It ended up being a Russian low stakes grinder who took home the 2012 World Championship of Online Poker Main Event for a life-changing $1,000,907.26! "maratik" had to win several FPP qualifiers to get his ticket for the main event. Then he was up against a field of 1,824 players, including many well-known players.
After almost 22 hours of poker stretching over two days, the final table began and[...] Read more » PokerStars WCOOP 2012: FPP Qualifier Wins The Main Event! ($1,000,907.26)
Joined: Mar '11
Location: Croatia
Age: 43 (M)
Posts: 1738
I was just checking his stats on sharkscope and they sum it all, all we small time poker players dream of i mean. I saw the last tournaments tab that he played and it was playing 6 seats $1.5 stgs before this main one . His graph, even thou was not bad, only showed a 5k profit playing over 3 years on stars. Resuming, he just won the lottery lol... 3 years small grinding finally paid off and big time.
This is what all of us wish it'll happen someday to us isn't it? Well to a lucky few it does happen. Congratz maratik!
Joined: Apr '11
Location: Romania
Age: 58 (M)
Posts: 2432
Having qualified for the $5,200 finale using just 100 FPPs, "maratik" held his nerve during the final table negotiations to lock up $900,900.
This amount was only eclipsed by "munchenHB" who guaranteed themselves $1,000,500 before exiting in fourth place.
However, with just "TheCart3r" from Canada standing in his way "maratik" put on an assured performance to collect the remaining $100,000 in the prizepool as well as the title.
His victory brought this year's series to a close and his $1,000,900 prize brought the final payout total to over $55,000,000.
Two players who aren't so pleased the WCOOP is ending are Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and Eugene Katchalov. The pair must now faces the consequences of their prop bet, starting with "ElkY" giving an interview in Russian.
Katchalov must then complete 1,000 push-ups within 12 hours, before "ElkY”" has to bike 170km from Cannes to San Remo. Luckily for the Frenchman, though, Katchalov has taken pity on him and agreed to join him on the cross-country ride.
Joined: May '08
Location: Lithuania
Age: 39 (M)
Posts: 10090
wow- awesome roi to say the least- 100 fpp's thats something like 1.6 dollars. really to say that he won a life changing amount of cash sums it all. not the first time we see russians taking big prizes- they have so many players playing at all sorts of events- so guess it's not a big surprise in term of winning nation
Joined: Mar '11
Location: Germany
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 1242
Wow, thats absolutely amazing. What a great story. Gives me hope that maybe some day in my life I will also have a chance to win more than small pocket money And I am not talking about $1 Mio.
Joined: Apr '09
Location: Portugal
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 4827
Once again, everyone get that shiver down the spine realizing it is possible to reach the dream starting from collecting poker points. This time, it was a Russian, next time, it can be you or (even better!) me! We just have to keep playing and spending time on improving our game skills. And then, it’s just a matter of time til we put the hands on one million!
