2011 WCOOP Finishes, Pedersen Wins Big in Five-Way Split

  

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The World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) concludes with Thomas “Kallllle” Pedersen winning the $5,200 Main Event, and in a five-way split, secured $1,260,018 for his outstanding play.

In the final event of the WCOOP, 1,627 players gathered around their computer screens to contest for the single biggest championship in online poker. It took a total of two days to crown a single victor, with that player being Thomas Pedersen.

Pedersen shared the glory with four other players, including the second place finisher Vojta “Vojta_R” Ruzicka, who accrued $710,000 in tournament earnings by agreeing to split.

The guaranteed prize pool of $5 million was crushed to the tune of $8,135,000, with players from around the globe assembling for a shot at online poker history. Despite not breaking the record-setting statistics of last year’s event (and it wasn’t expected due to the lack of U.S. participants), the 2011 WCOOP Main Event still brought lots of excitement and tons of payouts.

To say that the best of the best came out for the WCOOP Main Event would be severely understated. There were a few big names absent, but most of the fearsome online grinders and transitional high-stakes live pros were logged in for one of the biggest online tournaments around the globe. Recently signed PokerStars pro Mickey Petersen was in attendance, along with the talented Jason Mercier, and the increasingly dangerous Daniel Negreanu.

Negreanu, who had a fantastic series, made his attendance at the WCOOP a primary responsibility in his always hectic schedule. He’s been bogged down with play in various mixed cash games at the Aria, a tumultuous effort at the World Series of Poker, and time consuming tasks in regards to his recent move to Vancouver, B.C. Negreanu, however, couldn’t wait to jump right back into one of his newest pleasures, online poker.

“I can’t help but admit that I genuinely missed playing online poker,” Negreanu stated in a recent online blog post.

“I ended up playing WCOOPs in four different countries in just a three week span. I started my WCOOP in Barcelona, then off to Montenegro, Budapest, and finally, locked myself up in a hotel room in London for the stretch run. I did a bit more homework than normal and really planned on taking the events seriously.”

It turned out to be time very well spent, as Negreanu managed to cash in 15 out of the unfathomable 52 events he played. There were only 62 events total in this year’s WCOOP, and Negreanu missed a mere 10 of those.

With all of his entries, he only ranked behind one other player in terms of cashes, and finished in third place for the WCOOP Player of the Series. Just “Big_Nemo” (Canada), and “2FLY2TILT” (Spain) ranked ahead of him.

By finishing as the leader in the WCOOP POS race, Joel “2FLY2TILT” Gordon will receive $40,000 in cash along with various entries into 2012 live tournaments, including the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, European Poker Tour Grand Final and Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP).

There was a long list of players who could nearly taste the final table, but fell just short of their ambition to receive the biggest prize money. In that class was Niki “RealAndyBeal” Jedlicka (12th), Dani “supernova9” Stern (13th), Tom “kingsofcards” Marchese (23rd) and Phil “takechip” D’Auteuil (43rd).

Two of the other five players that were involved in the chop, Mike “goleafsgoeh” Leah and Ramzi “BackDoorovic” Jelassi, were also very good tournament players who were rewarded for their prowess.

Jelassi, who has now won over 1.7 million in combined live and online tournament earnings, brought home $650,000 with the chop in fourth place.

Leah, who finished in third, surprisingly received $90K less than his lower-placed comrade, but still deserves kudos for representing Canada in a big way during the 2011 WCOOP. He procured $560,000.

The 2011 WCOOP had a total of 62 events, with a total prize pool of over $47 million.

Last year, POTTERPOKER brought home the title, winning $2,278,097.50, which still remains as the biggest online tournament prize ever awarded.

Here are the results for the final table of the 2011 WCOOP Main Event:

PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker: $5,200 No-Limit Hold’em

Entries: 1,627 Prize Pool: $8,135,000

  1. Thomas “Kallllle” Pedersen: $1,260,018.50*
  2. Vojta “Vojta_R” Ruzicka: $710,000.00*
  3. Mike “goleafsgoeh” Leah: $560,000.00*
  4. Ramzi “BackDoorovic” Jelassi: $650,000.00*
  5. VadziMoney: $750,000.00*
  6. WhySoSrsSon: $222,085.50
  7. jle90: $162,700.00
  8. OU THE NICK: $122,025.00
  9. dan82mur: $81,350.00

*Asterisks denote the result of cumulative player agreement.

Couldn’t get into the WCOOP on PokerStars? Don’t fret! If you’re outside of the United States, you can immediately jump into a big buy-in tournament on Intertops Poker, or join a large MTT on Bodog Poker while you still can if you reside in the U.S.

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