Event #26 of the 2008 World Championship of Online Poker was $320 6-Max No Limit Holdem and 3,273 players paid out the buy-in to create a prize pool of close to a million dollars. When all was said and done, it was rubenrtv who would walk away with the first place prize money and the WCOOP bracelet.
BB_ShiNing had been having internet issues and also entered the final table as the short stack, which created the perfect recipe for being the first elimination of the final table. BB_ShiNing reraised all-in before the flop while holding [Ad][4c] which was easily dominated by tRaMp$d0PrAy’s [Ah][Kh]. The board provided no help to the beleaguered BB-ShiNing as it rolled out [Ac][10c][3d][9d][Qd]. BB_ShiNing earned $17,183.26 for his sixth place finish.
Dorinvandy, who had won Event #5, would exit in fifth place. Dorinvandy raised before the flop, saw a reraise from rubenrtv, and made his own reraise for all of his chips. Rubenrtv flipped up pocket kings, which were well ahead of dorinvand’s pocket sevens. The board would prove to be utterly unhelpful for dorinvandy as it fell [Qc][8s][8h][2h][5c] and dorinvnady was gone in fifth place, richer by $31,499.36.
With four players remaining table talk turned to the possibility of making a deal. The initial round of negotiations failed to produce a deal, but the talks would heat up a few minutes later where a deal would be finalized.
rubenrtv: $125,687.64
HT-Max: $92,000
MCLegend: $84,500
tRaMp$d0PrAy: $84,500
The four players would then have to battle it out to see who would claim the last $10,000 and the WCOOP bracelet.
tRaMp$d0PrAy finished in fourth place after his pocket jacks could not hold up against rubenrtv’s pocket nines. Rubenrtv raised all-in preflop, which forced a fold from HT-Max and tRaMp$d0PrAy made the all-in call. The flop fell [Qd][9d][8d] to give rubenrtv the set, and he would finish with a full house after the turn fell [4s] and the river fell [8h]. tRaMp$d0PrAy exited in fourth place, having earned the $84,500 agreed to in the deal.
HT-Max would fall when he got all of his chips into the middle before the flop while holding [Ad][Js]. Rubenrtv made the call with pocket sixes, and his pair would hold up as the board fell [8h][8c][2c][Kd][7c]. HT-Max was gone in third place and would take home his negotiated $92,000.
Heads-up play was a fierce battle, with huge chip leads swinging back and forth. Rubenrtv started with the huge chip lead but it would slip through his fingers as MCLegend charged forth to take his own dominating chip lead. Not to be outdone, rubenrtv came storming back to take the lead. Play would continue like this until the tournament finally came to a close.
In the final hand all the chips went in on the turn of a board reading [Ks][Jd][7c][Ah]. MCLegend was holding [7h][6h] for a pair while rubenrtv had a broadway straight with his [Qs][10c]. An irrelevant [Qh] landed on the river and the tournament was over.
MCLegend collected the $84,500 the final table deal paid him while rubenrtv collected his $125,687.64 plus the $10,000 and WCOOP bracelet set aside for the victor to bring his cash total to $135,687.64.