Micro Stakes Player wins $1 Million in PokerStars WCOOP

There are countless low stakes grinders around the world who dream of winning big in poker one day. And now these players have somebody to idolize after a lightly-regarded Russian named “maratik” won the PokerStars 2012 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Main Event along with $1,000,907.

Rags to Riches
Normally maratik only plays SNG’s where buy-ins are $3 or less, which is why it was puzzling that he topped a $5,200 buy-in tournament. But he used 40 FPP’s to enter a turbo satellite free of charge; the Russian eventually won a WCOOP Main Event seat through this satellite and parlayed it into the aforementioned $1 million score. The amount would’ve been more had he not settled for a six-player deal that was based on chip counts.

Tough Competition
Moving to the details of maratik’s win, he survived a grueling two days and a field of 1,825 players to secure the victory. And these weren’t just any opponents either since a number of top live and online poker pros were seeking a piece of the $9,125,000 WCOOP prize pool. Some notable pros who fared well include the following: Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier (221st, $12,318), English Poker Open winner Mickey “mement_mori” Petersen (190th, $12,755), Jude “j.thaddeus” Ainsworth (133rd, $15,056), Michael “Timex” McDonald (51st, $23,725) and Kyle “KJulius10” Julius (15th, $48,362).

Let’s make a Deal
Like we discussed before, a deal was struck between the final six players in this tournament. Based on his high chip count and reputation, Mike “munchenHB” Telker was given the largest share of the remaining prize money at $1,000,584, while our aforementioned winner, maratik, received $900,907. After an hour of talking, the players left $100,000 remaining for the WCOOP champion, which we now know was maratik.

2012 WCOOP Main Event Final Table

*1. maratik – $1,000,907
*2. Ryan “TheCart3r” Carter –$662,516
*3. Jossel2008 – $814,602
*4. Mike “munchenHB” Telker – $1,000,584
*5. sly caveat – $601,884
*6. FOO-92 – $502,992
7. Kakalala – $182,500
8. Phil “takechip” D’Auteuil – $136,875
9. mitdadu – $91,250

* Top six players made a deal