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Last night saw the conclusion of WCOOP along with the completion of their $5,200 Main Event. Steven "SvZff" Zadelhoff has emerged victorious -- besting a field of more than two thousand runners, composed of the best online players in the world. After entering the final table with the chip lead, Zadelhoff battled it out until the end where he eventually claimed 1st place prize money for just over $1.625 million; easily his biggest payday yet. Zadelhoff calls the Netherlands home, but currently resides in Malta -- a popular habitat for many online professionals. His resumé was impressive even before today; with more than fourty-thousand tournaments completed and cashes which totalled around $3.6 million. Today he turns a new page though, crossing over into an elite assortment of players with more than $5 million in cashes online.
Viking style: Zedelhoff's excitement builds as he enters the final stages of the Main Event.
The Main Event began on Sunday at 20:00 CEST, and offered the same deep structure players have become accustomed to, with plenty of manuverability for post-flop play. Lasting a total of three days, the tournament itself took more than fifty hours to reach its conclusion, by which point players were understandably exhausted. Zadelhoff though, seemed rearing to go -- tweeting out his chip lead at the final table along with "#vikingpower"; a hashtag which seems fitting given his current diposition and style.
The completion of the WCOOP's Main Event also marks the end of a long series for many players, which lasted nearly a month in total. As expected, the biggest and best of the online poker world were out in force from the beginning, with names like Viktor "Isildur1" Blom and Patrick "pads1161" Leonard making appearances on a number of final tables. Both players made the final table of WCOOP #66's 8-max $25,000 high-roller tournament, taking 4th and 5th place respectively. The former picked up $355,846 for his efforts, while Leonard secured $275,473 for his run. Isildur also managed to secure another WCOOP title; after beating out a field of 124 runners in event #58’s $2,100 HORSE game for a final score of $60,760.
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Of course it wasn’t just Sweden and the UK that turned out big names finishing in top positions, with players from Russia and Brazil also dominating many events. Long time regular Rafael "GM_VALTER" Moraes from Brazil was one such player, locking up more than $105,000 through a heads-up deal in event 53, a $530 NLHE tournament. Russia’s Artem “veeea” Vezhenkov continued his reign among the top rankers, banking nearly $200,000 after wading through a field of 1221 entrants to claim 1st in WCOOP-06’s $1,050 progressive knock-out tournament.
With WCOOP now over and many players released from the taxing schedule it imposes, some will be looking to relax -- and some to celebrate. It remains to be seen what will become of our new champion; as the Main Event does have a habit of immortalizing those players who've risen to the top. This was true of Fedor Holz and for a young Yevgeniy Timoshenko back in 2009, where his win for more than $1.7M eventually saw him transition into the live high stakes scene some years later. What will become of Zadelhoff remains to be seen, though he would do well to follow in the footsteps of those who came before.