Event #12 of the 2008 World Championship of Online Poker grabbed the attention of 1,496 players who wanted to play in the $320 Mixed Holdem tournament. Every fifteen minutes the tournament would switch between No Limit and Limit Holdem, providing an exciting tournament experience for all. In the end it would be Randers walking away with the victory and $66,000.
Randers entered the final table as the short stack, but it would be Snout19 who left first, doing so when he was all-in on the turn holding J-10 with three other players in the pot. MUHoosh33 forced folds from the remaining two players and flipped up 5-3 which had hit two pair on the board of A-9-5-3. A jack landed on the river but it was too little too late for Snout19, who exited in sixth place with $14,361.60.
Play slowed down but the short stack, Punty, couldn’t do anything with the hands he was dealt, and he was slowly whittled away until he got all his money in against MUHoosh33. Punty held a decent hand in pocket eights, but it would be trumped by MUHoosh33’s pocket tens. No help came for the beleaguered Punty, who would take home $22,440 for his fifth place finish.
Gorrioncillo exited during the limit holdem section where he and MUHoosh33 capped the pot preflop. The pot was also capped on the flop, which fell [10c][6d][2c]. When the [2h] fell on the turn Gorrioncillo pushed the rest of his chips in. MUHoosh33 made the call and showed pocket queens, which would officially defeat Gorrioncillo’s [Kd][10s] after the river card fell [3h]. Gorrioncillo exited in fourth place with $30,742.80.
The players began discussing a deal, but Randers would end the talk when he requested a bigger payout than his short stack warranted. Randers would soon after go on a tear until he had enough chips to eliminate MUHoosh33 in third place. MUHoosh33 shoved all-in with [Kc][4c] but the hand would fall to Randers’[Ac][9s]. The board was unspectacular as it helped no one, and Randers would take out MUHoosh33 with his ace-high. MUHoosh33 earned $39,718.80 for his third place finish.
With only two players left, a deal was finally struck between Randers and the chip leader, 011180, who is known to be Aaron Kanter. The chip counts would have paid Kanter a little under $62k and Randers a little under $60k, but Randers held out until Kanter agreed that Randers could take a few hundred more for an even $60,000. Now heads-up play would commence to see who would take the WCOOP bracelet and the $6,000 remaining in the prize pool.
Randers started heads-up play down in the chip count until a timely double up gave him the chip lead. In the final hand Randers pushed his entire stack in on a flop of [8h][7s][4h] and Kanter would call all-in. Both players held an ace but Randers had the better kicker as his [Ad][6d] was ahead of Kanter’s [As][5h]. The [Ah] landed on the turn and the [2h] on the river ended the tournament.
Aaron Kanter, “011180,†would earn $61,459.20 for his runner-up finish while Randers earned $66,000 and the WCOOP bracelet for taking down Event #12.