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 he had 1,935,189 chips. At that point, many expected Mike "muchenHB" Telker from Cyprus to win the whole thing with his 11,907,089 chips.
But maratik played extremly well and had the second largest stack after "muchenHB" when 6 players remained. After about 60 minutes of six-handed deal negotiations, the players finally agreed on deal that left an extra $100k to the winner. After a few more hours of play, maratik and Ryan "TheCart3r" Carter (from Canada) were the last men standing. Carter had locked up $662k-plus while maratik had assured a $900k payday following the deal. Carter began the heads-up with 29,861,560 to maratik's 6,638,440.
Carter accumulated his monster stack by getting involved in lots of hands and, of course, winning many of them. He had been playing very good but also been very lucky with the cards. maratik on the other hand hadn't been playing a lot of hands since the 6-handed deal was made. He must have studied Carter's every single move during this time as he seemed to have full control of the heads-up. In fact, it didn't take long before he doubled up. His confidence grew as he kept on taking down pot after pot. Suddenly he had about the same lead as Carter had when the heads-up began.
The final hand began with Carter opening for 400,000 from the button, maratik reraised to 700,000, and Carter called. The flop came out 3
Q
J
and maratik betted 1,014,999, Carter called. The turn brought the 3 and a bet of 3,827,997 from maratik. Carter pushed all in for 11,734,241, and maratik called.
Carter: J
4
maratik: AA
The river card was the 4. Both players had two pair, but the Russian's were better. Maratik received $1,000,907.26 for the win, and Ryan Carter got $662,516.39
WCOOP Event #65 ($5,200 No-Limit Hold'em Main Event) Results (*reflects six-way deal):
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) -- $91,250.00
Entrants: 1,825
Places paid: 225
