Bertrand Grospellier(credit: Poker Stars Blog)
64 players paid their $25,000 to play in the nineteenth tournament of the 2008 World Championships of Online Poker at PokerStars on Sunday September 14, 2008. World-class poker players such as Daniel Negreanu, Vanessa Rousso, Greg Raymer and Chris Moneymaker shuffled up and dealt themselves into the event, making this a truly worthy event for the fan and aficionado alike.
64 players paid their $25,000 to play in the nineteenth tournament of the 2008 World Championships of Online Poker at PokerStars on Sunday September 14, 2008. World-class poker players such as Daniel Negreanu, Vanessa Rousso, Greg Raymer and Chris Moneymaker shuffled up and dealt themselves into the event, making this a truly worthy event for the fan and aficionado alike.
Players who made it to the Sweet Sixteen, or the money bubble round, included Daniel “KidPoker” Negreanu, Tom Dwan and Dario Minieri. The Elite Eight match-ups were:
Grospellier and stevesbets sailed through their matchups. Griffin took out Ramdin and zivziv KO’d Vanessa Rousso, aka Lady Maverick. The four players who were eliminated received $100,000 for their efforts, so it was all good. ElKY then faced Griffin and stevesbets played zivziv. ElKY and stevesbets won their matches yet again, setting the stage for the final showdown. Griffin and zivziv would have to settle for $160,000 each.
The final two played their hands quickly, making snap decisions that caused the railbirds to comment on the rapidity of play. On the final hand, Grospellier, who won the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure earlier this year, got all his chips in the middle with a pair of threes. Unfortunately, he was dominated by Jacobs’ pair of eights. The board failed to help the French-born player who currently resides in South Korea and he took his runner-up payday of $320,000.
stevesbets earned a cool $500,000 for the win and a WCOOP bracelet for the Herculean effort.