event, creating a total prize pool of $10.9 million, which means that the tournament surpassed its guarantee by 9%. The final nine players hailed from six different countries. In the end, here’s how the payouts looked after a five-way chop:
1st Place: ckingusc, $1,265,432.23 (United States)
2nd Place: liberace, $1,375,249.81 (United Kingdom)
3rd Place: AJKHoosier1, $782,542.90 (United States)
4th Place: Markush13, $961,718.76 (Belarus)
5th Place: ShoesRDurrty, $801,153.80 (United States)
6th Place: Sumpas, $415,150.00 (Sweden)
7th Place: klslcz, $305,900.00 (United States)
8th Place: BOLLPOKER, $196,650.00 (France)
9th Place: kovi99, $121,267.50 (Austria)
Overall, the WCOOP awarded nearly $40 million in prize money in 33 events. Stuart “thedonator” Patterson and Jon “PearlJammer” Turner led the way with 10 cashes each in WCOOP events, according to a press release by PokerStars. This means that the duo finished in the money in 30% of events. Team PokerStars Pro member Bertrand “ElkY“Grospellier led the online poker room’s contingent, cashing seven times for over $400,000, including a 21st place finish in the Main Event. He commented, “The WCOOP is a great tournament to play in preparation for upcoming events like EPT London and the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in January. The prize pool is enormous and there is such an incredible variety of players and styles. No other online tournament compares to the WCOOP.”
Players from the United States cashed 3,776 times, players from Canada cashed 604 times, and United Kingdom PokerStars members cashed 495 times. There were 118 countries represented on the overall list of in the money finishers. The international event saw players from Gibraltar, Iran, Uganda, Bahrain, Liechtenstein, Georgia, Luxembourg, and even the Faroe Islands cash. Interestingly, Americans took two-thirds of the total number of bracelets up for grabs, or 22. Canada, Norway, and Sweden each took two.
The nearly $40 million up for grabs attracted some of the top tournament poker players in the world. Several appear on this list of players who took home the most total money from the WCOOP:
liberace, $1,377,179.01 (United Kingdom)
ckingusc, $1,266,282.84 (United States)
Markush13, $964,909.94 (Belarus)
ShoesRDurrty, $801,153.80 (United States)
AJKHoosier1, $794,601.76 (United States)
Dorinvandy, $662,362.45 (United States)
DuckU, $580,564.13 (United States)
stevesbets, $560,000.00 (United States)
Calvin32, $461,919.00 (United States)
Sumpas, $415,150.00 (Sweden)
All told, the WCOOP represented a highly-successful tournament series for the online poker room, which accepts U.S. players. The site’s marquee tournament is the Sunday Million, which runs every weekend at 14:30 ET. It comes with a buy-in of $215 and guarantees at least a $1.5 million prize pool. It’s the largest weekly online poker tournament held.
