One of the largest guaranteed events of the PokerStars WCOOP Boot Camp wrapped up on August 11, the $75 buy-in, $400,000 guaranteedNo-Limit Hold'em Mystery Mission. The tournament proved exceptionally popular, with 6,403 entrants building a $436,556 prize pool where half was shared by the top 1,031 finishers and the remaining 50% divided up into mystery bounty payments.
All of the juiciest mystery bounties had been pulled on Day 1, including five worth $10,000 and one jackpot bounty tipping the scales at a cool $20,000. That princely sum is nestled in the PokerStars account of 257th-place finisher "BigStick91" of Canada, whose total haul was the second-largest payout of the tournament.
Plenty of household names helped themselves to prize money in this event. They included Simon "C. Darwin2" Mattsson, Team PokerStars' Sebastian "peace&loove" Huber and Marle "MarlzTV" Spragg, Steven "SvZff" Van Zadelhoff, Lucio "WizardOffAz" Lima, and Niklas "Lena900" Astedt.
Each of the nine finalists took home more than $2,000 for their troubles, with five of them walking away with five-figure prizes. Sixth-placed "cffoley" of Ireland captured a $17,877 prize, thanks mostly to opening a mystery bounty envelope containing a $10,000 payday.
PartyPoker-sponsored pro, Matt "MattStaples" Staples, put together an impressive run that ended in a fourth-place exit worth $10,627 to the Canadian. Third place and $14,421 went to Lithuania's "Genyss13." Their demise sent the tournament into the heads-up stage.
Brazilian "Chacal JF" locked horns with "bah23" of Bulgaria in a battle for the $26,525 top prize. The former emerged unscathed and with a total haul worth $30,179, leaving the runner-up to head into the night with $21,065 to show for a couple of days of grinding.
Double Delight for Gabriel Tavares; Brazilian Captures Both Titans Titles On Same Night
$1 Million Guaranteed Across Two Main Events on August 17
A pair of No-Limit Hold'em WCOOP Boot Camp Main Events shuffle up and deal at 6:00 p.m. BST on August 17. The first is a $109 buy-in affair with $600,000 guaranteed, with the second costing $1,050 and guaranteeing $400,000.
Both Main Events have dozens of satellites feeding into them, giving everyone a shot at glory. Three $11 buy-in satellites, each with 100x $109 seats guaranteed, kick off at 6:05 p.m. BST on August 16 and at 3:15 p.m. BST and 4:05 p.m. BST on August 17.
Those looking for a cut-price way into the $1,050 edition should check out the $55 buy-in satellite at 4:05 p.m. BST on August 17, which has eight $1,050 seats guaranteed, or the $109 buy-in, 10-seat guaranteed satellite at 5:05 p.m. BST on August 17.
Each Main Event spans two days, with Day 1 wrapping up seven hours and 55 minutes after it begins. Those who progress to Day 2 return to the action at 6:05 p.m. BST on August 18 to conclude these huge events.
PokerStars WCOOP Boot Camp Results So Far
Expand the table below to discover who the champions are from the first 80 WCOOP Boot Camp events.
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.