2018 WCOOP Main Event champion disqualified
For the second time in poker history a WCOOP Main Event champion has had their winnings seized for breaking the PokerStars T&Cs.
In September 2018, 2,044 entries in the $5,200 WCOOP Main Event culminated in 'wann2play' taking it down for $1,352,967.97 after a heads-up deal.
That was not the end of the story for the unknown Dutch player, as following the win the account was frozen and an investigation launched by PokerStars. Last week at the end of the investigation, it was deemed they broke the PokerStars terms of service.
As such the $1,352,967.97 was redistributed among the players who cashed in the tournament. Runner-up 'exe88888' is now officially the 2018 WCOOP Main Event champion and roughly $272,000 better off.
2018 WCOOP Main event winner "wann2play" account was frozen shortly after the tournament. Looks like his $1,352,267.97 was finally redistributed to the rest of the prize pool.
Looks like we have a new champion @EzequielWaigel 💪💪💪
— Max Silver (@max_silver) February 28, 2020
No official word on the nature of the cheating that took place but new champion Ezequel Waigel told PocketFives that he suspected something was not right at the final table and even went through his hand histories afterwards, as well as spoke to PokerStars security about it over several months.
Who the account holder is is also unknown, but online MTT legend GirafGanger7 appears to have heard rumours about this almost a year ago:
Purely hypothetically speaking : if you have a credible source outing a well known Pro winning, lets just say, the WCOOP 2018 Main Event for over a million on a 2nd account, what do you do?
— giraf ganger (@Girafganger7) July 15, 2019
This is not the first time a WCOOP Main Event champion has been disqualified. In 2007 an account named 'TheVoid' won it for $1,378,331 but never got the winnings. After a lengthy court battle the account own Natalie Teltscher (sister of EPT champion Mark Teltscher) admitted somebody else was playing on her account.
What do you think the nature of the cheating was? Let us know in the comments:
