2007 WCOOP: Event #19 Final Table Report

No matter whether it's the World Championship of Online Poker, the World Series, or your local bar league's yearly championship series, when it starts getting toward the end, the pressure to put up a good score starts to mount. With only three days left in the 2005 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker, the $530 Pot-Limit Omaha event drew all kinds of wild gamblers to compete for the $523,000 prize pool. More than 1,000 runners jumped into the Friday event. One hundred fifty-three of them got paid, bot only nine could say they made it to the final table. There, the gold WCOOP bracelet and some big money waited for first place.



Seat 1: buck21 (675653 in chips)
Seat 2: cpfactor (346548 in chips)
Seat 3: Gu Minda (254942 in chips)
Seat 4: tralaira (321000 in chips)
Seat 5: Taknapotin (610847 in chips)
Seat 6: muzzu (278486 in chips)
Seat 7: Egar1m (130656 in chips)
Seat 8: villepn (398332 in chips)
Seat 9: Niiiv (121536 in chips)

The first big hand of the final table saw a rough runner-runner beat for villepn. On a 5dJs2c flop, muzzu re-raised villepn all-in. Villepn had flopped a set of fives. Muzzu only held JdAhKh4d for a pair of jacks and a gutshot draw. A running king and jack, though, pushed the pot the muzzu. His reponse? "Uuups."

Villepn said nothing. Or, at least, we couldn't hear it. His neighbors? That may be a different story. Villepn was left with 128,000 in chips, while muzzu moved up into second place.

Gu Minda was the next to double up after flopping jacks full of sevens against Taknapotin and getting paid off. That hand cut Taknapotin down to less than 300,000 in chips. He wasn't around for much longer. He came in for a raise with 9cQc7dTc and called a re-raise from buck21. It was the kind of flop that was going to get Taknapotin all in: 7cQd8s. With two pair and the open-ended draw, Taknapotin got his money in to see buck21's As3s7sAd. When the board paired eights on the turn, buck21 moved ahead in the hand and Taknapotin missed his myraid of outs. He finished in ninth place for $6,014.

Niiiv didn't have a lot of chips at the start of the final table and wasn't able to climb out of the hole. Niiiv re-raised all-in with KdKc4hQd versus villepn's 8c8sAc9h. An eight fell on the flop, Niiiv never caught up, and ultimately finished in eighth place for $10,460.

It took a few more minutes for the action to heat back up, but when it did, it was hot. Gu Minda flopped quad aces and got paid off by buck21. Then villepn got all in with aces and flopped a full house versus cpfactor.

Aces worked for those players, but failed Egar1m. He got all-in pre-flop with them against buck21's 8d9c7hQs. Buck21 flopped two pair and rivered a boat to send Egar1m out in seventh place and a cash of $10,206.

Seconds later, cpfactor went on a run and doubled up twice, once against muzzu (in which his aces held up) and once against villepn (in which he cracked aces). After that, play slowed down for a while. Some measured action led up to a big confrontation between villepn and tralaira. Villepn held queens pre-flop to tralaira's kings. Villepn couldn't suck out and was reduced to getting his remaining chips in against two players. While, the rail never saw his hand, he coudn't beat Gu Minda's trip threes and exited in sixth place for $14,580.

Five handed, the stacks looked like this:

Seat 1: buck21 (1345638 in chips)
Seat 2: cpfactor (350432 in chips)
Seat 3: Gu Minda (901980 in chips)
Seat 4: tralaira (153000 in chips)
Seat 6: muzzu (386950 in chips)

Sitting third in chips, cpfactor came in for a raise and got action from Gu Minda. The flop came down Ks8d4d and both players checked. The turn was the Ts. Gu Minda bet out and cpfactor raised. Gu Minda put him all in and cpfactor called. Cpfactor held 8c7sTdQd to Gu Minda's JsKhTc9s. A king on the river solidified Gu Minda's winning hand and cpfactor was out in fifth place, cashing for $26,934.

Within the next few hands, tralaira was down below 100,000 in chips and got all-in on a 999 flop. Bad timing, for sure, as Gu Minda held the case nine and put tralaira out in fourth place, a $33,472 payday.

Buck21 took three-handed play as an opportunty to slowly build his stack and, before long, had more than two million chips. His stack grew even bigger when his pocket aces held up against muzzu's 7hTsJs7s. Muzzu finished in third for $41,840.

Heads-up, buck21 had a better than 2:1 chip lead and refused to talk about a deal, saying it was "only a 60k difference." Gu Minda accepted the denial and set about chipping into buck21's lead. He nearly did it in less than 15 minutes. Finally, buck21 said okay to a chop. It took a while to negotiate it, but the deal ended with $16,000 left on the table and the players getting the following payouts.

buck21 - $81,262
Gu Minda - $77,053

It took a while, but buck21 prevailed. He gradually worked Gu Minda down to a 1:4 deficit. All the money eventually went in after Gu Minda turned two pair. At the same time, buck21 had turned his Broadway straight. Gu Minda didn't boat up on the river and finished in second place.

Congratualtions to all the people who cased in Event #19. Final table results are below.

2007 WCOOP: Event #19 Final Table Results

1. buck21 (Canada) $97,262
2. Gu Minda (France) $77,053.00
3. muzzu (Finland) $41,840.00
4. tralaira (Spain) $33,472.00
5. cpfactor (United States) $26,934.50
6. villepn (Finland) $20,397.00
7. Egar1m (United States) $15,167.00
8. Niiiv (United States) $10,460.00
9. Taknapotin (United States) $6,014.50