Belgian player, ‘Coenaldinho7’, was last night crowned 2015 World Champion of Online Poker, winning the top prize of $1,300,000 (after a four-way deal), as two more players won $1 million-plus each at the final table of the $5,200 NL Hold’em Main Event on PokerStars, an Amaya Inc. (Nasdaq: AYA; TSX: AYA) brand.
‘Coenaldino7’ went into the final table as the shortest stack of nine, with little more than 10 big blinds, and before play had even begun was asking about a deal. But as the action resumed his pleas fell on deaf ears, which proved to be a lucky break as the Belgian gradually moved up the chip leaderboard, while others – most notably Alexander ‘joiso’ Kostritsyn, who was chip leader going into the final table – were eliminated.
THREE MILLIONAIRES
When play reached four-handed a deal was negotiated and agreed upon. That gave three players seven-figure sums, with an additional $200k for which to play. ‘Nolet20’ from Canada, champion of the MicroMillions 11 Main Event this past July, ended up finishing third for $1,223,000, before heads-up play began between ‘Coenaldinho7’ and Polish player ‘AlwaysiNduCe’. ‘Coenaldinho7’ started with a 2-to-1 chip deficit, but the Belgian quickly surged ahead after winning a series of big pots, before a cooler finished things off with a title-deciding river card…
The players saw a flop of 5d-2d-Tc and ‘Coenaldinho7’, holding 7c-Th, checked; ‘AlwaysiNduCe’, with Kh-5c, bet 2 million chips, ‘Coenaldinho7’ raised to 6 million and ‘AlwaysiNduCe’ called. The turn brought the Ks, giving ‘AlwaysiNduCe’ two-pair and a near-lock on the hand. At that point both players’ remaining chips went in and an incredibly fortuitous Td on the river handed ‘Coenaldino7’ the title, an extra $200,000 in prize money, and a horrible bad beat to ‘AlwaysiNduCe’, who still pocketed a cool million for his hard work.
A short time ago ‘Coenaldinho7’ was interviewed by the PokerStars Blog and revealed that he is a 36-year-old head of transport for a Belgian meat producer, living in Limburg. He has a five-month-old baby and is now “thinking of quitting my stressful job, enjoying life more, and maybe becoming a frequent visitor of online and live poker events”.
To read the full interview, go to http://psta.rs/1QL6ziw. The PokerStars Blog also has a full tournament report: http://psta.rs/1FHB5sX.
WCOOP $5,200 NL Hold’em Main Event
Entries: 1,995
Prize pool: $10,000,000
1. Coenaldinho7 (Belgium) $1,300,000*
2. AlwaysiNduCe (Poland) $1,000,000*
3. Nolet20 (Canada) $1,223,000*
4. beertjes79 (Belgium) $800,000*
5. Ravic85 (Russia) $400,000
6. Rory ‘Mr.Kingball’ Brown (Ireland) $273,000
7. K.T.A.-1985 (Czech Republic) $200,000
8. Alexander ‘joiso’ Kostritsyn (Russia) $150,000
9. bindernutnut (Canada) $100,000
* denotes four-way deal
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