It was a merry weekend indeed on the PokerStars felt. When all was said and done, the WCOOP Challenge Series awarded over $11.6 million in prize money, each of its ten champions coming away with a $5,200 WCOOP Main Event ticket and a customized commemorative money clip in addition to their potentially life-changing first-place score. Event #7 ran in place of the Sunday Million and although it carried the same $215 buy-in, it boasted a longer structure and a $2 million guaranteed prize pool.

The juiced-up stakes were enough to entice 11,644 entrants, resulting in a $2,328,800 prize pool. 1,530 places were paid with first place set to earn $323,941.66. More than two dozen Red Spades bought in, including Andre Akkari, Isaac Haxton, Nacho Barbero, Liv Boeree, Eugene Katchalov, Andre Coimbra, and Lex Veldhuis. Four finished in the money: Caio Pessagno (1,063rd), Matthias De Meulder (850th), Angel Guillen (302nd), and Maxim Lykov (231st).

The money bubble burst just shy of the six-hour mark and by Level 31, the field had narrowed to 179 players. Day 1 concluded with Denmark's laekd15 in the chip lead, with action scheduled to resume after a 14-hour break.

Day 1 Top 10 in chips

laekd15 (Denmark) 2,169,972
Weilando(94) (Germany) 2,169,261
omglukbox (India) 1,878,902
Der-Wolf86 (Germany) 1,849,784
koolllllo (Denmark) 1,773,448
BuffaloBear2 (Norway) 1,716,852
YerSoLucky (Ireand) 1,683,444
thebellboy (Australia) 1,666,838
Keith107 (Canada) 1,586,743
atis84 (Hungary) 1,509,429

Cards went in the air for Day 2 at 2:30pm ET Monday afternoon. Play continued for another 16 levels before reaching the final table bubble. With ten players remaining and 300,000/600,000 blinds, roscootje459 opened for 1.25 million and mikulita three-bet shoved for 10.4 million. Roscootje459 snap-called, his [Qs][Qc] crushing mikulita's [5d][5c]. Roscootje459's queens held up and mikulita was left with less than a million in chips. Mikulita put them in the middle on the next hand, but couldn't fade Ilkinopoulos's pocket sevens on a [Qc][9c][4h][2d][8s] board. Mikulita was out in tenth place and the final table set.

Final table chip counts

Seat 1: Ilkinopoulos (13,693,620 in chips)
Seat 2: mr.salgado30 (20,398,027 in chips)
Seat 3: RenRad 01 (15,799,632 in chips)
Seat 4: Calcasus (5,784,141 in chips)
Seat 5: ProWannabe10 (11,315,086 in chips)
Seat 6: jupitor123 (7,413,488 in chips)
Seat 7: roscootje459 (19,510,200 in chips)
Seat 8: KolayRuss (5,107,832 in chips)
Seat 9: aszeta1 (17,417,974 in chips)

Calcasus, jupitor123 fall out of orbit

Only a few hands in, Calcasus open-shoved for his last 4.2 million and roscootije459 called on the button with [Ac][Qd]. Calcasus's [Kd][Tc] did not improve on the [Qh][6c][2h][6d][8h] board and he departed with $14,671.44 for ninth place.

No one was more delighted than short stack KolayRuss, who picked up at least another $8,600 for surviving another pay jump. Down to only 2.8 million with the blinds up to 400,000/800,000, KolayRuss open-shoved with [Ah][Js] and RenRad 01 called with [7s][7c] in the small blind. The [Tc][5s][3c] flop favored RenRad 01, but KolayRuss pulled out the [Kh] on the turn and the [Qh] on the river to make a Broadway straight. KolayRuss doubled to 7.36 million and only four hands later, made it two in a row when his [Ks][Kh] held up against Ilkinopoulos's [8s][8c]. KolayRuss doubled to 13.9 million while Ilkinopoulos fell to only 3.5 million.

The very next deal saw jupitor123 move in for 3.3 million with [8c][8d], but roscootje459 woke up with [Js][Jh] in the cutoff. Jupitor123 couldn't pull off a miracle and was eliminated in 8th place, good for $23,288.00.

ProWannabe10 rises from the dead

ProWannabe10 was sitting in the middle of the pack when aszeta1 made a UTG min-raise to 1.6 million. Holding [Ts][Th], ProWannabe10 moved in for 13.8 million on the button and aszeta1 snap-called with [Kc][Ks]. Aszeta1 moved up to 29.5 million in chips, leaving ProWannabe10 on 22,112 in chips-- less than 1/4 of an ante.

ProWannabe10 was all in on the next hand, his [Ad][4s] dominated by KolayRuss's [Ah][7d]. However, ProWannabe10 hit a stroke of luck when his kicker flopped. ProWannabe10 7x-ed his stack to 155,000, and his 1.5 antes went in the middle again on the next deal. Once again, ProWannabe10 prevailed, his [Qh][8d] turning a pair of eights vs. mr.salgado30's flopped pair of sixes. That hand took him to 1.8 million, enough to breathe for a couple of hands before shoving from UTG+1 with [Kc][Qh]. Mr.Salgado30 called with [Qc][4s], but his dominated hand did not improve on the [Jd][Ac][3c][As][Th] board. Now up to 2.9 million, ProWannabe10 found [As][Jd] on the next deal and moved in from UTG. Mr.Salgado30 decided the third time could be the charm and called from the small blind with only [2c][4c]. An ace hit the flop and four hands after being down to nearly nothing, ProWannabe10 was suddenly back in business with 7.55 million.

Aszeta1 takes out two

ProWannabe10, KolayRuss, and Ilkinopoulos enjoyed even more good fortune when fellow short stack RenRad 01 called off his last 1.9 million, his [As][Kh] up against aszeta1's [Qs][Qh]. The queens prevailed and RenRad 01 went out in seventh place ($46,576.00).

Having successfully waited out another money jump, Ilkinopoulos put his last 1.88 million in from the big blind, his [Jh][3s] up against aszeta1's [Kd][Td]. Aszeta1 made top pair on the [Kh][5d][4s] flop and Ilkinopoulos did not catch up, the turn and river falling the [9h] and the [6s] to send him home in sixth place ($69,864.00).

KolayRuss climbs to fifth place

With the blinds up to 500,000/1,000,000, ProWannabe10 picked up [Ad][Th] UTG and moved in for his last 8.5 big blinds. KolayRuss called all-in for 3.8 million and revealed [Kd][Qs]. Although KolayRuss out flopped ProWannabe10 and made top two pair on the [Kc][Qh][Jh] flop, the [Td] turned, making ProWannabe10 a Broadway straight. KolayRuss needed a king or a queen to survive but got the [9h] instead. After entering the final table with less than ten big blinds, KolayRuss came away with a fifth-place finish, good for an impressive $93,152.00

No-go dealio

Immediately following KolayRuss's elimination, the final four agreed to pause the action and discuss a potential deal. Here's a look at how they stacked up at the time:

aszeta1 - 44,583,659
roscootje459 - 31,831,607
mr.salgado30 - 25,623,311
ProWannabe10 - 14,401,423

ProWannabe10 asked final table host Randy "nanonoko" Lew to run some ICM numbers for their perusal. While aszeta1, roscootje459 and mr.salgado30 all agreed to the proposed shares, ProWannabe10 wanted a boost from $168,500 to $175,000. Neither mr.salgado30 nor aszeta1 were amenable to the idea and with negotiations at an impasse, cards went back in the air.

The rise of roscootje459

As four-handed play commenced, roscootje459 pillaged aszeta1's stack, winning back-to-back pots off aszeta1 with preflop four-bets. Three hands later, roscootje459 flopped top pair on a [Jd][4s][2h] board against aszeta1's ace-high. Roscooje459 bet 2.3 million on the flop, another 6.6 million when the [Kd] turned and check-called aszeta1's 8 million bluff when the river fell the [7c]. Roscootje459's [Jh][8c] held up against [Ad][6d] and he raked in the 39.3 million pot, leaving aszeta1 on 13.2 million.

Moments later, the action folded to ProWannabe10 in the small blind. He moved all-in for 15.2 million with [6h][7h] and roscootje459 called with pocket fives in the big. This time, there would be no miracle for ProWannabe10, who exited in fourth place when the board ran out [Ac][Qd][3s][Ks][Ad]. The $116,440 he earned was over 2.5 times what he'd have earned had he gone out in seventh place when he was crippled to only 1/4 of an ante.

Let's try this again

Down to three, roscootje459, mr.salgado30 and aszeta1 decided to pause the action again and take another run at making a deal. However, this time, the chip counts looked much different:

roscootje459 - 77,483,027
mr.salgado30 - 22,648,311
aszeta1 - 16,308,662

Randy "nanonoko" Lew ran a new set of ICM numbers and this time, all three agreed to the shares presented. With $40,000 still up for grabs for the winner, cards went back in the air.

Such a heartbreaker

Only moments after action resumed, roscootje459 open-shoved on the button and mr.salgado30 called from the big blind. Both turned up the same hand, mr.salgado30 with [As][7s] and roscootje459 with [Ah][7s]. But before you could say chop it up, the flop fell [Jc][7c][6h] and roscootje459 picked up a flush draw when the [Jh] hit the turn. Mr.salgado30 only had to fade a river heart, but was dealt a crushing blow when the [5h] fell, making roscootje459 the nut flush. Mr.salgado30 was suddenly on the rail in third place, his share of the deal worth $215,777.73.

Heads-up chip counts

Seat 7: roscootje459 (102,381,338 in chips)
Seat 9: aszeta1 (14,058,662 in chips)

With a 7 to 1 chip lead over aszeta1, roscootje459 only had to wait for the right moment to strike. After ten trades of the blinds, aszeta1 opened for 2.4 million and roscootje459 three-bet to 6 million. Aszeta1 shoved and roscootje459 called, his [As][8s] up against [5h][5s]. Once again, roscootje459 found a win the hard way, hitting running straight cards on the turn and river to snap off aszeta1's pair and lock up the win.

Congratulations to roscootje459 on an incredible victory! He banked $302,291.97 thanks to the three-way deal while runner-up aszeta1 earned $201,777.96.

PokerStars WCOOP Challenge Event #7 ($215 NLHE Sunday Million Special Edition) results

Players: 11,644
Prizepool: $2,328,800.00
Places paid: 1,530

1. roscootje459 (Netherlands) $302,291.97*
2. aszeta1 (Chile) $201,777.96*
3. mr.salgado30 (Brazil) $215,777.73*
4. ProWannabe10 (Mexico) $116,440.00
5. KolayRuss (Russia) $93,152.00
6. Ilkinopoulos (Azerbaijan) $69,864.00
7. RenRad 01 (Mexico) $46,576.00
8. jupitor123 (Greece) $23,288.00
9. Calcasus (Germany) $14,671.44

*= reflects the results of a three-way deal that left $40,000 in play for the winner

Kristin Bihr is a freelance contributor to the PokerStars Blog.

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