Five Thoughts: Massive WCOOP Main Event, Records Fall in Montreal, and More

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Oct 01, 2013 10 min read Last updated Jul 14, 2016

Another day, another $4 million for the Federal Republic of Germany.

The 2013 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker wrapped up on Sunday with the $5,200 Main Event, and all of the top three finishers were German. PlayinWasted ($1,493,499.15), Daniel “Allanon85” Drescher ($1,415,238.66), and SwissCantMis ($1,101,835.44) made a three-handed deal, and PlayinWasted ended up taking home the title, defeating Drescher heads up.

On the final hand, the money went in preflop with PlayinWasted holding the A♠K♠ against Drescher’s K♣Q♠. The dominant hand held up, and PlayinWasted was awarded the additional $160,000 along with the most coveted bracelet of the series.

Over the past few years, “Team Germany” has taken over the live tournament circuit with Philipp Gruissem, Tobias Reinkemeier, Niklas Heinecker, Fabian Quoss, and honorary German Igor Kurganov winning high-roller and super high-roller events all over the world. Now, it appears that no form of tournament poker is safe from Das Lied der Deutschen.

The PokerStars Blog even captured the following from the chat box after the deal was made:

johnnylodden (TeamPro): germans are even taking over high stakes tourneys online now!
PlayinWasted: Team Germany!
Allanon85: :)

Again, no one is safe.

PokerStars Team Online member Shane “shaniac” Schleger also reached the final table, finishing sixth for $291,154.50. During the entire second day, Schleger interacted with his fans on Twitter, even as he was playing at the final table.

The WCOOP Main Event leads this week’s Five Thoughts, which, unlike the United States government, can’t be shut down.

1. WCOOP Main Event Recap

The WCOOP Main Event attracted a total of 2,133 runners, creating an enormous prize pool of $10,665,000. It was the largest since 2010, when 2,443 players forked up five dimes a piece, generating a $12,215,000 prize pool. Tyson “POTTERPOKER” Marks took down that event, pocketing $2,278,097.50.

As mentioned above, three Germans were involved in the final deal this year, but there was a fourth German at the final table as well. Here is a look at how all nine players finished:

Stefan Tobias Kolossow recently finished 10th in the EPT Barcelona Main Event. While he didn’t earn the kind of money that his fellow Germans did that finished in the top three, Kolossow has never recorded a six-figure score on the live circuit, making this quite meaningful. Dylan Hortin is an American who made the move to Canada in order to enjoy the fruits actual freedom, and he has $452,540 in live tournament earnings.

Other players who cashed but fell just short of the final table include Jens "Jeans89" Kyllönen (47th - $26,662), Caio Pimenta (43rd - $29,862), James "croll1103" Carroll (31st - $34,128), Jason "TheMasterJ33" DeWitt (27th - $39,460), Chris "SLOPPYKLOD" Klodnicki (21st - $39,460), Jon "PearlJammer" Turner (15th - $56,524), and Andrey "Kroko-dill" Zaichenko (11th - $67,189).

Jason Mercier, Anton “antesvane” Wigg, and Mickey “mement_mori” Petersen also cashed.

The most enjoyable part of the final table wasn’t watching the Germans crush – that’s becoming commonplace – rather it was following Schleger on Twitter.

Here are some highlights:

Schleger was just being himself. He wasn’t trying to put on a show for Team Online or make himself look more likeable, he was simply being him. Schleger’s always been open and honest – he told a killer story on the PokerNews Podcast this summer about a funny border experience he had – and to little surprise there was a massive rail on Twitter rooting him on.

The man called shaniac was unable to capture the glory, busting when he was on the wrong end of a coin flip, but rather than complain he took the time to thank some people.

Congratulations to Schleger and the rest of the players who made deep runs. This was a widely successful WCOOP series with $62,362,757 awarded to tens of thousands of players, and I for one cant wait for the start of the 2014 Spring Championship of Online Poker.

2. Full Tilt Poker Montreal Breaks Records

Five Thoughts is coming to you this week from Montreal, Quebec, Canada, as I am currently at Playground Poker Club for the Full Tilt Poker Montreal Main Event. The 13-day festival began last weekend, and the first event was a C$100,000 guarantee C$135+15 buy-in tournament that attracted 1,605 runners over three starting days, more than doubling the guarantee. It was a Playground Poker Club record, but not for long.

The $C1,000+100 Main Event brought in 1,625 players, generating a prize pool of C$1,576,250 (over 150% of the guarantee). Some of the biggest names in the world descended upon the club to play, including Full Tilt Poker Professionals Gus Hansen and Tom Dwan, and Team PokerStars Pros and former World Series of Poker Main Event winners Chris Moneymaker and Jonathan Duhamel. None of those four players were able to make the money, unfortunately.

Full Tilt Poker Ambassadors Dermot Blain and Martins Adeniya made Day 3, but both were eliminated before the first break.

Very few big name professionals will play events with this low of a buy-in, but as Duhamel told me during Day 1b, this tournament is different.

“Because it was in Montreal and because it was Playground – such a nice place, and Full Tilt is doing a great job,” Duhamel said. “It’s a lot of fun to be here…I’m happy to see everyone, and so far it’s a big success. We already smashed the guarantee, and it’s the first of many tournaments here.”

Playground is a free agent of sorts because a land-based casino or an online poker site hasn’t sponsored the room yet. Last November, they hosted WPT Montreal, and will be bringing it back on Nov. 29. The club has also hosted a
“Super Stack Series” sponsored by 888 Poker, and now Rational Group has made its presence known with Full Tilt Poker.

If and when the North American Poker Tour re-launches, you can bet your bottom dollar that PokerStars will venture up to Quebec as well.

With three major companies and at least four different tournament circuits potentially calling Playground home once a year, the club is always buzzing, but I think one of the three companies will try to send an offer that Playground can’t refuse.

Whatever company that steps up to the plate will have to pay a handsome sum – having the sole rights to the Playground Poker Club will place a stranglehold on the poker community in the province of Quebec.

3.$10 Million in Earnings for Moorman1

Over the weekend, Chris “moorman1” Moorman crossed $10 million in career online earnings in style, winning a $215 buy-in event on PartyPoker. Moorman told PokerNews that, while he wanted to win a WCOOP to get to $10 million, he’s very happy with the win.

“I’m glad to make the mark in style with a victory taking me over the line rather than a bunch of min cashes,” he told PokerNews.

To put Moorman’s accomplishments into context, according to PocketFives, no other player has more than $7 million in career online earnings. Only 15 other players have more than $5 million in career online earnings, including Jon Turner, Jeff Hakim, Chris Oliver, Steve Gross, Dan Kelly, and Shaun Deeb.

Only 19 players have earned $10 million or more in live tournament earnings, and 12 of those players have either finished in the top two of the $1 Million Big One for One Drop or won a WSOP or WSOPE Main Event.

According to PocketFives, Moorman’s average cash on the three major sites (PartyPoker, Full Tilt, and PokerStars) is $1,662.77. He only has four six-figure scores, with his largest coming in 2011 when he finished third in a $1K Monday with $2 million guaranteed for $235,592.

“I’ve seen many incredibly successful players get burned out over the years,” Moorman told PokerNews before he crossed the barrier. “Thankfully I continue to enjoy the game more than ever.”

Moorman, whose biggest live score came in 2011 when he finished runner-up in the WSOPE Main Event for $1,068,690, is capitalizing on his recent buzz. Last week, he announced that he is launching a new interactive website at www.ChrisMoorman.com. The Brit says that it will allow him to keep in touch with his fans, share more about what’s going on in his life, and will feature behind-the-scenes videos and photos.

“I want to make it back to being the No. 1 ranked player on PocketFives again before the end of the year,” Moorman said.

Give credit to Moorman for seizing the moment. Some poker players struggle with being brand-aware, but like Playground, Moorman is a free agent and his value has never been higher. He was at one time a Lock Poker Pro, but when that ship started to sink, he opted not to renew his contract. Now, he is arguably the most successful online MTT player of all time, but his breast remains patchless.

4. Brad Albrinck Wins WSOPC With Home-Field Advantage

The World Series of Poker Circuit wrapped up it’s third stop on Monday at the Horseshoe Cincinnati, and winning the first ever WSOPC Main Event held at the venue was Cincy’s own Brad Albrinck. Albrinck, a local pro who can be seen on the circuit sporting his Cincinnati Reds hat, earned $221,994 and a seat in the 2014 WSOP National Championship. Young Sam Panzica also locked up a seat in the freeroll, capturing the Casino Championship.

The Main Event attracted 740 entrants, generating a total prize pool of over $1.1 million. This is Albrinck’s first career six-figure score – he has over a half of a million in lifetime earnings now – and his second largest score came last year at WSOPC Horseshoe Hammond, where he finished sixth for $80,179.

This final table was somewhat of a Hammond reunion, as Josh Williams, who won the Horseshoe Chicago event for $385,909, finished fifth.

I was fortunate enough to cover that final table in Hammond, and while quiet and unassuming, Albrinck was a very aggressive player. It’s special that Albrinck was not only able to record such a huge score in his hometown, but that he actually took down the Main Event and the ring as well.

2011 WSOP bracelet winner Aaron Steury reached the final table as well. Unfortunately for the Indiana native, the cards didn’t go his way, and he was eliminated in sixth place.

6th....thx for all the support as always. I did about as well as I could with the cards I was dealt today, Sometimes that's the way it goes.

— Aaron Steury (@NDGrinder) 30 de septiembre de 2013

The next stop on the WSOPC starts on Oct. 3 at Horseshoe Southern Indiana. The Main Event begins on Oct. 12.

5. Tom Sexton Passes

Tuesday morning, the poker world woke to the sad news of Tom Sexton’s passing. Tom, the older brother of Poker Hall of Famer Mike Sexton and a former columnist for PokerNews, suffered a stroke in July and a was diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

Our own Chad Holloway compiled a series of quotes from Tom’s articles and some tweets from poker legends like Linda Johnson here.

Tom is survived by his wife, Ann; and three children, Kent, Kim, and Marilyn; four grandchildren, four brothers and two sisters.

From the entire PokerNews family, may you rest in peace, sir.

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