TCOOP Main Event – ‘Nikki_Hefner’ of Russia $396,516 Richer

When it comes to online poker tournaments, every grinder out there will probably agree that the PokerStars ‘COOPs are the nuts. Offering a variety of events and big prize pools, hardly anyone can ask for more. And then there are the Main Events, a culmination of the series and the one everybody wants to win.

Main Event of the TCOOP (Turbo Championship of Online Poker) was completed on Sunday and several players got out of their comfy chairs with six figures added to their bankrolls. And when we say several, we mean five, as that’s the number of those who earned the minimum of $100k+, although the 6th place finisher came very close as well.

With the buy in of $700 and huge turnout of 4,169 players, the event generated the prize pool of $2,772,385, easily breaking the $2 million guarantee. 540 players were set to make the money. The beauty of the online tournaments and especially the turbo structures is that things move at much faster pace than live. By the time 2-hours late registration was close, there were only 1,300 players remaining and some thirty minutes later the bubble was reached.

Although there were quite a few well known names in the field, by the time the final table was reached, there were no ‘Red Spades’ left to compete for the title. George ‘Jorj95’ Lind was one of the last of the Team Online to leave the tournament in 87th place.

After some five hours of play in total, the final table of nine was reached. At this point, ‘Nikki_Hefner’ of the Russia was leading the way with 22 million in chips; the advantage that he would turn into the victory not that many hands later.

First two eliminations came quickly, as two German representatives, ‘GhettoHomie’ and ‘majo-K88’ were sent to the rail. Following them was the only Portuguese player ‘yryryryr’ . ‘jxarturo’ of Columbia was the last player to leave without a six-figure payment as he was sent to the rail in sixth, earning $90,102 for his efforts.

Next to go were three UK players. First fell ‘basils86’ who got his short stack in the middle ahead, holding q10 and was up against almost a nut low. However, 43 of ‘riversouza’ improved to two pair on the flop, and he was sent to bed with $117,826 extra to his name.

‘Spraggs’ was eliminated by the same player, and again ‘riversouza’ was able to overcome a slight preflop disadvantage to come out on top. ‘Spraggs’ took home $159,412 for his efforts.

Finally, the last standing UK player, ‘PitBully01’ was sent home by the eventual winner, Russian ‘Nikki_Hefner’ after his k10 failed to improve against Russian’s pocket Fives. ‘PitBully01’ added $228,721 to his roll, leaving ‘riversouza’ of Brazil and ‘Nikki_Hefner’ to battle it out for the title.

The Brazilian started the final stage of the match with about ten million chips more in his stack, but after only one hand of play, the two stopped to make the deal, which guaranteed ‘riversouza’ $363,119 and $356,516 for ‘Nikki_Hefner’. $40,000 was still up for grabs, so the tournament was still far from over.

As soon as the play resumed, the Russian started to turn the tables and it took him only fourteen hands to not only take over the chip lead, but also to claim the victory, adding a TCOOP title to his online resume and taking home the grand total of $396,516.

Not a bad day at the office!

Picture: PokerStars Blog