Sumpas Crowned WCOOP High Roller King
September 8, 2009 10:05 amSunday proved to be another action packed day at PokerStars as the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) continued with the much anticipated $10,300 No Limit Hold ‘em High Roller event drawing 299 of the richest and best poker players to the site.
With a prize pool of $2,990,000 and $611,455 going to the winner, this tournament was expected to attract a respected field of players and it didn’t disappoint. Team PokerStars Pros were out in force including Chris Moneymaker, Joe Hachem, Peter Eastgate, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Barry Greenstein, Vanessa Rousso, Ylon Schwartz, Steve Paul-Ambrose, J.C. Alvarado, Katja Thater, William Thorson, Dennis Phillips, Alexandre Gomes, and Hevad Khan.
By the time the final table was reached Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul was chip leader with Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman, Peter “Belabacsi” Traply, Mike “Sowerss” Sowers, Dustin “DDBeast” Dorrance-Bowman and Sumpas all looking to make the title their own.
DDBeast was the first to exit after his Ah 10h lost to BeL0WaB0Ve’s QQ and took away $56,810 for his efforts. Next was the turn of crowd favourite and EPT creator John Duthie to bust out when his Ah Qh ran into KevBoyStar’s pocket rockets, despite hitting a Tc 8h 5h flop for a possible flush, for an 8thplace finish worth $74,750. Festivuss’s AJ v AK saw him finishing 7th for $104,650.
After 14 hours, the tournament was down to the final six players with the numbers equally split between Americans and Europeans. Sweden’s Sumpas is a long time top-tier online tournament player and saw KevBoyStar away for a $134,550 6th place finish, after his set of Jacks beat his top pair.
Sumpas now had a commanding 1.5 million chips while the next biggest stack was 480,000. Belabacsi was out in 5th after his KK lost to another set of Jacks, picking up $173,420 while Jacks were instrumental in knocking out SCTrojans two hands later in fourth place for $254,150.
Three handed the action was paused briefly when Sumpas suggested a three way deal based on a chip count but BeL0WaB0Ve typed back “I guess it couldn’t hurt to look if u wanna pause after this hand, but im warning I prolly wont agree to straight chiop count.” No deal was agreed andBeL0WaB0Ve was out soon after for $337,870 when his paired A was beaten by Sumpas’s straight.
Despite a 5 to 1 lead against Sowers’s heads up, the short stack battled away a further hour before a bluff sent him to the rail $448,500 richer.
Sumpas has proven himself a top tournament player in the past with a 6th place finish in last year’s PokerStars WCOOP Main Event for $415,000 and with this win, he becomes the fourth WCOOP made millionaire.