It's rare that a player has a lead going into the second day of play and actually wins, but jobetzu beat the odds and did just that. The Finn headed to the final table behind Timex, but a steady stream of aggressive moves took jobetzu to heads-up. Again, not the chip leader, jobetzu pushed and pushed to take the lead, and then put capoch to the final test. Jobetzu came out on top and took down a WCOOP.
*****
The last week of the 2012 World Championship of Online Poker was in full swing, and time was running out for players to grab WCOOP titles and pieces of the stellar guarantees offered for each event. Bring on a No Limit Hold'em event for a reasonable $215 buy-in with a $300K guarantee. The catch is that big antes are involved, starting from the very first level. That dimension makes it more interesting as players are committing chips in every single hand, so play or get anted out pretty quickly.
Day 1
As with all WCOOP events, the prize pool whipped the guarantee into submission rather quickly. By the time the registration period was over, the numbers showed up as follows:
Players: 2,164
Prize pool: $432,800.00
Paid players: 288
The tournament neared the 6.5-hour mark with the money bubble looming, and it burst to give Siewas the distinction of being the first player paid the minimum of $346.24. At the same time, Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso tweeted (from @VanessaRousso): "In the money and chipleader in #WCOOP event 52...second WCOOP cash of the day :) weeeeeeeeee"
Meanwhile, the cash-outs continued, and among them were several members of the PokerStars teams. Team Pro George Danzer exited in 267th place, and Sandra Naujoks followed in 252nd. Later, Marcin "Goral" Horecki left in 156th place, and former chip leader Vanessa Rousso ended up taking 42nd place for $1,038.72. As Day 1 grew closer to closing time, Team Online's Randy "nanonoko" Lew exited in 31st place with $1,255.12.
The night did come to an end after Level 30, and the last player to exit was FFM1977, who took home $1,731.20 for 17th place. The 16 players to return for Day 2 were:
1. jobetzu (Finland) - 1,924,438
2. hitthehole (UK) - 1,210,959 (2010 SCOOP champion)
3. bizishark (Russia) - 1,027,742
4. Syndrome1977 (Germany) - 875,260
5. Pipedream17 (Canada) - 823,872
6. KeyserMM (Germany) - 707,844
7. Timex (Canada) - 673,175
8. J10BLN (UK) - 651,990
9. NessV (Canada) - 628,844
10. soumi7 (UK) - 484,251
11. capoch (Sweden) - 473,666
12. CHIPFLOW (Japan) - 443,555
13. Glucks (Germany) - 431,046
14. jonasbeat (South Korea) - 177,848
15. Aleksandrx18 (Russia) - 163,710
16. Ramiro_ak (Brazil) - 122,000
Day 2
As soon as the second day began, NessV pushed with pocket kings but was crushed by jobetzu's pocket aces to give the chip leader an even bigger boost. Short-stacked ramiro_ak then tried pocket nines against the A-K of Syndrome1977, and the nines lost the race to send ramiro_ak out in 15th place. Soumi7's aces beat the A-K of Aleksandrx18, and the latter took 14th place. Jobetzu took out J10BLN, and and bizishark eliminated CHIPFLOW.
The first break of the day showed jobetzu still firmly in the lead, but Timex was climbing with hitthehole in a strong third. soumi7 was the only other player over 1 million chips. But soon enough Timex climbed into first place. Timex took the time to eliminate bizishark in 11th place with pocket queens over A-J, and hand-for-hand play began.
It took only a few minutes for Pipedream17 to make a move, shoving all-in from the button with [Ah][9d]. Timex called from the big blind with [Kd][Qc], and the board of [6h][2d][3s][7d][Qh] rivered the pair for Timex. Pipedream17 departed in tenth place with $3,246.00.
Chip lead time for Timex
The final table began in the last moments of Level 34, with blinds at 10,000/20,000 and a 4,000 ante, and the chip stacks were:
Seat 1: jobetzu (2,465,957 in chips)
Seat 2: Tîmex (3,327,336 in chips)
Seat 3: Glücks (286,869 in chips)
Seat 4: jonasbeat (352,958 in chips)
Seat 5: Syndrome1977 (629,798 in chips)
Seat 6: soumi7 (1,205,212 in chips)
Seat 7: capoch (943,176 in chips)
Seat 8: KeyserMM (543,919 in chips)
Seat 9: hitthehole (1,064,775 in chips)
Jonasbeat doubled off of a short stack through Timex with pocket aces that turned into quad aces on the board. That wasn't the only hit that Timex would take, as the first elimination put him in second place on the leaderboard.
A big hand then developed, starting with an initial middle position raise from KeyserMM. Hitthehole reraised from the button, and jobetzu pumped it up again. KeyserMM got out of the way, and hitthehole moved all-in for 997,775 chips. Jobetzu called with [Ah][Kd], and hitthehole showed [Qc][Qh]. The flop came [3s][Kc][7c] to give jobetzu top pair, and the [8s] and [9h] cards finished off the clash of the big stacks. Hitthehole had to leave in ninth place with $4,111.60.
KeyserMM decided to push all-in for 537,919 chips from the small blind after a button raise from capoch. Capoch did call with [Qs][Qh], and KeyserMM needed to improve quickly with [Ah][8c]. The board came [6c][2c][7d][2s][7c], and capoch ended with the best two pair. KeyserMM's tournament ended in eighth place with $7,357.60.
Changes at the top
Syndrome1977 doubled through Timex. Capoch took a pot worth more than 1.5 million from soumi7 to put the former in second place of the final seven, and the very short-stacked Glucks doubled through Timex. Glucks doubled again through jobetzu.
Four hands later, Glucks tried it again during a preflop raising battle with Timex. Glucks was all-in with [8d][8c], and Timex showed [Ad][Qc]. The flop of [4d][Jd][Qd] gave Timex top pair and the flush draw, and the [7s] turn didn't change anything. But the [2d] only gave Timex the flush. Glucks had no choice but to leave in seventh place with $10,820.00.
Jonasbeat was among the short stacks and made a push from the small blind with [Ac][9c]. Original raiser capoch folded, and caller jobetzu called the all-in with [6h][6s]. The sixes held up to the [8s][Ts][4s][3c][6c] board, and jonasbeat was gone in sixth place with $15,148.00.
Soumi7 had less than 200K chips and moved a few hands later with [Qh][Tc]. Capoch called with [Kd][7h], and the flop came [4d][Ks][9h] to give capoch a bigger lead but soumi7 the straight draws. The [Qc] came on the turn for a pair for soumi7, but the [Kc] on the river made trip kings for capoch. Soumi7 was eliminated in fifth place with $19,476.00.
Syndrome1977 doubled through jobetzu, and this second double through capoch secured a place in the top three:
Two hands later, Timex and jobetzu raised and reraised preflop until Timex pushed all-in with [9s][9d]. But jobetzu called with [Jh][Js]. The flop of [4s][Qc][Jd] gave jobetzu the set of jacks, but the [9c] on the turn gave Timex a set, too. But all hope was gone when the [Ah] was shown on the river. Timex exited in fourth place with $26,833.60.
Capoch doubled through jobetzu, and capoch and Syndrome1977 each took big pots from jobetzu. Even so, jobetzu remained the chip leader of the final three. Jobetzu then took some chips back by taking a 3.2 million chip pot from Syndrome1977. That led to Syndrome1977 risking it all with [Ah][8s], and capoch was up for the challenge with [8h][8c]. The board came [5c][2d][6c][Qc][9c], which only improved capoch's hand to a flush. Syndrome1977 left in third place with $38,952.00.
Sweden vs. Finland heads-up
The last two players standing and their chip counts:
Seat 1: jobetzu (4,371,432 in chips)
Seat 7: capoch (6,448,568 in chips)
The first half hour of the battle saw jobetzu not only even the stacks but took the lead through a series of aggressive moves and relatively small pots.
Nearing 45 minutes into the match, the two players raised and reraised their way to an all-in hand. Jobetzu was involved with [Jc][Jh], and capoch called all-in with [Ah][Kc]. Capoch was at risk but didn't find anything on the [8c][6c][4d][5s][4h] board to win the race. Capoch took second place and $51,936.00.
Jobetzu of Finland won the WCOOP title, bracelet, and $69,248.00.
WCOOP 2012 Event 52 ($215 NLHE Big Antes) Results:
1st place: jobetzu (Finland) - $69,248.00
2nd place: capoch (Sweden) - $51,936.00
3rd place: Syndrome1977 (Germany) - $38,952.00
4th place: Timex (Canada) - $26,833.60
5th place: soumi7 (UK) - $19,476.00
6th place: jonasbeat (South Korea) - $15,148.00
7th place: Glucks (Germany) - $10,820.00
8th place: KeyserMM (Germany) - $7,357.60
9th place: hitthehole (UK) - $4,111.60
Entrants: 2,164
Paid players: 288
WCOOP runs through September 24 with a total of 65 tournaments, so there's plenty of time left to get in on the action. For all sorts of information, check out the WCOOP home page. And don't forget to tune in to WCOOP Radio for daily shows at 15:00 ET.
Jennifer Newell is a PokerStars freelance contributor.