Up and down; Michael Soyza crushing on Natural8 as Shaun Deeb wins eighth WCOOP

The last week has seen numerous major tournament series’ moving towards their Main Event finales, with players seeking to make the most of their dwindling opportunities to win big before tournament festivals come to an end.

Predictably, the WCOOP headlines have been stolen by one familiar name, but WCOOP Main Event winner “BigBlindBets” has borrowed them back with a $1.6 million score. PokerStars isn’t the only place to find a tournament story currently of course, with Michael Soyza also enjoying a career-best heater over on Natural8.

Soyza bossing the GGSeries amid $500,000 upswing

Michael Soyza has been the beneficiary of a great run of form this week, banking over $500,000 from just 62 tournaments played over the last four days. Soyza has already developed a fearsome reputation in live tournaments on the Asian circuit, and his recent results are a reminder that he is also comfortable with the online felt.

Here are some of his recent key cashes, all of which came in the GGSeries on GGNetwork:

• 20/09 – GGS $25K Blade special – 1^st from 11 players for $254,800
• 21/09 – GGS 5K NLH – 2^nd from 28 players for $58,330
• 22/09 – GGS 5K NLH – 1^st from 21 players for $72,946
• 22/09 – GGS $25K Blade 1^st from 18 players for $319,400
• 23/09 – GGS $10K NLH – 1^st from 28 players for $185,343
• 23/09 – GGS 5K NLH – 4^th from 34 players for $35,088
• 23/09 – GGS $25K Blade – 3^rd from 34 players for $249,993
• 24/09 – GGS $25K Blade – 2^nd from 13 players for $170,362
• 24/09 – GGS $5K NLH – 1^st from 26 players for $72,946

This astonishing run has seen Soyza’s online profits soar to $419,000 with only 274 games recorded on GGNetwork. The Malaysian pro is sponsored by Natural8but is seen more frequently on the live High Roller circuit where he has accumulated over $7 million in live winnings.

Soyza had to re-enter some events more than once, but thankfully he didn’t find himself in the same boat as “ilsy168”.

Having first appeared on GGNetwork a year ago, ilsy168 accumulated losses of $270,000 before deciding the time was right to hit the GGSeries hard. Racking up a total of 14 entries in a $25,000 buy in event along the way, ilsy168 has not had a good series so far, having lost over $2 million.

Shaun Deeb Adds WCOOP title number 8 to his trophy cabinet

He may divide opinion among the live poker community, but Shaun Deeb’s online results in major festivals are fast becoming legendary. The American pro seemingly does not have a game at which he isn’t strong, picking up titles in a multitude of different mixed games. Not long ago we were reporting on Deeb winning his seventh WCOOP title in the 5 Card Draw event, and he has now claimed number eight in the $530 PLO 6-Max for $52,372. Deeb’s victory over the field of 599 players further cements his legacy as one of he best mixed game players in the world.

This latest cash brings Deeb’s lifetime online tournament winnings up to around $7.1 million, with $4,723,809 of that coming on PokerStars where he plays under the screen name “shaundeeb”. This latest WCOOP title brings his overall “COOP” tally into double figures, as he also owns two SCOOP titles.

“BigBlindBets” Takes down the WCOOP Main Event for $1,665,962

The 2019 WCOOP Main Event commanded a $5,200 buy in and promised a guarantee of $10 million. 2,236 entries helped the prize pool to creep past that figure, eventually settling on $11,180,000. The grand finale of the WCOOP attracted some of the biggest name in the online business, playing as an 8-Max tournament and eventually paying 271 of its runners.

The four-day event still featured several stellar names with the field having been whittled down to 86 after the second day of play. Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi, PokerStars sponsored pro “easywithaces”, “Big Huni”, “Lena900”, “lasagnaaammm” and “UhhMee” were among those still in contention, but once the final table was set, only raidalot remained. He carried the chip lead into the final table however and provided a strong challenge from that point on.

As play got down to three-handed, BigBindBets, raidalot and dans170 were the final players left in contention. BigBlindBets held the chiplead and the elimination of raidalot only strengthened his position. raidalot opened with suited, BigBlindBets 3-bet with suited and the chips went in. This gave BigBlindBets a 485 million to 70 million chip lead heads up, and the player wasted no time in finishing the job. dans170 limp-called off and the of BigBlindBets was in trouble. Luckily, he was able to dig himself out of the situation with the help of a few spades, and in the turn of a river card, BigBlindBets was the champion.

The final payouts are as follows:

1^st – BigBlindBets (United Kingdom) – $1,665,962
2^nd – Danilo “dans170’” de Lima Demetrio (Brazil) – $1,187,553
3^rd – Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi (United Kingdom) – $846,528
4^th – NeedBeat (Estonia) – $603,434
5^th – 19Pistike93 (Hungary) – $403,148
6^th – XmorphineX (Belgium) – $306,624
7^th – Leitnant (Estonia) – $218,572
8^th – moglimiranda (Germany ) – $155,805
9^th – TheMakrill7 (Sweden) – $111,063

Article by Craig Bradshaw