Grayson "gray31" Ramage Wins the PokerStars WCOOP Challenge Series Main Event for $502K
It was an exciting weekend at PokerStars thanks to the nine-event WCOOP Challenge Series highlighted by a $2 million guaranteed Main Event.
The weekend extended into Monday (or Tuesday in parts of the world) as two of Sunday's events, the $1.5 million guaranteed Sunday Million Edition and the $2,100 re-entry Main Event, were both two-day tournaments.
Grayson "gray31" Ramage wins the WCOOP Challenge Main Event
The biggest money on the line was in the Main Event. American poker refugee Grayson "gray31" Ramage beat Denmark's Andreas "Hoegh93" Høgh when the final cards were dealt at 10:17 p.m. ET (3:17am GMT) to be declared the 2014 WCOOP Challenge Main Event champion.
Ramage took advantage of the re-entry format and took the Main Event title with his second entry. Although there were only 256 re-entries made from the 1,243 entrants (20.6%), there were six re-entries from the nine players that made the final table (66.67%).
In addition to Ramage, third place finisher guyguy12, fifth place finisher Andreas "daskalos20" Christoforou (three entries), eighth place finisher Sebastian "p0cket00" Sikorski, and ninth place finisher Matias "Festivuss" Grebanja all took advantage of the re-entry format.
Ramage earned himself $502,165, which is now his largest online or live tournament cash to date. Additionally, Ramage was awarded a customized commemorative money clip as well as a ticket to the $5,200 buy-in 2014 WCOOP Main Event.
Although no chop was agreed to, Høgh still found himself much richer after earning $367,255 for his runner-up finish.
Here is a look at all of the final table payouts in the 2014 WCOOP Challenge Main Event.
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Grayson "gray31" Ramage | $502,165 |
| 2 | Andreas "Hoegh93" Høgh | $367,255 |
| 3 | guyguy12 | $277,315 |
| 4 | Kyle "weekesy333" Weekes | $203,864 |
| 5 | Andreas "daskalos20" Christoforou | $146,902 |
| 6 | GR8MIND | $116,922 |
| 7 | SsicK_OnE | $86,942 |
| 8 | Sebastian "p0cket00" Sikorski | $56,962 |
| 9 | Matias "Festivuss" Grebanja | $30,879 |
Seven-way Chop in the WCOOP Challenge Sunday Million Special Edition
It isn't every day you can get seven poker players to agree on anything. But, after two days of grueling action, that’s exactly what happened in the WCOOP Challenge Sunday Million Series.
The WCOOP Challenge Sunday Million Series boasted a guaranteed prize pool of $1.5 million — 50 percent higher than the $1 million this regularly scheduled Sunday major normally guarantees.
With 10,164 players entered, the prize pool actually went much higher than that with $2,032,800 being paid out to 1,350 players.
After the chop was agreed to, the seven remaining players battled it out for the $30,000 set aside for the champion, a commemorative money clip, and ticket to the 2014 WCOOP Main Event. Israel's "mor255" came out on top and was awarded $139,148.81 of the prize pool.
Despite "mor255" winning the tournament, the big winner in this event was Canada's "cid5" who negotiated $178,378 during the chop discussions.
Here’s a look at how the WCOOP Challenge Sunday Million Special Edition final table shaped out:
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | mor255 | $139,148* |
| 2 | Balle254 | $106,583* |
| 3 | jsizzle20 | $127,144* |
| 4 | cid5 | $178,378* |
| 5 | Hoelle1 | $137,515* |
| 6 | Cobra15979 | $153,199* |
| 7 | skill_poker1 | $97,696* |
| 8 | jaggaRbomb | $22,360 |
| 9 | convoypc4860 | $14,229 |
*Denotes the result of a seven-way deal that left $30,000 in play for the winner
Play in the WCOOP at PokerStars in September
The WCOOP Challenge was meant as a preview for the real World Championship Of Online Poker (WCOOP) coming up at PokerStars in September. So far only the WCOOP Main Event has been announced, and all we know is that the $5,200 buy-in event will take place on Sunday Sept. 28 and feature a huge $10 million prize pool.
The rest of the series is bound to be exciting if 2013 is anything to go by. Last year's WCOOP made many poker players very rich as it featured 66 events with over $40 million in guarantees.
We expect to see the full schedule announced soon at which time you can start playing your way to some of the events through FPP and cash satellites.
Play in the FTOPS at Full Tilt Poker Now
If you are looking for a great series and don't want to wait until September, you are in luck. Full Tilt Poker is running the 26th edition of its Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) from Aug. 3 until Aug. 17.
This 33-event series featured over $4.5 million in guaranteed prize pools, with the main event alone set to see at least $1 million awarded to its best players.
The series already started, but it isn't too late to make your mark and earn yourself a decent payday. Read more here about the great FTOPS action going on right now at Full Tilt Poker.
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