WCOOP is the World Championship of Online Poker, as sponsored by PokerStars. This is the largest and most prestigious online poker tournament in the world. From the very beginning of this undertaking, it was positioned as an online equivalent of WSOP (World Series of Poker). And it is indeed a worthy competitor! Here, players enjoy all a full range of poker games, which are all available at different buy-in levels; and they all enjoy competing for various prizes. The main event, of course, is No Limit Hold’em!
Fedor Holz had started playing online a lot before he came on the scene of live tournaments; and that was surely a wise strategy. We won’t delve into the differences by exploring the advantages and disadvantages of online and live poker games. But for Fedor, who played under the alias CrownUpGuy and was about 20 years old, online tournaments were better; as they allowed him to gain more experience and to build up his confidence. And we know that, according to him, confidence is a great skill; so he used an online poker as a good chance to develop this crucial skill required for further wins, and by the way, not only in poker either!
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WCOOP 2014
2014 was the year of his first major success in WCOOP. There were 2,142 players, and the prize pool was $10,710,000. Of this amount, more than $1.8 million was allocated for the main event winner. Fedor Holz won this event (September 28) and got $1,300,000; at that point, this was his best result ever! He had won tournaments before this event, such as the EPT Barcelona Series; but his result at the WCOOP’2014 certainly marked the appearance of a new poker star.
Here is the final standing. Fedor ‘CrownUpGuy’ Holz became the champion and outperformed a truly brilliant group of professional poker players:
| 1st. | Fedor “CrownUpGuy” Holz | $1,300,000* |
| 2nd. | Yuri “TheNERDguy” Martins | $708,251.21* |
| 3rd. | Neckbrake | $651,430.61* |
| 4th. | Elior “Crazy Elior” Sion | $780,227.61 |
| 5th. | Faraz “The-Toilet 0” Jaka | $945,000* |
| 6th. | Daniel “19Dan86” Rudd | $769,813.52* |
| 7th. | Dylan “Pokerl)evil” Hortin | $214,200 |
| 8th. | MaltLiquor40 | $160,650 |
| 9th. | Viktor “Isildur1” Blom | $107,100 |
At the climax of this event, only two players remained at the final table: Fedor ‘CrownUpGuy’ Holz with 10♥ and 10♣, and Yuri ‘TheNERDguy’ Martins with 4♣ and 4♥. The flop was 8♣, 10♦, 4♦, the turn — J♦, and the river — 10♠. That was an unforgettable end of the game with four tens of Fedor Holz beating full house of Martins, who had gone all-in.
WCOOP 2015
This was a buy-in for $51’000, a real high-roller level, that obviously attracted the attention of big names. Fedor Holz did not win this tournament. But he performed well, having won $126,500 and finishing the 6th in the final standing. He was stopped sixth by Nikita “fish2013” Bodyakovskiy from Belarus in a rather dramatic game — with even better cards till the river.
Fedor’s cards were 5♣5♠, Bodyakovskiy had A♦7♣. The flop came Q♣2♥8♠, the turn T♦ still with good chances for Fedor’s pair. But the river was 7♦, which gave Bodyakovskyi the best pair.
The final standing was the following:
- Ben “Ben86” Tollerene $616,518.34
- José Ángel “Cejakas14” Latorre $560,412.13
- Nikita “fish2013” Bodyakovskiy $594,069.53
- Nopaleva $230,000.00
- Mike “Tîmex” McDonald $172,500.00
- Fedor “CrownUpGuy” Holz $126,500.00
WCOOP 2016
Even though there were only 28 players in the 2016 WCOOP Super High Roller tournament, the prize pool was $2,800,000, and the buy-ins were $102,000 — twice as high as in 2015! It was the largest online tournament ever. And the competition was very tough, especially with 3 re-entries.
This high-profile battle with leading professionals attracted a lot of attention and was broadcast on the Internet for thousands of poker fans who watched the poker news and analyzed the game.
By the end, there were only three players left:
| Seat | Name | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | bencb789 (Sweden) | 152,585 |
| 5 | Fedor “CrownUpGuy” Holz (Austria | 481,033 |
| 7 | salfshb (United Kingdom) | 206,382 |
All of them had a nice record for winning past PokerStars online tournaments. Three remaining players were looking to achieve great results in major PokerStars tournaments. And the ambitious Fedor Holz wanted to improve his 6th last year result, recalling his decisive success in the WCOOP 2014.
Salfshb ended up third after the clash with bencb789, and the final pair was the following:
- bencb789 — 475,241 chips
- Fedor Holz — 364,759 chips
Looking at the numbers, the players agreed on a chip-chop deal, leaving only $56,000 on the table.
CrownUpGuy had A♣ 3♠ and opened on the button for 12,624. Bencb789 with K♠ 4♠ called, and then 2♠ 6♣ K♦ came for the flop. Bencb789 check-called 13,450 on this flop. And then 63,446 on the turn which was 4♣, that already gave him two pairs, kings and fours. T♣ river made Holz think. But in the end, he went all-in for 316,035, bluffing. Bencb789 thought it over and then called with 27,270 chips left for two pair, kings and fours — which was a right decision against Fedor’s clever bluff.
Thus, the final standing was the following:
- bencb789 — $1,172,360.60
- Fedor “CrownUpGuy” Holz — $1,067,639.40
- salfshb — $560,000
As we can see, the title did slip from CrownUpGuy’s hands in 2016, and he didn’t become the champion. But at least he won a lot of money again! And his 7-digit paycheck, the second he has gained in the past three years, was without a doubt a great success in this Super-High Roller online tournament, in particular; and indeed, a truly notable achievement of his entire poker playing career up to now!
