PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker Underway

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The PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker roared off to a great start yesterday, with two huge events bringing in an incredible amount of players and creating massive payouts. In the end, “AlexKP” and “CrabMaki” took home the first two titles of the WCOOP and impressive six-figure prizes for their efforts.

The WCOOP got started with Event 1, the $215 No Limit Hold’em 6-max tournament. This battle featured a guaranteed prize pool of $1.25 million; a number that was overwhelmed when 9,001 players pushed the purse to $1.8 million.

PokerStars was well represented; 56 pros from the online poker room signed up for the event. All totaled, eleven of them cashed, led by Randy “nanonoko” Lew in 33^rd, Noah “Exclusive” Boeken in 87^th place, and Barry “barryg1″ Greenstein coming in 110^th.

The night, however, would belong to AlexKP. Holding a huge chip advantage (71.5 million to 18.5 million) entering the heads-up with “Tutanharmon1”, AlexKP initially refused to chop, telling his opponent, “If you get to 30 million we can talk.” After a big pot put Tutanharmon1 over 30 million, he again proposed a chop, and AlexKP kept his word, agreeing to an uneven chop, and leaving $25,000 to go to the winner. AlexKP quickly plowed through his opponent’s chips, adding the $25K and running his victory total to an impressive $257,000. Tutanharmon1 finished with a solid $198,274.48.

In Event 2, the $10,300 No Limit Hold’em High Roller tournament, it was “CrabMaki” that would feast on the 313-player field. Originally sporting a hefty $2 million guarantee, players would instead vie for a prize pool that swelled to $3.13 million. Of the 313 players who entered, 21 were PokerStars pros; these hotshots didn’t just join in, the made an assault on the leader board, with Chris Moneymaker, Ville Wahlbeck and four others cashing. Wahlbeck would go on to finish 2^nd, making PokerStars proud and taking $453,850 for his efforts.

In spite of Wahlbeck’s great run, it was CrabMaki that would rise to the top spot. A nut flush on the final hand would seal Wahlbeck’s fate and deliver the championship to CrabMaki. The $605,655 top prize was pushed to CrabMaki’s side of the table, and an amazing opening day of the 9^th WCOOP was complete.

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