Thomas Pedersen Wins WCOOP Main Event

Danish player Thomas “Kallllle” Pedersen survived a tough final table and closed out the 2011 World Championship of Online Poker Main Event on PokerStars, winning $1,260,000 and a championship bracelet.

This was the first WCOOP held on PokerStars since the events of Black Friday, which led to plenty of speculation about just how well-attended the premier online poker series would be. The results were a pleasant surprise, as over $47 million was awarded over the course of the series, the third-highest total in WCOOP history – even without any Americans being able to play.

This trend continued straight through the Main Event. While some players initially wondered whether the $5 million guarantee was a realistic target when the WCOOP schedule was first announced, the final prize pool was much larger – with over $8.1 million being awarded to 189 players who made the money.

One other point of drama in the final event was the WCOOP Leaderboard, with none other than Daniel Negreanu making a run at being the player of the series. Ultimately, that award went to fellow Canadian “big_nemo,” who won tickets into several PokerStars sponsored events (including the EPT Season 8 Grand Final).

Pedersen’s big win may propel him into playing more live events. While he has several cashes in live tournaments – most notably, a 104^th place finish in this year’s World Series of Poker Main Event – his total live winnings are just over $100,000.

With the absence of a USA contingent at the WCOOP, Canada took over as the dominant force in the series, winning the most money and having the most cashes during the 62 series events. However, it was Russia that scored the most series victories, with 10 events going to Russian winners.

The World Championship of Online Poker is an annual poker series held on PokerStars. The first WCOOP series was held in 2002. Previous WCOOP Main Event winners include J.C. Tran, Yevgeniy Timoshenko and Kyle Schroeder.