"cal4567" Secures Second COOP Title In 2023 US Championship of Online Poker Main Event for $52,576!
With four other events still playing their way down to a winner tonight on PokerStarsNJ.com, the marquee event on the 2023 US Championship of Online Poker (USCOOP) schedule returned for Day 2 and played down to a champion in just over four hours. All 53 players who returned to chase the lion's share of the $334,320 prize pool were already in the money, but only one took home the cash that everyone had eyes on when the day kicked off.
That player is "cal4567", who successfully navigated their way through a 1,194 entry field to take home the top-prize worth $52,577, the Main Event title, and the $20,000 NAPT Golden Pass Package. With the package included, the difference between first and second-place prize money was massive and it certainly made for an exciting battle as second-place finisher "DeeerTaaaY" didn't make the victory easy.
Of the big names in the field chasing glory, David "DavidKayePoker" Kaye would fall early in the day, but both Benji "OttB_RedHeron" Felson and Stanton "Stonniepokes" Tentnowski made very deep runs with the latter bubbling the final table in 10th place, just nine spot shy of his third USCOOP title of the series.
Final Table Payouts
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "cal4567" | United States | $52,577 + $20,000 NAPT Golden Pass Package |
| 2 | "DeeerTaaaY" | United States | $37,478 |
| 3 | "rich2579" | United States | $26,715 |
| 4 | "einplusein" | United States | $19,044 |
| 5 | "pnicex" | United States | $13,575 |
| 6 | "titleistgolf22" | United States | $9,677 |
| 7 | "1handedmuck" | United States | $6,898 |
| 8 | "S3NDit101!" | United States | $4,917 |
| 9 | "lIlbILLYmAC" | United States | $3,505 |
Final Table Action
Action began at the final table on the first hand when "lIlbILLYmAC" fell in ninth place. Shortly thereafter, "S3NDit101!" would exit in eighth place when they couldn't find a hold to secure a much needed double. Not long after, "1handedmuck" fell in seventh in a blind vs blind spot against eventual second-place finisher "DeeerTaaaY".
One level later, "titleistgolf22" would exit the tournament in sixth-place when they couldn't win a flip versus the nines of "einplusein". Next to find the rail was "pnicex" when they found themselves on the wrong side of a five-handed cooler on a board that offered no improvement against the eventual champion.
Crashing in fourth-place was "einplusein", who was on the wrong side of another blind vs blind spot where both players held ace high with theirs being second-best. Just two hands later, "rich2579" would find a three-bet shove that was called by "cal4567", who at this point was steamrolling the table after knocking out the last two players before laying the same fate upon "rich2579", making it three knockouts in a row.
Heads up play begain with "cal4567" holding a 2:1 chip lead over "DeeerTaaaY". In the first 10 minutes of the match, "DeeerTaaaY" did chip down a bit after limp-folding a fair amount and not seeing many turns or rivers, but they did secure a double in their attempt to make it a game before ultimately falling in second-place to what was a heads-up cooler on the flop. That elimination made it four on the final table for "cal4567" as they locked up the title, the first-place money and the package to the 2023 NAPT in Las Vegas next month.
With this win, "cal4567", who is a grinder on the site with an impressive graph spanning over 4,600 games played since 2020, moves up to over $100,000 in profit after locking up their biggest cash to date on PokerStarsNJ.com. After today's performance, it's unlikely we'll see that graph turn south anytime soon for the 2023 USCOOP Main Event Champion who adds this title to their SCOOP title from March of this year.
That's it for coverage of the 2023 US Championship of Online Poker, but always keep it locked to PokerNews for up-to-date coverage of all of the biggest events and news stories that the poker world has to offer!