WCOOP – Event #22, $1,050 LHE: 'Sowerss' Claims Limit Bracelet

September 30, 2007

Matt Wehner

WCOOP – Event #22, $1,050 LHE: 'Sowerss' Claims Limit Bracelet 0001

The PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) continued on Saturday, with Event #22, $1,050 Limit Hold 'Em, the last tourney before the Main Event. The guaranteed prize pool of $200,000 was again not needed as the 616 participants generated a prize pool of $616,000, with $145,376 going to first place and the final seven places each receiving over $20,000.

As with the day's H.O.R.S.E tourney, Event #22 was no stranger to professional players. Chris 'Money800' Moneymaker, James 'mig.com' Mackey, and Bull_99 all went deep in the event, with Money800 in a commanding 3rd place while just fifty players remained.

Moneymaker ended up losing his chip lead and was eliminated in 33rd place, while 'mysticaces,' Noah 'Exclusive' Boeken and 'PapaPapsilon' also made the money. The final table was reached after almost twelve hours of play when Siev77 was eliminated in tenth place, leaving the final table of 'Sowerss,' 'DEVIRUS,' 'plattsburgh,' 'jumper17,' Scott 'emptyseat88' Fischman, 'drbk2,' 'BUTCH ACIDY,' 'der Falk' and 'Hansa.no.' Sowerss held the chip lead as the final table began, with over 1.7 million in chips.

The first final-table elimination of the came when der Falk raised in early position and was re-raised by BUTCH ACIDY. Der Falk three-bet and BUTCH ACIDY made the call. The flop brought Q♦6♥5♦ and the betting was capped between the two. After small cards on the turn and river, der Falk called a raise by BUTCH ACIDY, which put him all-in holding A♥K♣ against BUTCH ACIDY's K♦K♥, eliminating der Falk in ninth place.

Hansa.no and DEVIRUS were heads up pre-flop with the betting capped, when the flop brought A♣J♦8♠. Hansa.no led out and DEVIRUS made the call. The board paired on the turn when the J♠ fell and again Hansa.no led out and DEVIRUS just called. The river brought the K♣ and again Hansa.no bet out, but DEVIRUS raised and typed "KK? I only have a small pair" and folded. Hansa.no was short-stacked after this hand and was eliminated in eighth on the following hand.

BUTCH ACIDY, the short stack at the table, was the next player eliminated when he raised pre-flop, all in against emptyseat88. emptyseat88 re-raised, and BUTCH ACIDY moved all in for his remaining 18,513. BUTCH ACIDY showed Q♠10♠ and was up against emptyseat88's K♠6♦ with a flop of 8♥4♥4♣. The turn brought the 4♠ with the river being the 7♦, leaving both players with trip fours but emptyseat88 with the better (king) kicker. BUTCH ACIDY was eliminated in seventh place, while emptyseat88 improved to 741,887 in chips.

The next elimination came when DEVIRUS raised pre-flop from under the gun and was re-raised by plattsburgh. DEVIRUS made the call and the two players were heads up on a flop of Q♦2♦J♥. DEVIRUS checked the flop, then check-raised plattsburgh, who re-raised and capped the betting. DEVIRUS called, which put him all in, and showed 2♥2♣ for a flopped set while plattsburgh turned over 6♠6♥. The turn brought the 3♦, while the hand took an ugly turn for DEVIRUS when the 6♣ fell on the river, eliminating DEVIRUS in sixth place with a lesser set.

Scott 'emptyseat88' Fischman was eliminated in fifth place when he raised pre-flop and was re-raised by Sowerss. emptyseat88 made the call and saw a flop of K♠J♥9♠. Sowerss led out on the flop and emptyseat88 made the call, while the turn brought the As. Sowerss led out again and emptyseat88 raised all-in. Sowerss called and emptyseat88 showed K♣7♣ while Sowerss showed A♣7♦. The river brought the 9♣, which was of no help to emptyseat88, eliminating him from the event and increasing Sowerss' chip stack over 2.5 million.

With only 154,000 left in chips, and on the big blind, drbk2 re-raised a pre-flop raise by Sowerss. Sowerss made the call and the flop came Q♠6♥3♠. Sowerss checked the flop, while drbk2 moved all in and was called. Sowerss showed 8♣7♥ for eight high while drbk2 showed J♠10♥ for jack high. The turn brought the 9♦, giving both players an open-ended straight draw. The river was the 7♣, pairing Sowerss' seven and eliminating drbk2 in fourth place.

As play continued on, Sowerss continued hot and quickly built his stack to over 3.9 million, leaving plattsburgh with 1 million and jumper17 with 1.2 million. Plattsburgh's chips eventually wilted down to 173,000 and he was all in with Sowerss in a hand with the betting capped pre-flop. Sowerss showed 7♣7♥ and was up against plattsburgh's Q♠J♠. The board arrived A♠A♣3♥5♣9♦, leaving plattsburgh with a pair of aces, queen high while Sowerss held the better two pair, aces and sevens. plattsburgh was eliminated in third place, leaving Sowerss and jumper17 to battle it out for the win.

Things got off to a quick start between the two, as jumper17 quickly increased his chip stack to over four million, shorting Sowerss down to 1.5 million. After several more hands of play, the two players become nearly even in chips again and a deal was arranged for jumper17 to receive $108,967 and Sowerss $102,184. Per WCOOP rules, $18,000 plus the bracelet remained for the winner of the tourney.

After 20 minutes of play, jumper17 was up to five million while Sowerss was down to one million. Play continued for over 275 hands, more than an hour of play, while Sowerss slowly regained the chip lead again by a small margin. The chip lead was tossed back and forth between the two throughout the heads-up match, while neither player appeared to be a clear favorite in the match. The final hand came after Sowerss had trimmed jumper17 to under one million. Sowerss raised pre-flop and jumper17 made the call to see a flop of 5♦7♣K♥. jumper17 checked-raised the flop, Sowerss called and the turn brought the 6♣. jumper17 led out again, Sowerss raised, and jumper17 re-raised all in. Sowerss called and showed 4♣3♣ for the made straight and flush draw while jumper17 was drawing only to an eight (and a possible chop) with 9♠7♠ for top pair. When no eight appeared on the river, jumper17 was eliminated as the runner-up, making Sowerss the winner of Event #22.