Busquet,who’s renowned for his heads-up sit-and-go record online, smashed his way to victory on his Adonis112 account on PokerStars.com and picked up the first major online title of his career.
Busquet’s victory came by way of the only WCOOP tournament to conclude yesterday, with action in Events 42 and 44 resuming later today.
We’ve got the highlights below, and will update the ongoing events when they conclude this afternoon.
Olivier “Adonis112” Busquet Wins Event 43: $10,300 Heads-Up
Olivier Busquet has won more than $3 million playing live poker tournaments but online he’s traditionally been a sit-and-go specialist.
That all changed in a big way last night for the New York native when he defeated 63 of the toughest heads-up players on the internet to win $224,000 and his first World Championship of Online Poker title.
Busquet won matches against Also11, Brian “$stinger88” Hastings, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, kotkis and Helio TYF to claim victory.
With a capped field of 64 and a prize pool of $640,000, Event 42 drew the biggest names in the business, many of whom failed to make the money. Eight places paid with the cash prizes beginning at $40,000.
Among those who played but did not cash were Viktor “Isildur1” Blom, Daniel Negreanu, Jason Mercier, Shaun Deeb, Tom “kingsofcards” Marchese, Brian Hastings and Justin Bonomo.
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Eugene Katchalov and 2011 WCOOP winner K_O_S_T_Y_A all managed to secure a spot in the money.
Here are the full results:
1st: Olivier "Adonis112" Busquet (Canada) - $224,000 2nd: Helio TYF (Canada) - $128,000 3rd: Sussie Smith (Sweden) - $64,000 4th: kotkis (Finland) - $64,000 5th: Eugene Katchalov (Ukraine) - $40,000 6th: Odonkor1 (Sweden) - $40,000 7th: K_0_S_T_Y_A (Russia) - $40,000 8th: Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier (United Kingdom) - $40,000
Event 42: $215 NL Hold’em - $1 Million Gtd.
WCOOP Event 42 took the place of the regularly-scheduled Sunday Million on PokerStars and attracted a staggering 8,342 players. That meant over $1.66 million was up for grabs with just over $250k reserved for first.
By the time play was suspended for the night just 115 players were left with Russian player AlexBet86 leading the pack.
Also still in the mix was 2011 SCOOP Main Event winner Sami “LrsLzk” Kelopuro.
Action has already resumed in this event with 70 players remaining at time of publishing.
Event 44: $2,100 NL Hold’em - $1.25 Million Gtd.
Event 44 absolutely smashed its guarantee, and that’s saying something when the original tag on this tournament was for $1.25 million.
1,387 players put together the $2,100 buy-in, building a prize pool of $2.77 million and putting $463,396 up top for the eventual winner.
Scheduled for two days, this event will resume this afternoon with 127 players still alive with a shot at the big money.
Canadian player hateraises is currently in the number one spot but he’ll have plenty of competition as Humberto Brenes, Sunday Million winner and high-stakes cash player EireAbu, Matt “ADZ124” Marafioti, Jim “Mr_BigQueso” Collopy, Vanessa Selbst, Liv Boeree and many more still have chips.
Action resumes at 11:30 PT. Check our Poker News section for the update.
WCOOP Events Starting Today
11.00 ET – WCOOP-45: $320+R PL Omaha [6-Max]
$320 + rebuys buy-in, $300,000 guaranteed14.00 ET – WCOOP-46: $320 NL Hold’em [2x Chance]
$320 buy-in, $500,000 guaranteed17.00 ET – WCOOP-47: $265 NL Hold’em [Turbo, Knockout]
$265 buy-in, $400,000 guaranteedVisit www.pokerlistings.com