WCOOP Day 12: Shane "shaniac" Schleger Latest to Earn WCOOP Bracelet

Brett Collson
Chief Editor
Mickey Doft
Live Reporter
12 min read
Shane Schleger

Day 12 of the 2011 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker saw yet another big name taste WCOOP victory. For the third time in 33 completed events this WCOOP, a member of Team PokerStars earned a victory. Team Online's Shane "shaniac" Schleger joined Anders "Donald" Berg and Noah "Exclusive" Boeken as the member of Team PokerStars to capture WCOOP gold in 2011 so far.

PokerStars WCOOP 30 - $500 No-Limit Hold’em Triple Shootout 10-Max Two-Day ($275K Guaranteed)

Buy-inEntrantsPrize Pool
$500+$30645$322,500

Day 2 of the $500 no-limit hold'em shootout began with a final table of ten players, all of whom won their first two rounds on Wednesday. Among the notables who won their first table but fell short of the final table were Kevin "ImaLuckSac" MacPhee, Dylan "ImaLucSac" Linde, Clark "snake8484" Hamagami, Mike "SirWatts" Watson, Matt "All_in_at_420" Stout, and Daniel "KidPoker" Negreanu, who was ousted early in the second round when he ran pocket jacks into queens and kings.

Play resumed at 1100 EDT (1600 BST) with a first-place prize of $58,857 up for grabs. Here's how the final table looked when plat began on Thursday:

SeatPlayer
1floebbi
2thagrinda444
3Mateywin
4MrP0P
5Sergey "gipsy74" Rybachenko
6TiltStarter
7adam eterno
8AngleZero
9Olorionek
10Niki "RealAndyBeal" Jedlicka

Right off the bat, we had our first elimination. While a few of the players were discussing a deal, Sergey "gipsy74" Rybachenko raised to 130 (blinds 25/50) and Poland's "Olorionek" called from the cutoff. Action folded to "thagrinda444" in the big blind, and he popped it up to 475. Rybachenko called, but "Olorionek" four-bet to 1,477. "Thagrinda444" didn't back down; he put in a five-bet to 2,625, more than one-third of his starting stack. Rybachenko folded, and "Olorionek" moved all-in for 7,500. "Thagrinda444" called instantly and the cards were revealed:

"Olorionek:" KK
"thagrinda444:" AA

"Olorionek" appeared doomed for a 10th-place finish, but the K10495 board cracked the aces of "thagrinda444," sending him out the door on the first hand with $4,515.

That gave "Olorionek" an early lead, and it only grew from there. After his AK outran the QQ of "Materwin" to send the Slovenia native out in ninth, "Olorionek" cracked aces again. This time, he flopped a straight with 109 on a board of 876. The U.K.'s "adam eterno" got his chips in on the 9 turn with pocket aces, but he was drawing to a chop and failed to get there on the river to make his exit in eighth place.

A pair of short stacks were next on the chopping block as players began feeling the wrath of the blinds. After "MrP0P" exited in seventh,Niki "RealAndyBeal" Jedlicka, in the small blind, moved all-in for eight big blinds with Q6 and was called by "floebbi" in the big blind with KJ. The 792Q10 gave "floebbi" a straight and the always-dangerous Jedlicka collected $12,900 for sixth place.

"Floebbi" and "Olorionek" swapped the chip lead over the next couple of levels as they continued their onslaught of the table. "Floebbi" eliminated "AngleZero" in fifth place, and then "Olorionek" countered by sending Rybachenko to the rail in fourth. Then, with the blinds at 200/400, "Olorionek" min-raised from the button with AQ and "TiltStarter" moved in for 7,286 from the big blind with A7. "Olorionek" called and the bigger ace finished best at the river, setting up the heads-up match between the two table captains.

"Olorionek" began the match with a 2-1 chip advantage. After two levels of play, his lead went mostly unchanged and the two players decided to make a deal. "Olorionek" took $49,314, "floebbi" collected $45,000, and $5,500 was left on the table for the winner.

Despite doubling up once during heads-up play, "floebbi" was unable to make much ground on his counterpart. On the final hand of the match, "floebbi" raised to 1,200 (blinds 300/600) with KQ and "Olorionek" pushed all in with A3, having his opponent's stack covered. "Floebbi" called for his remaining 15,100, and couldn't improve as the board ran out 52469. He collected $45,000 for second place, while Poland's "Olorionek" was awarded his first WCOOP bracelet and a payday of $54,814.

PlacePlayerPrize
*1Olorionek$54,814
*2floebbi$45,000
3TiltStarter$30,476
4Sergey "gipsy74" Rybachenko$22,736
5AngleZero$15,963
6Niki "RealAndyBeal" Jedlicka$12,900
7MrP0P$10,158
8adam eterno$8,062
9Mateywin$6,127
10thagrinda444$4,515

*denotes heads-up deal

Notable Finishes: Kevin "ImaLuckSac" MacPhee ($1,242), Dylan "ImaLucSac" Linde ($1,242), Clark "snake8484" Hamagami ($1,242), Mike "SirWatts" Watson ($1,242), Matt "All_in_at_420" Stout ($1,242), and Daniel "KidPoker" Negreanu ($1,242)

PokerStars WCOOP 32 - $300 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Max Two-Day ($350K Guaranteed)

Buy-inEntrantsPrize Pool
$300+$201,714$514,200

Event #32, a $300 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Max Two-Day affair, saw a field of 1,714 reduced to 10 on Day 1. Even though he was already in the chip lead with 11 players left, another elimination helped increase "insanocut's" chip stack to more than 2.4 million. "NoLimit173" opened with a raise from the cutoff and "insanocut" called on the button to see an 854 flop hit the board. A continuation bet came from "NoLimit173," but "insanocut" put in a raise. This led to "NoLimit173" shoving for an additional 35 big blinds with 99. He was called by "insanocut" with 85 for top-two pair. The 2 turn and A river locked up the pot for "insanocut," who still held a sizable chip lead despite losing some of those chips back near the end of play on Day 1.

Here were the chip counts for the returning 10 players on Day 2:

PlacePlayerChips
1insanocut2,021,192
2jusc1,337,669
3wex_691,165,220
4murballz66830,717
5olegus_71737,776
6rocks50611,920
7GulMåndag567,042
8Josh "JBT449" Bergman516,647
9sosickPL440,153
10OnurAtasoy341,664

Within minutes of the Day 2 restart, "insanocut" watched his stack vanish into thin air. After Josh "JBT449" Bergman, "OnurAtasoy" and "GulMåndag" had already been felted, "insanocut" moved all-in over the top of a raise from "olegus_71" who was holding 88. However, "Olegus_71" put the former chip leader down with AA, and the six-handed final table was in place. Here's how it stacked up:

SeatPlayerChips
1sosickPL1,463,362
2rocks50923,047
3wex_691,250,424
4murballz66450,652
5olegus_711,992,219
6jusc2,490,296

The first to be felted was "rocks50." With A5, short-stacked "rocks50" ran into "wex_69's" AK. The board ran out 109824, ending "rocks50's" tournament. Next to go was "wex_69," falling to chip leader "sosickPL." After seeing "sosickPL" open from the cutoff "wex_69" three-bet, only to see "sosickPL" four-bet. "Wex_69" opted to five-bet shove with AQ, but this time, after a number of previous four-bet folds, "sosickPL" had the goods with AA. The board came down 552Q9, giving "sosickPL" a hefty chip lead with four players remaining.

Leaving in fourth place was "jusc." Holding J8, "jusc" check-called bets all the way down from "sosickPL" on a QJ927 board. The bet on the river, 15 big blinds, was for the remainder of "jusc's" stack. "SosickPL" held top-two pair, QJ, to take down the pot. Succumbing to a third-place finish was "murballz66," also feeling the wrath of "sosickPL." Down to less than ten big blinds, "murballz66" called all-in with Ks}7. However, "sosickPL" tabled a dominating AK that held as the board ran out AJ948. The chip counts at the start of heads-up play were the following:

"sosickPL:" 6,808,411
"olegus_71:" 1,761,589

After battling back, "olegus_71" managed to take a slight lead. It was at that point the two players discussed a deal and eventually came to terms. "Olegus_71" collected $71,000, "sosickPL" took $68,032.80, and the players left $7,000 on the table to play for.

With the deal finalized, "sosickPL" went back to work and took control of the match. Despite "olegus_71" doubling up once during heads-up play, "sosickPL" battled back again and finished off the Russian player when the blinds reach 70,000/140,000. "SosickPL" opened action with a raise to 310,000 with K10 and "olegus_71" called with 95 to see a flop of 1035. "Olegus_71" played coy by checking and then check-raising a small bet to 700,000. "SosickPL" called and the 8 hit the turn. "Olegus_71" fired 840,000 and "sosickPL" called, leading to the 4 on the river. "Olegus_71" moved all-in for 1,547,071 and "sosickPL" called again with top pair, which bested his opponent's pair of fives to end the match. "SosickPL" collected his first WCOOP bracelet and more than $75,000, while runner-up "olegus_71" earned a payday of $71,000.

PlacePlayerPrize
*1sosickPL$78,000
*2olegus_71$68,032.80
3murballz66$46,278
4jusc$30,852
5wex_69$20,568
6rocks50$12,855

*denotes heads-up deal

Notable Finishes: Josh "JBT449"Bergman (10th - $5,142), Niki "RealAndyBeal" Jedlicka (15th - $4,113.60)

PokerStars WCOOP 33 - $300 Pot-Limit Omaha Six-Max 1R1A ($300K Guaranteed)

Buy-inEntrantsPrize Pool
$300+$20706$459,900

More than 700 runners entered the six-max pot limit Omaha event on Thursday. After 481 rebuys and 346 add-ons, a prize pool of $459,000 was generated, with the event's winner taking home more than $82,000.

Team PokerStars ProChad Brown made a deep run in the event but he ultimately fell short of the final table, in eighth place. Brown, who plays as "ChadBrownPRO" on PokerStars, put his tournament life on the line holding a pair of kings and a king-high flush draw on a flop of 695. "E1mdopp" had an ace-high flush draw, inside straight draw, and pair of fives, and the 6 on the river gave "E1mdopp" the higher flush. Brown collected $9,381 for his eighth-place finish.

The U.K.'s "mddgfc" exited in seventh place, setting up the six-handed final table:

SeatPlayerChips
1moonwatch79677,778
2Machiavelli31,877,446
3Joel Adam “2FLY2TILT” Gordon1,372,193
4Reflexbakker332,694
5zugzwang161,272,442
6e1mdopp2,132,447

The quick eliminations of the two short stacks at the table resulted in discussion of a four-way chop between the remaining players. "E1mdopp" took a massive chip lead by sending both short stacks to the rail and was paid accordingly, collecting $72,504 as part of the agreement. "Machchiavelli3" took $49,313, while "zugzwang16" took $47,679 and two-time WCOOP bracelet winner Joel Adam “2FLY2TILT” Gordon collected $47,556. The deal left $6,000 for the winner, so on they played.

Gordon had a chance to tieRyan "g0lfa" D'Angelo for the all-time lead in WCOOP titles, but his shot at history was brutally denied. He and "Machchiavelli3" got nearly 600,000 chips in the middle preflop and then played for Gordon's stack on a flop of 1083. Gordon flopped flush and straight draws with KQJ4 and was up against the two pair and smaller straight draw of "Machiavelli3," who tabled 10986. Gordon made his flush with the 9 on the turn, but the 10 river gave "Machchiavelli3" a winning full-house to send the current WCOOP points leader out in fourth place.

The stack of "E1mdopp" got healthier just minutes later when he busted "zugzwang16" in third place. The two players saw a raised flop of 873 and fired bets back and forth before "zugzwang16" was all-in. He showed J796 for a wrap draw, while "E1mdopp" showed for 8754 for top two with a smaller straight draw. The K on the turn added flush out for "zugzwang16," but the Q on the river was no help and he was eliminated in third place.

That set up an intense heads-up match between "e1mdopp" and "Machchiavelli3." Despite owning a sizable lead when the match began, "e1mdopp" handed control over to his nemesis from Sweden. However, he battled back to retake the lead and ended the tournament after nearly 30 minutes. On the final hand, the two players saw a flop of 533 and "Machchiavelli3" led out for 420,000. "E1mdopp" put in a raise for 1.98 million, but "Machchiavelli3" fired back with an all-in bet of 2.54 million. "E1mdopp" called instantly and revealed 5362 for a flopped full house, which was way out in front of the AA107 of "Machchiavelli3." The turn and river brought no help to the Swede, and "e1mdopp" secured his first WCOOP title.

PlacePlayerPrize
1e1mdopp$78,504
2Machiavelli3$49,313
3zugzwang16$47,679
4Joel Adam "2FLY2TILT" Gordon$47,556
5moonwatch79$22,995
6Reflexbakker$13,797

Notable Finishes: Chad Brown (8th - $9,382), Phil "Jackal69" Shaw (15th - $4,139), James "Andy_McLEOD" Obst (30th - 2,667)

PokerStars WCOOP 34- $300 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball ($50K Guaranteed)

Buy-inEntrantsPrize Pool
$300+$20354$106,200

Earlier in the WCOOP, specifically Event #5, Team PokerStars Online member Shane "shaniac" Schleger narrowly missed out on making a final table. With a chance at redemption in Event #34, the $300 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball, Schleger looked to capture the WCOOP bracelet at stake.

Schleger already held the chip lead with two tables left, but winning the biggest pot of the tournament to that point helped increase his advantage over the remaining field heading into the final table. In a hand against "CKOTUHA," Schleger's raise from the hijack was three-bet by "CKOTUHA" on the button. Schleger called and proceeded to draw one to "CKOTUHA's" two. A bet from Schleger was met with a raise from "CKOTUHA," leading to a call from Schleger. Once again he drew one, but this time "CKOTUHA" stood pat. A check-raise was on Schleger's mind this time and he did just that. "CKOTUHA" called and watched Schleger stand pat this time around. A few moments passed before "CKOTUHA" opted to draw one. Schleger bet and was happy to see "CKOTUHA" raise. Why was Schleger happy? Well that's because he was holding 7x5x4x3x2x for No. 1. Schleger re-raised, "CKOTUHA" called, and Schleger took down the pot.

Here were the chip counts entering the final table:

SeatPlayerChips
1Mikhaylo323,260
2Shane "shaniac" Schleger765,561
3GJ1515227,657
4CKOTUHA25,479
5Flying Smile127,103
6O Crupie300,940

Schleger got off to an awful start at the beginning of the final table, losing more than 200,000 from his stack. However, eliminating "CKOTUHA" offered the chance of turning things around. A short-stacked "CKOTUHA" stood pat the entire way with 8x6x5x4x3x, but Schleger drew to a better hand. It started with drawing two, then one, and by the time the third draw came Schleger was pat with a superior 7x6x5x{3}2x to score the elimination.

The next knockout came about an hour later. Event #22 winner "Flying Smile" was the one who bit the dust. All-in before the draws against "GJ1515," "Flying Smile" appeared to be well in the lead, drawing one to "GJ1515's" three. However, the second draw saw both players draw one. "Flying Smile" stood pat on the third draw with 10x7x5x4x3x. "GJ1515" drew one again and got there with 7x6x5x4x2x, No. 3, to take down the pot. "Mikhaylo" hit the rail a few hands later, also at the hands of "GJ1515." Both drew one at the start, but "GJ1515" stood pat from that point forward. "Mikhaylo" drew one the entire way, eventually making Qx8x6x3x2x. "GJ1515", though, was pat with a 9x8x7x4x2x to win the pot.

"O Crupie" fell in third place, one hand after folding after the third draw, to be left with less than a small blind. The following hand was "O Crupie's" last, despite making an 8x7x4x3x2x. Schleger made an 8x6x5x4x2x to find himself heads-up for the bracelet. The chip counts at the start of heads-up play were the following:

"GJ1515:" 883,020
Schleger: 886,980

Half of a small blind separated the two and after battling for well more than an hour, things got a bit chippy in the chat box. In the end, Schleger got the last laugh. After being down about 7.5:1 in chips, Schleger mounted a comeback to secure the victory. On the final hand, "GJ1515" was all-in pre-draw and both proceeded to draw two. Schleger grabbed the early advantage, drawing one on the second draw. "GJ1515" drew two again, but the third draw was about even because both drew one. Schleger tabled Qx8x7x6x5x, but still had many cards to fade since "GJ1515" was drawing to 7x6x4x2x. "GJ1515," was dealt another 4x to make a losing pair, securing the bracelet and $21,771 first-place prize for Schleger.

PlacePlayerPrize
1Shane "shaniac" Schleger$21,771
2GJ1515$15,930
3O Crupie$11,947.50
4Mikhaylo$8,230.50
5Flying Smile$6,106.50
6CKOTUHA$3,982.50

Notable Finishes: Marc "Needleking" Naalden (9th - $2,442.60), Shaun "shaundeeb" Deeb (14th - $1,062), Jon "PearlJammer" Turner (24th - $849.60)

We will be providing in-depth daily recaps of all WCOOP final tables, so be sure to keep it here at PokerNews to stay up to date on all of the exciting action as it occurs.

For news, updates, and more, follow PokerNews on Twitter and Facebook.

Share this article
Brett Collson
Chief Editor
Mickey Doft
Live Reporter

More Stories

Other Stories