liberace almost won the 2008 WCOOP Main Event(credit: wikipedia)
2,185 players plunked down a cool $5,000 to play in the 2008 Main Event at the World Championship of Online Poker held at PokerStars last weekend. They drove up the prize pool to a whopping record $10,925,000. The first place finisher was guaranteed nearly two million dollars for lasting the entire two days and 2,000 plus field.
On day one, more than 2100 players hit the rail, some of them among the most well-known online and live action tournament players in the world. 60 players survived into day two. Each would earn some money. However, every single one of them wanted the top spot. They wanted the biggest slice of the pie in the richest online poker series in history … so far.
August35, who also happens to be the 2008 Aussie Millions Main Event winner Alexander Kostritsyn, entered Day Two with the chip lead. However, he had a couple of hard knocks early on in the day and hit the rail in 23rd place. One of the biggest stories of the 2008 WCOOP, Team PokerStars pro, Bertrand “ElKY” Grospellier, who cashed in seven events and earned nearly $400,000, followed him shortly thereafter. The gamer, who makes his home in South Korea, where the APPT is currently being played, finished the series in 21st place, adding $22,942 to his bankroll.
As two tables remained Christian “charder30” Harder ran into some trouble with his short stack and careened into the rails with pocket fours. Harder’s eleventh place finished netted him more than $87k. The player who busted him was named liberace. liberace waltzed into a star-studded final table as the chip leader and, when five-handed play began, he helped broker a deal that made him a millionaire.
When Alex “AJKHoosier1” Kamberis was eliminated in third place by Carter “ckingusc” King, liberace still called most of the shots with a near two-to-one chip lead. Unfortunately, he’d warble his swan song after his pocket queens were ironically crushed by his opponent’s flush. In the end, the King made a pair of aces to dispatch of Liberace and win the title, the bracelet and $1,265,432.
Here are the final results:
1) ckingusc - $1,265,432
2) liberace - $1,375,249
3) AJKHoosier1 - $782,542
4) Markush13 - $961,718
5) ShoesRDurrty - $801,153
6) Sumpas - $415,150
7) klslcz - $305,900
8) BOLLPOKER - $196,650
9) kovi99 - $121,267
PokerStars has a variety of tournament offerings from low to high stake events. Visit their lobby now to find out a tourney that fits your schedule, skill level and bankroll now!