It's that time of year again! With September's arrival, also comes the WCOOP, or the World Series of Online Poker. This annual online series held by Pokerstars.com consists of 62 events that start on September 4th, and end on September 25th. There's events with buy ins as low as $215 and 3 events with buy ins of as high as $10,300; the high roller NL Holdem event, the heads up high roller event, and the 8 mixed game high roller event. The WCOOP is usually the pinnacle of the online poker world. It is essentially the same thing as the World Series of Poker that is held at the Rio each summer, only people can participate from the comfort of their homes. It brings out the stars (we'll the ones that aren't on the Full Tilt payroll at least), the grinders, and the average Joe who wants to take a stab at a big score. It's a great chance for someone to finally make that big cash they're been striving for; to turn a number with 2 zeros behind it to one with 5 zeros behind it. We'll that is if you don't live in America of course.
Yes, the people living in this great country we call the United States of America can not partake in this years WCOOP festivities. That means much smaller fields, which in turn brings the guarantees in each prize pool down significantly. Although it's early, it is pretty clear that the lack of a U.S. market will result in less earnings for everyone involved. In 2010 the winner of the $10,300 high-roller NL Holdem tournament, CrabMaki, received $605,655 for beating the field of 313 players; the 2011 winner, DYBYDX, only earned $430,000 for accomplishing the same feat against 200 participants. That's a little more than a 25% decrease in winnings from last year. It's amazing what the DOJ has done to online poker in exactly 365 days. Although I am sure that DYBYDX would love that extra 175K, the real losers aren't even the players in this whole situation. The one that's hurting the most from no American players is Pokerstars themselves. The 113 less people that didn't play in this event, meant $33,900 less for them and that's just one event. Now figure there are 61 other events that they lose a significant amount of money on from not receiving the rake that they would normally get from American players and you realize how much profit they are actually losing. What was once a billion dollar industry is slowly losing lot's of money without an American market. It's not just American player's who want to get back to grinding online but the companies too. But enough about the negatives, American's or not the WCOOP is here and there is still thousands of dollars to be won. DYBYDX got the ball rolling with his 6 figure cash and it still is a great time of the year for the poker world.
6th Street:
1st place in the 2011 WPT Legends of Poker went to long time pro Will "The Thrill" Failla. The $3,500 buy in event featured a cool structure, where those who busted on Day 1A, could re-enter the tournament the following afternoon on Day 1B. This resulted in 757 entries and a $2,570,015 prize pool. Failla cracked Ken Aldridge's pocket aces when he rivered a flush to give him a dominating chip lead and when his J-6 held against Ken's 6-4, the trophy and the first place money was his. Failla took home $758,085 and Aldridge had to settle for $365,800. Owais Ahmed, who is having a heck of summer, took 7th for $77,100.
Eugene Katchalov made yet another final table this year at the EPT: Barcelona main event. The savvy Ukranian pro, who won his first WSOP bracelet this summer to go along with nearly 7 million in live tourney winnings, fell just short of completing the poker "triple crown" (WSOP bracelet, WPT title, and an EPT title) finishing in 3rd for 315,000 Euros (about $550,000). The winner of the event was 29 year old German pro Martin Schleich. He beat 811 players over a six day stretch to take home 850,000 Euros or $1,219,337 american dollars.
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