The $100 million guaranteed 2021 PokerStars World Championship Of Online Poker (WCOOP) exploded into action on August 22 with 18 events shuffling up and dealing. Three events crowned their champions, and several household names bagged up tournament-leading stacks at the conclusion of their respective Day 1s.
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Sam "SamSquid" Grafton Leads WCOOP-04-M: $530 NLHE [8-Max]
Team PokerStars’ Sam "SamSquid" Grafton has put himself in a fantastic position to securing a WCOOP title by bagging the chip lead in the WCOOP-04-M: $530 NLHE [8-Max] event.
Some 3,213 players bought into this tournament and created a guarantee-busting $1,606,500 prize pool. Only 200 of those starters progressed to Day 2. Each of the returning players is guaranteed $1,672 for their efforts, but with a whopping $231,598 awaiting the champion, nobody will want to collect the lesser sum.
Grafton returns to the action at 6:05 p.m. BST on August 23 in the envious position of chip leader. The popular British grinder is one of seven players who have more than four million chips in their stacks.
Russia’s "sokol47" is only two big blinds behind Grafton in the chip counts, with "ich_b1n_du" only a couple of blinds behind sokol47.
Two of Grafton’s fellow Brits, Tom "Jabracada" Hall and Luke "Bit2Easy" Reeves have done their chances of WCOOP glory no harm at all because they sit down on Day 2 in fifth and sixth place respectively.
Pedro "pvigar" Garagnani is the man to catch going into the final table. There is some distance between Garagnani and second-placed Diego "DieVentura" Ventura.
Others to keep an eye on when the final table commences are Christian "WAtnlos" Rudolph, Michel "FreeLancerZZ" Dattani, and Dinesh "NastyMinder" Alt. That trio of players have 50 or more big blinds at their disposal.
Do not write off the chances of Samuel "€urop€an" Vousden, former WCOOP champion Sam "Str8Homey$$$" Greenwood, or Pascal "Paffchen" Hartmann either. Nor David "dpeters17" Peters, although Peters does only have 18 big blinds when play resumes.
Three PokerStars players became 2021 WCOOP champions on August 22 with the trio of special edition Sunday Cooldown events concluding. Ukrainians "goodday2211" and "gunnersfun" won the $5.50 buy-in event for $4,088 and the $55 buy-in medium event for $27,718, with "nmi128" of the Netherlands triumphing in the $530 High event for $79,041.
All the other events that kicked off on August 22 are in play, with Day 2s taking place on August 23. Dutch star Joris "BillLewinsky" Ruijs leads the WCOOP-02-H: $530 NLHE [WCOOP Kickoff], $400K Gtd, while Andrey "ThePateychuk" Pateychuk is the chip leader going into Day 2 of the WCOOP-03-H: $2,100 NLHE [8-Max, Progressive KO, Sunday Warm-Up SE] event.
Uruguayan Ramiro "ramastar88" Petrone is also a stellar name holding a chip lead. He returns to the WCOOP-06-H: $1,050 NLHE [6-Max] first in chips from 59 remaining players.
WCOOP-04-L: $55 NLHE [8-Max, Sunday Million SE], $1M Gtd
Entries
21,885
Players Left
606
Prize Pool
$1,094,250
Chip Leader
AdyJunior (Romania)
First-place Prize
$112,606
WCOOP-05-L: $22 PLO [6-Max], $100K Gtd
Entries
4,195
Players Left
81
Prize Pool
$100,000
Chip Leader
lyren154 (Brazil)
First-place Prize
$14,273
WCOOP-05-M: $215 PLO [6-Max], $175K Gtd
Entries
975
Players Left
46
Prize Pool
$195,000
Chip Leader
jokkee_apart (Norway)
First-place Prize
$14,273
WCOOP-05-H: $2,100 PLO [6-Max], $275K Gtd
Entries
181
Players Left
16
Prize Pool
$362,000
Chip Leader
#Naktro91 (Andorra)
First-place Prize
$72,202
WCOOP-06-L: $11 NLHE [6-Max], $125K Gtd
Entries
13,187
Players Left
189
Prize Pool
$129,232
Chip Leader
V1ru$69 (Germany)
First-place Prize
$16,293
WCOOP-06-M: $109 NLHE [6-Max], $300K Gtd
Entries
3,930
Players Left
179
Prize Pool
$393,000
Chip Leader
absinttivaa (Finland)
First-place Prize
$56,165
WCOOP-06-H: $1,050 NLHE [6-Max], $500K Gtd
Entries
554
Players Left
49
Prize Pool
$554,000
Chip Leader
Ramiro "ramastar88" Petrone (Uruguay)
First-place Prize
$97,850
2021 WCOOP Events Scheduled on August 23
Twelve fresh events get underway on August 23 in addition to the 15 in-play events that will crown their champions. August 23 sees the first non-hold'em events kick off with HORSE and NLO8 tournaments scheduled.
Matthew Pitt hails from Leeds, West Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom, and has worked in the poker industry since 2008, and worked for PokerNews since 2010. In September 2010, he became the editor of PokerNews. Matthew stepped away from live reporting duties in 2015, and now concentrates on his role of Senior Editor for the PokerNews.
