Mike "SirWatts" Watson Beats Stacked Final Table to Win $10k 8-Game WCOOP Title
MIke "SirWatts" Watson just beat one of the best fields assembled at this year's WCOOP at PokerStars to win the $10,300 buy-in 8-Game championship, beating Ben "Sauce123" Sulsky heads-up for the title.
Given the rising popularity of mixed-games at the highest stakes, it's unsurprising that many of the biggest names in poker entered the tournament, with 79 players registering, 41 of them twice to make a total of 120 buy-ins ($1.2m) which more than doubled the guaranteed prizepool of $500k.
Only 11 players were paid, and those who made the money but failed to reach the final table of six inlcluded George Danzer (11th - $40,702) Connar "blanconegro" Drinan (10th - $40,702) Alexander "joiso" Kostritsyn (8th - $53,619), and Phil "MrSweets28" Galfond (7th - $70,635).
At the final table we had high stakes legends Sami "Lrslzk" Kelopuro, Ben "Sauce123" Sulsky, mixed-game specialist and winner of the $50k Poker Players Championship at 2013's WSOP, Matt "MUSTFABET" Ashton, Iteopepe88, WPT and PCA winner Mike "SirWatts" Watson, and double WCOOP and 7-time SCOOP champion Calvin "cal42688" Anderson.
With deep stacks and moderate blinds it took a while for the final table to thin out but when it did it was Iteopepe88 to go first. There was then a long wait before the next casualty, and it was to be Lrslzk who fell in 5th for $93,051. Shortly after it was down to three handed play as Anderson was unable to win his 10th COOP title, falling in 4th and taking away $122,581.
After coming back from being the short-stack it was SirWatts who inflicted the penulimate elimination after he won a c.1m chip pot against MUSTAFABET in a PLO round. The now short-stacked MUSTAFABET threw his lot in with a flopped top two pair, only for SIrWatts to have flopped bottom set to take him into heads-up play against Sauce123 with a 1.44m - 954k chip lead. Ashton won $161,482 for his third place finish.
Despite starting with a 500k chip lead, SirWatts was behind after 6 hands of heads-up PLO, and soon after the game changed to 2-7 Triple Draw he found himself nearly 500k behind. However, Watson is no slouch at the 2-7 tables, having finished runner-up in this year's $10k 2-7 TD event at the WSOP, and with the blinds up at 40k/80k, every single pot could be a game changer.
Eventually a run of big pots left Sauce desperately short, and he bowed out when his 9-8 was bested by Watson's 8-7. Sulsky left the table with $210,728, while Watson won the title and had a $280,238 payday.
Final Table Results WCOOP 74: $10,200 8-Game Championship
