WCOOP – Event #19, $530 PLO: Big Bucks for 'buck21'

Matt Wehner

Sep 29, 2007 4 min read

WCOOP – Event #19, $530 PLO: Big Bucks for 'buck21' 0001

The final weekend of PokerStars' World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) kicked off on Friday with two great events, the first being the $530 Pot Limit Omaha tourney (Event #19) with a $300,000 guaranteed prize pool. Last year's event saw 867 participants while this year's drew 1,046, generating a prize pool of $523,000, with $112,445 going to first place and the top six finishers all receiving over $20,000.

The event started off at a very fast pace, with 800 participants eliminated within the first four hours. 'StudlyJud' was the bubble boy after being eliminated in 154th place after only six hours of play. The final table was reached when 'buck21' made it 18,000 to go pre-flop and 'ronenon' raised to 54,000. buck21 called, then checked the flop of 5?8?5?. ronenon led out for 54,000, buck21 check-raised to 108,000, and ronenon moved all-in for 110,940. buck21 called and showed 5?7?6?8? for a full house while ronenon showed A?K?A?4? for two pair. ronenon failed to improve and was eliminated in tenth place.

The final table was made up of buck21, 'cpfactor', 'Gu Minda', 'tralaira', 'Taknapotin', 'muzzu', 'Egar1m', 'villepn', and 'Niiiv'. The first elimination came when Taknapotin bet pre-flop for 20,000 and buck21 raised up to 64,000. Taknapotin called and the flop came 7?Q?8?. buck21 quickly bet 124,888 and Taknapotin, nearly mimicking the previous elimination hand, moved all-in for an additional 79,017. buck21 called and showed A?3?7?A? while Taknapotin showed 9?Q?7?10? and was in the lead with top two pair. The turn brought the 8?, pairing the board and putting buck21 as the favorite to win the hand. Taknapotin failed to improve with the 9? on the river and was eliminated in ninth place.

Soon after, with the blinds at 4,000/8,000 villepn raised to 24,000 preflop and Niiiv pushed all-in for an additional 44,536. villepn called and showed 8?8?A?9? while Niiiv turned over K?K?4?Q?. The board came 6?Q?8?A?3? with villepn flopping trips, leaving Niiiv eliminated after failing to catch a king or a diamond.

The third elimination hand came after Egar1m bet out for 35,000 pre-flop and was raised by buck21 to 120,000. Egar1m shoved all-in for another 72,312 to buck21 and he called. Egar1m showed 2?10?A?A? while buck21 turned over 8?9?7?Q?. The flop came Q?8?6?, giving buck21 the lead with two pair. The 3? turn brought no help to Egar1m, while the 8? river gave buck21 a full house and eliminated Egar1m in seventh place. This hand also put buck21 in a commanding chip lead with over 1.3 million in chips at the table.

cpfactor was eliminated in fifth place after betting 24,000, which Gu Minda called. The flop came K?8?4? and both players checked. The 10? on the turn was the action card, with Gu Minda leading out for 48,000 and cpfactor bumping it up to 204,000. Gu Minda reraised to 672,000 and cpfactor called, all in, for his remaining 122,432. Gu Minda showed J?K?10?9? for two pair, as well as an open-ended straight draw. cpfactor showed 8?7?10?Q? for a lesser two pair. The K? fell on the river, giving Gu Minda an unneeded full house.

With just four players left at the final table, buck21 had a commanding chip lead with 1.69 million in chips, while Gu Minda was next with 957,000. The next elimination came when tralaira made it 36,000 to go pre-flop. Gu Minda called and the flop came 9?9?9?. Gu Minda checked while tralaira moved all-in for 51,000. Gu Minda made the call, and tralaira showed K?Q?7?4? while Gu Minda showed 10?J?9?6? with the case nine. tralaira was drawing dead to the river and was eliminated in fourth place.

muzzu, the short stack at the table with just 300,000, then raised to 45,000 pre-flop and buck21 came back over for another 90,000, which muzzu called. The flop came 4?3?2? and muzzu pushed all in for 169,400, with buck21 calling. muzzu showed 7?10?J?7? while buck21 showed 5?3?A?A?, flopping the wheel. muzzu couldn't improve and was eliminated in third place, giving buck21 over two million in chips while his heads-up opponent, Gu Minda, held under 900,000.

A deal was reached between the two players with buck21 getting $81,262 and Gu Minda getting $77,053, based on chip counts. The two continued to play on with first place getting the WCOOP bracelet and the remaining $16,000 left in the prize pool.

The end came when Gu Minda and buck21 saw an unraised pot pre-flop. The flop brought Q?10?7? and Gu Minda led out for 40,000, and buck21 called. The K? fell on the turn and Gu Minda led out again, this time for 120,000, and buck21 came over the top for 360,000, with Gu Minda calling. The river brought the 8? and Gu Minda checked, while buck21 led out for 1,080,000 and Gu Minda called for his remaining chips, showing K?Q?3?6? for two pair, which wasn't strong enough to beat buck21's J?J?5?A? for an ace-high straight. Gu Minda was eliminated in second place, making buck21 the winner of the remaining $16,000, the bracelet, and Event #19 honors.