Astedt Among the Big Stacks After Day 1 of the $10,300 WCOOP Main Event
There were 511 brave souls who put up the $10,300 it cost to enter WCOOP 98-H: NLHE [World Championship of NLHE/Main Event], and when the dust settled, just 176 of them bagged a stack for Day 2. The World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) flagship event attracted the best of the best, but in the end, a relatively unknown top ten formed.
Sitting on top of the leaderboard is Brazil’s "BRzRoll", who amassed a whopping 2,379,612 chips, good for nearly 200 big blinds at the start of Day 2, on Day 1 of the WCOOP Main Event and is the only player to take more than two million chips into Day 2. The international top three is completed by Tom "7tHEcROw7" MacDonald from the United Kingdom in second place with 1,927,103 in chips and Austria’s "P0KERPR02.0", who bagged 1,821,748 chips for third place.
However, if there is one name that stands out in the top ten chip counts, it is that of Niklas "Lena900" Astedt. The online phenom obtained 1,731,822 chips throughout the day, which sets him in seventh place in the overall standings. No stranger to the highest stakes that online poker has to offer, the Swede will have a comfortable position when Day 2 commences in search of a new WCOOP title to add to his collection.
End of Day 1 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "BRzRoll" | Brazil | 2,379,612 | 198 |
| 2 | Tom "7tHEcROw7" MacDonald | United Kingdom | 1,927,103 | 161 |
| 3 | "P0KERPR02.0" | Austria | 1,821,748 | 152 |
| 4 | "blowknockout" | Mexico | 1,820,571 | 152 |
| 5 | "Phemo" | Austria | 1,820,351 | 152 |
| 6 | "AA DOCTOR" | Greece | 1,808,161 | 151 |
| 7 | Niklas "Lena900" Astedt | Sweden | 1,731,822 | 144 |
| 8 | "fichtner3000" | Germany | 1,659,523 | 138 |
| 9 | "Stumpfed" | Canada | 1,580,219 | 132 |
| 10 | "BigCsabi" | Hungary | 1,481,056 | 123 |
A WCOOP Main Event befits a turnout full of poker’s online and live legends, and this year did not disappoint. Among the ones that managed to bag a seven-figure stack are Felipe "ketzerfelipe" Ketzer (1,415,554), Simon "C. Darwin2" Mattsson (1,372,243) Roman "RomeOpro" Romanovsky (1,308,482), Sam "Str8$$$Homey" Greenwood (1,205,315), and Linus “LLinusLLove” Loeliger (1,012,641)
Less fortunate were Ami "UhhMee" Barer (226,674), Rui "RuiNF" Ferreira (178,770) and "ShipitFTW911" (131,788). They will all start Day 2 with less than the 250,000 starting stack, but will still have plenty to play with, with the deep structure that a WCOOP Main Event provides.
The PokerStars Team Pros also came out in full force, but only three of the Red Spades survived the day. Rafael "GM_VALTER" Moraes bagged the biggest of them all with 1,320,974, while Sam "SamSquid" Grafton is not far behind with 1,279,765 in chips. Meanwhile, Laurie "LaliTournier" Tournier is sitting at the bottom regions of the leaderboard with a stack of 185,000, trailing far behind her peers. However, Ramon "RamonColillas" Colillas, Alejandro "[Papo]AR" Lococo, Lex "L. Veldhuis" Veldhuis and Parker "tonkaaaa" Talbot, as well as any ambassadors that have not tried their luck yet, still have a chance to make an appearance before the late registration closes at the start of Day 2.
The same can not be said for Mike "SirWatts" Watson, Samuel "€urop€an" Vousden, Jans "Graftekkel" Arends, David "MissOracle" Yan, and Michael "imluckbox" Addamo. All of them burned through their initial entry as well as three reentries on Day 1, the maximum allowed. They will have to wait another year to have hopes of becoming the World Champion of Online Poker.
As mentioned earlier, the late registration is still open until the start of day 2 on Monday, October 2nd at 12:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Those who decide to join the fray at the last moment will receive the starting stack of 250,000 chips and play will begin in Level 16: 6,000/12,000 with an ante of 1,500. Day 2 will then play on until 40 players remain, at which point the field will be well into the money.
PokerNews will of course be present to deliver all of the action from one of the biggest online poker tournaments of the year live as it happens, so stay tuned tomorrow for all the big hands from your favorite players.