PokerStars' Sam "SamSquid" Grafton Aiming to Reach Final Table on Day 3 of the $10,300 WCOOP Main Event
The penultimate day of the 2023 $10,300 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Main Event is set to kick off at 12:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Out of a total of 600 entries, only 38 players still find themselves with chips on the virtual tables when they log in to their PokerStars account today. They have all secured a payout of $32,632 already, but all eyes will be on the $1,047,257 that comes with capturing the title of World Champion. However, many of them will have to settle for lesser portions of the $6,000,000 prize pool, as the tournament will play down to a final table of nine players on Day 3 first.
Remaining Payouts
| Place | Prize | Place | Prize | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,047,257 | 10-12 | $76,287 | |
| 2 | $765,389 | 13-15 | $61,965 | |
| 3 | $559,385 | 16-23 | $49,894 | |
| 4 | $408,827 | 24-31 | $40,350 | |
| 5 | $298,792 | 32-39 | $32,632 | |
| 6 | $218,372 | |||
| 7 | $159,598 | |||
| 8 | $116,642 | |||
| 9 | $94,330 |
Still among those in contention is PokerStars Ambassador Sam "SamSquid" Grafton. The talkative Brit is sitting in 25th place on the leaderboard, with 2,721,816 in chips. Despite finding himself in the lower regions of the leaderboard, the deep structure of the WCOOP Main Event means that he still has over 30 big blinds to play with when the tournament recommences today.
However, his stack dwarfs in comparison to the overwhelming chipleader Ivan "ILS007" Stokes. Grafton’s fellow countryman amassed a gargantuan stack of 16,606,251 chips on Day 2, nearly twice that of second place, Swedish online legend Niklas "Lena900" Astedt, who sits down with 9,996,387 at the start of Day 3. The top-three is completed by Jamil "Jamil11" Wakil (9,799,062), while notable names like "ShipitFTW911" (6,761,987) and Kayhan "KayhanMok" Mokri (6,431,244) also find themselves with a comfortable top-ten stack.
Top 10 Chip Counts at the Start of Day 3
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ivan "ILS007" Stokes | United Kingdom | 16,606,251 | 208 |
| 2 | Niklas "Lena900" Astedt | Sweden | 9,996,387 | 125 |
| 3 | Jamil "Jamil11" Wakil | Canada | 9,799,062 | 122 |
| 4 | "BigCsabi" | Hungary | 7,850,116 | 98 |
| 5 | "Thurpan" | United Kingdom | 7,563,718 | 95 |
| 6 | "ShipitFTW911" | Sweden | 6,761,987 | 85 |
| 7 | Kayhan "KayhanMok" Mokri | Norway | 6,341,244 | 79 |
| 8 | "ContraSpemSper0" | Ukraine | 4,713,328 | 59 |
| 9 | Juan "xPastorcitox" Pastor | Argentina | 4,662,556 | 58 |
| 10 | "PAX176" | Poland | 4,319,200 | 54 |
As one can expect from a WCOOP Main Event, the rest of the field is not filled with slouches either. Leonard "Grozzorg" Maue (3,981,436), Kelvin "Kelvin_FP:AR" Kerber (2,829,571), Daniel "Oxata" Dvoress (2,816,829), Sami "Lrslzk" Kelopuro (2,760,132), and Andras "probirs" Nemeth (2,232,651) will all sit down at the start of Day 3 as well, trying to maneuver their way onto the final table of nine.
Day 3 will start at 12:30 p.m. Eastern Time, and the field will play as many 30-minute levels, starting from 40,000/80,000 with an ante of 10,000, necessary to whittle the 38 players down to one final table of nine. At that point, they will all have secured $94,330 and will continue playing on Day 4, on October 4th.
PokerNews will provide a live report from the start of the day until the very end, as well as for the $10,300 PLO Main Event, which plays down to a winner today. So stay tuned to both pages to not miss any of the biggest online poker action of the year.