WCOOP 2014: Familiar names and familiar results on the halfway stage

So far so good for WCOOP 2014. In two weeks chances are you'll say it has delivered on what it promised--some familiar and a few not familiar winners, however the better of online poker on display at every day. Oh and Russians. There were six Russian champions so far, greater than another nation, just as we *ahem* predicted.

Alright, that will have drawn some obvious conclusion, but could we actually have expected what we have seen prior to now even days? Repeat winners, several of them actually, and two players who scored double WCOOP wins just days apart.

The first of these came for Scott "Aggro Santos" Margereson who, fresh off a win in Event #18 ($320 NLHE Turbo Zoom) topped that with a win in Event #22 three days later (Sunday Warm-Up Special Edition), adding $202,000 to the $106,861 he'd already collected.

Scott "Aggro Santos" Margereson

"I'm undecided the truth has set in for me yet," said Margereson. "I DID NOT even plan on playing that much of WCOOP but now I BELIEVE I MUST play just about every event to check out and lock up the leader board."

This turned out to be an identical theme among winners, including Assad91. He equalled Margereson's double in Event #28 ($320 Mixed hold'em) (LINK) and promptly set about shoring up his lead within the Player of the Year leader board. It's as if the speculation of being Player of the Year never even crossed their minds until they discovered themselves catapulted into contention.

Elsewhere there have been wins for players who you more or less just assumed had already earned a primary WCOOP title. Players like Sami Kelopuro.

Sami "Lrslzk" Kelopuro

Kelopuro, who plays because the familiar Lars Luzak (Lrslzk) online, had two SCOOP titles to his name (including the primary Event in 2011) but had yet to secure WCOOP gold. He put that right in Event #20 with a display of complete domination on the final table, where he saw off six players. And, like a large number of great players, he absolved himself of much of the credit.

"To be honest, knocking out such a lot of players was partly just being lucky and running good - because it always is whilst you go deep in any tournament."

In the same position to Kelopuro was David Baker. Baker is a kind of players who seems to win whatever he chooses--two WSOP bracelets up to now and also you suspect whatever he chose at the EPT if he cared to travel thus far to play it. But up until this week a WCOOP title eluded him. It came in Event #33 ($320 8-Game), earning him $34,909.

To accomplish that he needed to fend off another player in great form right now, and seemingly always in great form come to consider it, Mikal "mikal12345" Blomlie.

Mikal "mikal12345" Blomlie

Blomlie, a former WCOOP Player of the Year from 2012, missed out within the Baker final but bagged his third career WCOOP title. Somehow with Blomlie you get the impression that he makes his way through any tournament along with his feet up, at the table, fearless to everything that comes his way.

"I always get motivated and work harder if things don't seem to be going my way," he said. "I WILL also play a few of the games both live and online. So if I'm running bad at one place I WILL BE ABLE TO change game or place and get a 'fresh' start."

As far as tournaments go though it was the $10,300 NLHE High Roller that stole the show. With a field of 365 it amassed a prize pool of $3650,000, easily the most important of the Championship thus far.

It also ensured that the winner--vicenfish, from Portugal--would top the list of highest earners, with a primary prize of $637,436.88. In reality so big was the development that second placed Ankush "pistons87" Mandavia went second at the earnings list having secured a $585,313.12 payday (his biggest career cash), with third Mustapha "lasagnaaammm" Kanit behind them, with $392,375. Read the entire High Roller report here.

That's the half way stage gone. But there's still quite a lot of action left to come, with 30 more events concluding with the $5,200 Main Event on Sunday September 28, with a guaranteed prize pool of $10,000,000.

For the entire details you'll ever need about tournaments, satellites, statistics and the leader board, visit the WCOOP website. For full coverage of every final table there's the WCOOP page at the PokerStars Blog

Stephen Bartley is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.

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