Instead Russian FPP qualifier Marat "maratik" Sharafutdinov defeated Carter heads-up to secure a first-place prize of $1 million.
Amazingly, maratik was a micro-stakes grinder before yesterday. He frequented $2 buy-in, 180-player tournaments and satellited into the WCOOP Main Event for just 40 FPPs.
He's already being called the online Moneymaker by some poker fans.
Fortunately for Telker, who was one of PokerListings’ 2012 players to watch, he was a part of a six-way deal that saw him also take down $1 million.
Anderson, Julius, Thurman Come Close
Day 2 of the 2012 WCOOP Main Event began with 245 players chasing the $9.1 million prize pool. Telker started the day with the chip lead.
The money started with 225 players left and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Jonathan Duhamel and Mickey “mement_mori” Petersen all busted shortly after the money bubble burst.
Mike “Timex” McDonald, Alexander “AlexKP” Petersen and Giuseppe “Ansgar2000” Pantaleo were among the many players who busted from 150 remaining to 50.
With 50 players left Ryan Carter began to pull away from the rest of the pack with 2.2 million chips. The only player even close was fellow top-tier grinder Calvin “cal42688” Anderson who had accumulated 1.7 million chips.
Kevin “WizardOfAhhs” Thurman became the last PokerStars pro to bust when he dropped out of contention in 34th place.
Telker regained the chip lead with 27 players left as he hit 4.1 million chips.
Noted pro Kyle “KJulius10” Julius came painfully close to making the final table but eventually busted in 15th place for $48k.
Carter, Telker, D’Auteuil Highlight Final Table
Telker started the final table of the Main Event the exact same way he started Day 2: with the chip lead.
Telker was sitting on 11 million chips by the time the final nine was reached and he looked nearly unstoppable as the final table began.
The final table also included Ryan Carter, who made a WCOOP final table earlier this year, with 1.8 million chips and noted high-stakes French Canadian pro Phil “takechip” D’Auteuil with 3.7 million.
Carter crippled D’Auteuil in the early stages of the final table when the French Canadian made a play with ace-jack and Carter woke up with pocket kings.
D’Auteuil would eventually finish in eighth place for $136,875.
Six-Way Deal Nets Telker $1 Million
With six players left, discussions about a massive deal began. The talks lasted for over an hour thanks to the magnitude of the tournament.
In the end Telker, who was the chip leader at that point with 9.22 million, wouldn’t settle for anything less than a million payout and the others finally relented.
It worked out very well for Telker as he busted in fourth place but still took down $1,000,584, which was just a few hundred dollars short of what the eventual winner made.
Heads-up play began with Carter holding a massive chip-advantage with 29 million to opponent maratik’s 6.6 million.
That did little to deter the Russian, however, and he won a game-changing hand early on where he turned a flush against Carter who had flopped a set of kings.
The final hand of the 2012 WCOOP saw Carter shove with jack-four and maratik make the easy call with pocket aces.
The aces held and maratik was suddenly a millionaire thanks to the $1,000,907 first-place prize.
Here’s a complete look at the final-table payouts:
1st: maratik (Russia) -- $1,000,907.26* 2nd: Ryan "TheCart3r" Carter (Canada) -- $662,516.39* 3rd: Jossel2008 (Ireland) -- $814,602.12* 4th: Mike "munchenHB" Telker (Cyprus) -- $1,000.584.34* 5th: sly caveat (Portugal) -- $601,884.93* 6th: FOO-92 (Germany) -- $502,992.46* 7th: Kakalala (Denmark) -- $182,500.00 8th: Phil "takechip" D'Auteuil (Canada) -- $136,875 9th: mitdadu (Russia) -- $91,250.00Visit www.pokerlistings.com