Grospellier at the EPT Main Event in 2008(credit: Poker Stars Blog)
The $530 buy-in didn’t deter anyone from the 23rd event at the 2008 Poker Stars WCOOP. 1,159 players signed on to play in the tournament. They re-bought 807 times and added-on 954 times to generate a whopping $1.46 million prize pool, which is not bad at all for a Wednesday night.
Bertrand “ElKY” Grospellier continued his impressive streak, taking the fifteenth spot in this tournament. However, as the final table got underway, one player dominated the action. ddrufnek had most of the chips and wasn’t about to give ‘em up to anyone. When play got down to four-handed, the aggressive rufnek agreed to a chop that gave the top finisher $210k and the rest of the players at least $169,804.
However, as heads-up play began, ddrufnek proved that he was open to renegotiating the deal to secure the bracelet … and the title. He and luckyuli decided upon an even chop of $184,902 with $10,000 and the bracelet going to the champ. On the final hand, ddrufneck held an A,7 which held against the K,J of his opponent.
Whew!
Here are the final standings:
1) ddrufnek — $194,902
2) luckyuli — $184,902
3) imeasy2read — $169,804
4) ILAN17 — $169,804
5) MPetes — $76,650
6) dinkel — $62,050
7) MaxHam — $47,450
8) 1bigbluffer1 — $32,850
9) MT456 — $20,440
Qualifiers for the APPT Seoul tournament are going on now. Fancy a trip to South Korea later this fall? Visit PokerStars now to check out the satellite schedule!