Satellite Qualifier Wins $1.3 Million in PokerStars WCOOP Main Event

PokerStars’ World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) has crowned its 2018 main event champion after 25 hours of play.

Dutch grinder wann2play scoops the 2018 WCOOP main event title and $1.3 million after qualifying via a $530 satellite. (Image: Twitter/PokerStars)

Getting underway on September 16, the $5,200 MTT saw 2,044 players ante-up in a bid to win the lion’s share of a $10,220,000 prizepool. After three days of action, the bumper field was finally whittled down to a final table of eight.

Wann2play Came to Play

As the cards started to fly, Austria’s Linus Loeliger looked like the hot favorite. With the chip lead and a WCOOP title under their belt already this year, it looked as though the player known online as LLinusLLove would scoop it.

However, with wann2play of the Netherlands winning his way into the tournament for just $530, any sort of return on his investment was going to be a profit. Embracing that idea, the Dutchman played with little fear as Loeliger eventually fell in third.

Eager to lock-up a seven-figure payday, wann2play was quick to negotiate a deal with eze88888. After running the numbers, chip leader eze88888 accepted $1,257,203, while wann2play took $1,152,967.

With an extra $200,000 and a $30,000 up for grabs, play resumed. Despite facing a 2:1 deficit, the unknown Dutch player rallied to close the gap within a few hands.

Eventually, as the tournament’s 25-hour mark approached, it ended. With few chips left to play with, Argentina’s eze88888 moved all-in with Q♠8♣ and faced a quick call from his opponent holding K♦ 6♣.

A blank board missed both players, which meant the final pot and the 2018 WCOOP main event title went to wann2play.

WCOPP 2018 Main Event Final Table Result

1. wann2play – $1,352,967.97*

2. eze88888 – $1,257,203.66*

3. Linus Loeliger – $764,501.99

4. PlayaPlz – $540.584.85

5. Michael Zhang – $382,252.52

6: Noah Boeken – $270,293.45

7. 0409479 – $191,127.28

8. 4rebmun – $135,147.23

Outside of the main event, the latest WCOOP has broken all previous records. With a total prizepool of at least $70 million on offer, players anted up in their thousands. In total, PokerStars gave away $99,539,195 in prizes over the course of 60 events, WCOOP 2018 the biggest tournament series in online poker history.

As well as industry records falling, personal feats have also been surpassed this year. Prior to this year’s festival, Dan Kelly was the leading WCOOP winner with five titles.

Impressive as that may have been, Russia’s Denis Strebkov put in the performance of a lifetime to blow that record out of the water. With four titles heading into the latest run of WCOOP events, Strebkov knew how to win.

However, in just ten days he surpassed his own expectations by winning five tournaments. Not only did that take his overall tally to a record nine wins, it was the first time in the series’ 16-year history that a player had won five titles during a single WCOOP.