Ivan "ILS007" Stokes Retains Chip Lead Throughout Day 3 to Lead Legendary WCOOP Main Event Final Table
Day 3 of the 2023 $10,300 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) has run its course, and during it, the starting field of 38 players was whittled down to a final table of nine in just a little more than four hours. The final nine are all guaranteed a $94,330 payday out of the $6,000,000 prize pool at the start of Day 4 on October 4th, but all eyes will be on the seven-figure first prize of $1,047,257, as well as the coveted title of World Champion that comes with it.
Ivan "ILS007" Stokes was the player who came into Day 3 with a gargantuan chip lead, and he has managed to retain it throughout the day. Entering the final table with a stack of 31,727,368 chips, much of which is owed to a five-bet pot with aces versus ace-king, he will have nearly 160 big blinds at his disposal to try and push the rest of the players around. Leonard "Grozzorg" Maue, meanwhile, used Day 3 as an opportunity to move from the bottom parts of the leaderboard to second in chips, as he bagged 25,827,084 of them. The legendary Niklas "Lena900" Astedt is the only other player who amassed more than 20 million chips, taking a stack of 23,258,260 with him to the final table.
The rest of the deep-stacked final table is full of household names as well with the likes of "ShipitFTW911" (18,433496), Kelvin "Kelvin_FP:AR" Kerber (11,586,558), and Kayhan "KayhanMok" Mokri (7,558,355) having survived the onslaught of Day 3 as well. The shortest stack is Mario "livinmydream1" Mosboeck (6,656,731), who still has 33 big blinds to play with when Day 4 commences.
Final Table Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ivan "ILS007" Stokes | United Kingdom | 31,727,368 | 159 |
| 2 | Leonard "Grozzorg" Maue | Germany | 25,827,094 | 129 |
| 3 | Niklas "Lena900" Astedt | Sweden | 23,258,260 | 116 |
| 4 | ShipitFTW911 | Sweden | 18,433,496 | 92 |
| 5 | Juan "xPastorcitox" Pastor | Argentina | 15,344,772 | 77 |
| 6 | Kelvin "Kelvin_FP:AR" Kerber | Brazil | 11,586,558 | 58 |
| 7 | Jamil "Jamil11" Wakil | Canada | 9,607,366 | 48 |
| 8 | Kayhan "KayhanMok" Mokri | Norway | 7,558,355 | 38 |
| 9 | Mario "livinmydream1" Mosboeck | Austria | 6,656,731 | 33 |
Day 3 Action
The day started with 38 contenders, but 14 rapid-fire eliminations saw the final three tables reached in less than an hour of play. Among those who failed to make the final 24 were Andy "BowieEffect" Wilson, Chris "ImDaNuts" Oliver, and Andras "probirs" Nemeth, the last of which ended up in 25th place.
Once there, it took almost an hour to lose the first player, Jonathan “Proudflop” Proudfoot, before a chain reaction saw ten more eliminations in the span of an hour. Among the carnage were PokerStars’ Sam "SamSquid" Grafton, Sami "Lrslzk" Kelopuro, and Daniel "Oxata" Dvoress. Finally, it was the player who goes by "I Can Dewey It" who could not do it and bubbled the final table in tenth place.
The final nine players will return for the last day of the WCOOP Main Event on October 4th, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern Time. The blinds will resume with a few minutes left in Level 34: 100,000/200,000 with an ante of 25,000, after which as many 30-minute levels will be played as necessary to crown a champion.
PokerNews will of course be present from start to finish, providing key information, big hands, and all of the bust-outs. So be sure to check back to see who walks away with more than a million dollars and the title of World Champion of Online Poker.