2009 WCOOP Recap

By Pauly
Los Angeles, CA

The 2009 WCOOP was the most poker that I ever watched... without getting paid to do so. My girlfriend kept Vampire-like tweakerish hours over the last three weeks while she covered the WCOOP for PokerStars. Change100 wrote final table recaps for PokerStars Blog so I followed along as the action unfolded.

Online poker tournaments are tough to hold my attention. If I'm gonna watch others play on the virtual felt, then I prefer to sweat the nose bleed cash game tables. However, I had a fun time railing a few WCOOP events, especially the first ever Badugi event that was won by Los Angeles grinder Raymond Davis.

If you don't know who Ray Davis is, think of "Willie Mays Hayes" from Major League. Flashy. Cocky. Brash. That's Ray Davis, and he's usually clad in diamond earrings and a Gucci fedora. The last time I saw him? At the Rio on the last day of the WSOP as he stood in one of the secret hallways at the Rio hitting up Phil Ivey for cash. Less than a hour earlier, Ivey had advanced to the November Nine and he was already being hit up for a stake. I wonder if Ray Davis used any of his Ivey backing to play in WCOOP events?

Team PokerStars pro Barry Greenstein hosted the Badugi event. Our very relaxed and jovial host gave Davis a ton of shit in the chat. Davis and Greenstein were friends, so it was all good-natured ribbing but man, Greenstein cracked one-liners left and right at the expense of Davis.

"I have to root for you, Raymond," snarked Greenstein. "No one else owes me money."

Davis won the event and took down the first ever WCOOP Badugi bracelet. No word on how much money he paid back to Greenstein or Ivey.

2009 WCOOP winners included Terrance Chan, David Williams (I love his screen name "RugDoctor"), Germany's George "Scarf Boy" Danzer, and ElkY. Yeah the Frenchie won not one, but two bracelets. Event #43 $215 NL had a mammoth field of 9,220 runners, and ElkY made mince meat out of the final table en route to his second bracelet. He won his first one two days earlier in a rebuy event. The French kid runs good.

In addition to ElkY, two other players won multiple bracelets this series including Dan "djk123" Kelly and Ryan "g0lfa" D'Angelo. g0lfa was the first player this year to win two bracelets. He took down an 8-Game event and the half PLH/PLO event. Dan "djk123" Kelly finished in second place in 10K HORSE event last year, but he went all the way this year. When you're hot... you're hot. He had won a bracelet two weeks earlier on the first day of the WCOOP.

I watched the final four matches the $25,000 NL High Roller Heads Up event. The field was stacked with 32 of the top heads-up specialists in poker. The final four matches featured Jonathan "Iftarii" Jaffe, Sorel Mizzi, Olivier "Adonis12" Busquet, and Sifosis. In the final match, Iftarii defeated Sifosis. He collected $315,000 and the WCOOP bracelet.

The prize pool for the $5,200 Main Event swelled to over $10 million with 2,144 entrants. The event was spread out over two days. Dan "djk123" Kelly continued his run goodness. He started the final table as the chipleader and seemed destined to pick up his third WCOOP bracelet this year until he ran into Yevgeniy "Jovial Gent" Timoshenko. The Ukrainian-born and Seattle-raised pro schooled the final table with sheer aggression. djk123's attempt at winning bracelet #3 was thwarted when he couldn't fold 10-10 to Timoshenko's four-bet with K-K. He finished in fourth place, while Timoshenko went on to win the Main Event for a $1.7 million score. This has been a stellar year for Timoshenko. He won the WPT Championships at the Bellagio in April for $2.1 million.

djk123's sensational run earned him WCOOP Player of the Year honors and almost $1 million in cash. That's a sick score for a 20-year old college student.

Check out Change100's article on the Top 10 Moments from the WCOOP.

And here's a complete list of winners...

2009 WCOOP Champions:
Event #1 $215 NL Hold’em [6-max] - ChopSueyyy $234,421
Event #2 $215 Razz - djk123 $53,410
Event #3 $215 PLO [6-max] - MUSTAFABET $86,247
Event #4 $215 NL Single Draw 2-7 w/rebuys - 2FLY2TILT $42,000
Event #5 $109 8-Game [5-minute levels] - FireGoblin $23,230
Event #6 $109 NL Hold’em - vakAAttack $183,334
Event #7 $215 PL 5-Card Draw - CesarSPA $33,500
Event #8 $215 FL Hold’em - iacog4 $64,000
Event #9 $215 NL Hold’em - ternoplayer $303,876
Event #10 $10,300 NL Hold’em [High Roller] - Sumpas $611,455
Event #11 $530 NL Hold’em [2-day] - hustla16 $446,533
Event #12 $215 NL Hold'em [4-max] - lebordelaii $111,457
Event #13 $320 7-Card Stud - yhcaep $37,575
Event #14 $320 Mixed Hold'em [6-max] - dangdokodang $75,024
Event #15 $320 FL Badugi - raydavis77 $19,912
Event #16 $1,050 NL Hold’em - XTheDecanoX $249,280
Event #17 $530 NL Hold’em Triple Shootout [10-max] - iCeVeNoM $91,250
Event #18 $320 8-Game - g0lfa $50,250
Event #19 $320 PLO [6-max, 1R1A] - GeorgeDanzer $109,545
Event #20 $320 FL Triple Draw 2-7 - Timmy K $26,676
Event #21 $215 NL Hold’em w/rebuys - Soterdelf $174,594
Event #22 $530 FL Omaha Hi/Lo - Science $75,600
Event #23 $320 NL Hold'em [10-minute levels] - Str8$$$Homey $126,441
Event #24 $530 NL Hold’em [Heads-up Match Play] - MyRabbiFoo $140,000
Event #25 $320 HORSE - todch $70,400
Event #26 $215 NL Hold’em - lelijk22 $274,260
Event #27 $25,500 NL Hold’em [High Roller Match Play] - Iftarii $315,000
Event #28 $1,050 NL Hold’em [2-day] - Unsyatisfied $513,076
Event #29 $320 Mixed [PL Hold'em, PL Omaha] - g0lfa $69,245
Event #30 $320 NL Hold’em [2X Chance] - spencerman3 $131,819
Event #31 $320 PLO w/rebuys [6-max] - KRUTHE $119,000
Event #32 $530 7-Card Stud Hi/Lo - ShawnZJones $47,940
Event #33 $1,050 NL Hold’em - df1986 $207,142
Event #34 $215 NL Hold’em [big antes] - Koln4ever $114,610
Event #35 $320 PLO Hi/Lo - twenty305 $80,000
Event #36 $530 NL Hold’em w/rebuys [6-max] - Astrolux85 $210,000
Event #37 $2,100 PLO [6-max] - kiiski $172,140.00
Event #38 $530 NL Hold’em [1R1A] - ElkY $232,730.00
Event #39 $1,050 FL Hold’em [6-max] - Unassigned $83,030.00
Event #40 $215 NL Omaha Hi/Lo [10-minute levels] - PiMaster $42,263.65
Event #41 $530 PLO [Heads-up Match Play] - robert07 $52,600.00
Event #42 $2,100 8-Game - RugDoctor $107,800.00
Event #43 $215 NL Hold’em - ElkY $263,323.20
Event #44 $10,300 HORSE [High Roller] - djk123 $252,350.00
Event #45 $5,200 NL Hold’em Main Event [2-day] - Jovial Gent $1,715,200.00

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