After years of playing no-limit hold'em tournaments, just about any poker player can settle into a routine strategy. In fact, for the many levels of a nine or ten-handed no-limit hold'em tournament, a player can put himself on autopilot. Sometimes a break from the routine is a good thing. How best to do it? I can think of a couple of ways and WCOOP Event #13 had both of them. Event #13 was played pot-limit, instead of no-limit, and with only six players per table. Short-handed play requires a wider range of starting hands. Pot-limit allows for more nuance and post-flop poker play.

As in many events leading up to Event #13, players were amazed at the brilliant structure devised by PokerStars' tournament team. When the players reached the final table bubble, the stacks were still deep enough to allow for a lot of play. It took more than an hour for the bubble to finally burst. When it did, these six players faced each other for the bracelet.

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Seat 1: DeathsHead26 (400480 in chips)
Seat 2: Lenny (433388 in chips)
Seat 3: Goodfella_84 (306571 in chips)
Seat 4: dnKid (1489431 in chips)
Seat 5: spaceMe (1082179 in chips)
Seat 6: Tulkaz (640451 in chips)

The final table began with a lot of action, that included some serious poker play and a one world-class call by PokerStars player Lenny, who has made several WCOOP final tables in the past and won an event in 2003. Still after playing for the rest of the 10,000/20,000 level, all six players remained. After looking at the chip-count numbers, the players did what no final table in the 2006 WCOOP has done yet--they chopped up the prize pool with all the players still at the table.

With everyone guaranteed a nice payday, the play opened up even more and the eliminations began. On the very first hand back from the deal discussion, Tulkaz doubled through Lenny with pocket queens vs. J9. The double-up would only be a short reprieve however. Shortly after doubling up, Tulkaz chased a flush and ending up missing in a huge hand versus spaceMe. Crippled, he finally got all his chips in with AJ against Lenny's pocket fives. Three threes on the board gave Lenny a full house and knocked Tulkaz out in sixth place. The early deal paid him $27,581.00.

Ten minutes later, Goodfella_84 came in for a raise with KQ, then called all-in when Lenny came over the top with A9. An ace and a nine on the flop was the beginning of the bad news and the end of the tournament for Goodfella_84. $26,780.00

DeathsHead26, one of the happiest final table players yet this year, ended his day in much the same way. Facing a raise from spaceMe, DeathsHead26 jammed with pocket jacks. SpaceMe called with with A4, flopped an ace, and sent DeathsHead26 to the rail in fourth place. Thanks to the deal, DeathsHead26 made $34,259.00, nearly $10,000 more than he would've made otherwise.

Three-handed, Lenny came in for a raise with AQ and got a call from both dnKid and spaceMe. SpaceMe check-raised Lenny all-in on a flop of Ts-Td-4d. Lenny made the call with his two overs. He wasn't drawing dead, but he might as well have been against spaceMe's pocket fours and flopped full house. Lenny departed in third place and added $40,156.00 to his lifetime WCOOP winnings.

Heads-up play didn't last ten minutes. After building a 3:1 chip lead, dnKid got into a raising and re-raising battle with spaceMe. The chips were all in before the flop and dnKid's AQ was good against A9. SpaceMe took home $47,113.00 and dnKid won an impressive $87,560.00.

A full list of money-winners can be found at the PokerStars WCOOP Event #13 results page. Final table results are below.

PokerStars WCOOP Event #13 Final Table Results
Results based on finishing order and a six-way deal that left $10,000 for first place

1. dnKid (United States) $87,560.00
2. spaceMe (Germany) $47,113.00
3. Lenny (United States) $40,156.00
4. DeathsHead26 (United States) $34,259.00
5. Goodfella_84 (Canada) $26,780.00
6. Tulkaz (Denmark) $27,581.00