Day 8 of the 2011 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker was a day without a champion being crowned. But two two-day NLH events got underway and those two events managed to create two of the series’ largest prize pools to date. The world never knows a shortage of top online players and they are here playing the WCOOP, ready to take their shots at massive paydays, names like Athanasios "Athanasios 9" Polychronopoulos, Mickey "mement_mori" Petersen, Jonathan "MONSTER_DONG" Karamalikis, and Steve "gboro780" Gross.
Here's how the day went:
PokerStars WCOOP 21 - $200 No-Limit Hold'em Two-Day ($1.25M Guaranteed)
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| $200+$15 | 8,484 | $1,696,800 |
This beauty managed to wind down to 60 players after 13 hours of play. Athanasios Polychronopoulos, who plays under the name "Athanasios 9" was among the chip leaders as play ended for the day. Athanasios won his first bracelet at the 2011 World Series of Poker and he's ready to take home a WCOOP bracelet.
PokerStars WCOOP 22 - $500 No-Limit Hold'em Two-Day ($1.5M Guaranteed)
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| $500+$30 | 3,739 | $1,869,500 |
First place in this event will pay out $293,512.31. It only took 23 levels to reach 131 that will begin play on Day 2. Remaining name brand players include Marius "danskemann" Olsvik, Mickey "mement_mori" Petersen, Kenny "LoneHixx" Hicks, Jonathan "MONSTER_DONG" Karamalikis, Mike "goleafsgoeh" Leah, Jeremy "00psiedaisy" Fitzpatrick and Steve "gboro780" Gross.
The top 10 chip counts at the end of the day:
| Seat | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | TheUrsaraie | 1,323,355 |
| 2 | po77a | 1,011,877 |
| 3 | Torsten "jektiss" Brinkmann | 838,025 |
| 4 | BGM111 | 727,675 |
| 5 | yvonjr67 | 719,823 |
| 6 | granadine00 | 699,746 |
| 7 | alienPL1968 | 656,838 |
| 8 | Showmann | 626,551 |
| 9 | Flying Smile | 626,470 |
| 10 | lachanin | 553,691 |
Find more details and information on these WCOOP events at PokerNews.
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