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At 11:00 ET this morning, several hundred players were dealt in to the first hand of Event #55. They'd all put in $530 for the privilege, but several of them were about to put in a lot more since the tournament featured unlimited re-buys for the first 90 minutes. If a player was eliminated or fell below 5,000 chips, they were allow re-buy 5,000 chips for the discounted price of $500.
No rake on re-buys folks, that's some great value.
At the end of the 90-minute late registration/re-buy period, players were allowed one add-on of 7,500 for another $500. After the initial 90-minutes of re-buy madness ended and the digital dust settled, players were greeted with a $1,088,500.00 prize pool.
The prize pool would only be distributed among 99 players, but it took 744 entries, 818-re-buys and 615 add-ons to make. The final 99 players of the tournament would cash for a minimum of $2,403.55, while our 1st place finisher would get a $199,639.75 payday.
The juicy prize pool and frantic re-buy action attracted several of the game's biggest players, including 18 Team PokerStars players. Out of those 18 red-spade pros, five managed to cash for a total of $21,008.00.
Johnny Lodden and Daniel managed to finish in 61st and 60th respectively, earning $3,374.35 a piece. Andre "acoimbra" Coimbra was next, finishing in 38th for $4,136. A few places later, Eugene Katchalov scored another WCOOP cash, finishing in 31st for $4,680.55. Then there was Jose Ignacio Barbero, the Argentinian pro made the deepest run for Team Pro in Event #55. Nacho Barbero managed to place 23rd, earning $5,442.50.
With Barbero gone in 23rd, we were quickly approaching the final table. It was about 22:45 ET, the tournament was down to 10 players and hitthehole was in the chip lead. SexSeen had just been moved to balance tables and was about to vacate that table too.
The blinds were 12,500/25,000 with a 3,125 ante and SexSeen moved all-in from UTG for 268,370. m3Dyyy re-shoved for 385,379 from the button and both blinds folded. SexSeen was at risk and showed [ah][4h] and was dominated by m3Dyyy's [as][js].
The board ran [2d][9d][2c][6c][8d] and SexSeen was eliminated in 10th place, earning $11,973.50. With SexSeen no longer being seen in the tournament, we were down to our:
FINAL TABLE
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Seat 1: GabrielMoyaa -- 1,124,533
Seat 2: pezler06 -- 1,767,493
Seat 3: m3Dyyy -- 706,874
Seat 4: linnna -- 1,864,032
Seat 5: youaremelon -- 2,430,423
Seat 6: hitthehole -- 2,514,513
Seat 7: Olorionek -- 278,904
Seat 8: UhhMee -- 901,228
Seat 9: sms9231 -- 834,500
Olorionek was our final table short stack with just about 11 big blinds.
Olorionek managed to build his stack up to 322,654, but that's as big as it would get.
Blinds were still 12,500/25,000 and linnna raised to 58,000 from middle position. Action folded around to Olorionek, who moved all-in for 322,654 from the cutoff. Everyone folded to linnna, who called with [as][kc].
Olorionek showed [3s][3d] and was flipping for his tournament life. The flop came [10c][4s][9s] and the turn was an ominous [2s]. Both players had a spade, but linna held the [as]. The river was a [10s] and linnna flushed out Olorionek.
Olorionek became our first final table casualty, finishing in 9th place for $14,150.50.
DOUBLE MELON
youaremelon's deep final table run would be helped by a few eliminations early on. The blinds were the same and sms9231 raised to 50,750 from middle position. Everyone folded to youaremelon, who re-raised to 127,777 from the big blind.
sms9231 responded by moving all-in for 774,750 and youaremelon called.
sms9231: [ac][qh]
youaremelon: [js][jd]
It was a standard flip with a scandalous board. The flop came [qd][8c][jc] and sms9231 paired his queen, but youaremelon hit a set. The turn was a [qc], giving sms9231 three queens, but upgrading youaremelon's hand to a full house.
The river was a [10c] and sms9231 improved to a flush, but youaremelon still held the better hand with a full house. sms9231 was eliminated in 8th place and added $23,947.00 to his list of online cashes.
Both youaremelon and sms9231 were Canadian, and youaremelon was about to eliminate the remaining Canadian at the table. THERE COULD BE ONLY ONE, EH!
A few minutes after sms9231's elimination, blinds were up to 15,000/30,000 with a 3,750 ante and youaremelon raised to 60,000 from the button. UhhMee was in the big blind and moved all-in for 641,328.
youaremelon called and was about to eliminate another countryman. UhhMee turned over [ac][6h], but was dominated by youaremelon's [ad][ks].
The [3d][10h][6d] flop gave UhhMee the lead, but after an uneventful [2s] on the turn, the river was a devastating [kd]. youaremelon's kings took the pot and eliminated UhhMee in 7th place. UhhMee earned $34,832.00 and youaremelon became the last Canadian standing.
This last hand gave youaremelon the lead with about 3.5 million, a lead that'd only increase until everyone was gone.
ANOTHER DOUBLE MELON
youaremelon would be responsible for the next couple of eliminations as well, but first he'd increase the lead by winning a couple of pots like these:
youaremelon's stack grew to about 5.6 million before the melon struck again. Blinds were 25,000/50,000 with a 6,250 ante and pezler06 moved all-in for 1,016,408 from the button. youaremelon called from the big blind, and another domination took place.
pezler06 turned over [ad][8h] and youaremelon showed a slightly superior [ac][9h]. youaremelon was already in the lead, but the [qs][7h][9d] flop made it even bigger. The turn was a [qd] and the river was a [4h].
pezler06 was out in 6th, earning $56,602.00, while youaremelo's lead grew to 6.8 million. The very next hand, the melon struck again.
youaremelon raised to 125,000 from the small blind and hitthehole re-raised to 300,000 from the big blind. youaremelon put in a 4-bet to 575,000 and hitthehole moved all-in for 2,159,990. youaremelon called and showed [9h][9c]. hitthehole showed [ah][kd] and we had another final table flip.
But the outcome of this flip would guarantee the final three $107,761.50.
The flop came [qc][9s][qs] and youaremelon flopped a full house. Only running kings or aces could save hittthehole, but the [5s] on the turn ruined any hopes of that. The river was an irrelevant [10s] and hitthehole was eliminated in 4th place, a finish worth $81,093.25.
THE FINAL MELON
youaremelon had just eliminated the majority of the players at the final table and was holding nearly 75 percent of the chips in play.
But the first three-handed all-in would be between the two short stacks:
linnna wouldn't last much longer after that.
Four hands after doubling GabrielMoyaa up, linnna's tournament life would be the one at risk. Blinds were 30,000/60,000 with a 7,500 ante and linnna moved all-in for 870,960 from the small blind.
youaremelon called from the big blind and was dominating once again.
linnna: [4h][4s]
youaremelon: [5d][5h]
The board ran [as][7c][2s][10h][3c] and linnna was earned $107,761.50 for the 3rd place finish.
HEADS UP
We were down to two players, youaremelon and GabrielMoyaa.
youaremelon -- 10,591,422
GabrielMoyaa -- 1,831,078
youaremelon had a commanding lead and would keep it for the entire match. GabrielMoyaa managed to win a few pots, but youaremelon never dipped far below the 9-million chip mark.
youaremelon got GabrielMoyaa down to about 2 million before he dealt the final blow. Blinds were 40,000/80,000 with a 10,000 ante and GabrielMoyaa raised to 160,000 from the small blind. youaremelon 3-bet to 377,777 and GabrielMoyaa moved all-in.
youaremelon called and the final board of the tournament was dealt.
GabrielMoyaa was showing [3h][3s] while youaremelon was about to end things with [ac][9s]. The [9h][2s][jc] flop -- as it had for most of the fina table -- fell in youaremelon's favor. The turn was a [qc] and the final river of the tournament was a [7d].
GabrielMoyaa was out in 2nd and won $142,593.50 for it. This made youaremelon the champion for Event #55. Aside from all the accolades that winning a WCOOP brings, youaremelon took the top prize of $199,739.75.
2012 WCOOP Event #55 ($530+R NLHE) results:
Prize Pool: $1,088,500.00
Entrants: 744 entries, 818 re-buys, 615 add-ons
Places Paid: 99
1st: youaremelon -- $199,739.75
2nd: GabrielMoyaa -- $142,593.50
3rd: linnna (Sweden) -- $107,761.50
4th: hitthehole (United Kingdom) -- $81,093.25
5th: pezler06 (United Kingdom) -- $56,602.00
6th: m3Dyyy (Romania) -- $45,717.00
7th: UhhMee (Canada)-- $34,832.00
8th: sms9231 (Canada) -- $23,947.00
9th: Olorionek (Poland) -- $14,150.50
That's it for Event #55. There are only a few more events left in this year's WCOOP, so be sure to check out the WCOOP homepage for a full schedule of the remaining events and satellites. To get your WCOOP audio fix, check out the WCOOP radio show, which airs daily at 15:00ET until September 25th.
Alexander Villegas is a freelance contributor to the PokersStars Blog.