'Riverlan_88' Wastes No Time Claim TCOOP Gold
Monday, 3 February 2014
It might have been carrying the largest prizepool of the series ($2 million), but that didn't stop this year's TCOOP Main Event coming to a conclusion in just over five hours.
Indeed, despite the Event #49's 4,600 hopefuls taking the prizepool to an impressive $3,059,000, the grand finale was virtually over in the blink of an eye.
Among those caught up in the chip deluge was the likes of Ben 'Ben86' Tollerene, Stephen "Stevie444' Chidwick and Jake Cody, but with their demise came the rise of Sweden's 'Riverlan_88'. Having watched as 'dr3amka888' burst the bubble, the Swede, whose previous biggest cash was $13,134, managed to go on a tear before taking the lead in a six-way money chop.
With the blinds having reached an almost unplayable level during the latter stages of the final table, six players eventually decided to strike a deal which would see Denmark's 'blaaesh' take the largest cut of the prizepool ($336,341) before play restarted.
However, despite banking the most money, 'blaaesh' wasn't able to maintain his chip lead and scoop the remaining $40,000 and as he fell in third place it was 'Riverlan_88' who took the lead.
With only two players left it was the Swedish grinder who gained the upper hand despite at one point it looking as though India's 'danish7' might scoop a rare victory for his country. In the end though 'Riverlan_88' proved too strong and with a final flurry of betting he took the title and $277,526.
While 'Riverlan_88' was able to celebrate the biggest win of his career, Shawn 'Buck21' Buchanan was able to close this year's festival as the man of the hour thanks to an outright win in Event #33. The Canadian pro had already scooped two TCOOP title before the start of the series and this time around he managed to become the first 'Tripler COOPer' after banking $14,714 in the $82 Razz event.
Overall this year's PokerStars TCOOP was another storming success with virtually every guarantee smashed.
TCOOP $700 Main Event Result:
1st. 'Riverlan_88' - $277,526
2nd. 'danish7' - $245,834
3rd. 'blaaesh' - $336,341
4th. 'Valkyri3' - $254,409
5th. 'Eyal_A' - $207,342
6th. 'TsubasaOO' - $174,396
7th. 'Reidrocel' - $68,827
8th. 'thx4dahundro' - $38,237
9th. 'IneedMassari' - $24,472