WCOOP 2009 Main Event Day 1: So much for Pokerstars Pros

The WCOOP is ON at Pokerstars! As the Stars Blog puts it:

By far, it is the pinnacle of the year in online poker. The World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Main Event is the largest online tournament of the year by virtue of its $10 million guarantee alone. The money in play and the prestige of the WCOOP title combine to bring some of the game’s absolute best to the tables, and PokerStars is inundated with fans observing the tables, railing their favorite players, and getting a glimpse of the high-stakes action.

Well that’s exactly what I intend to do! Day 1 of the WCOOP Main Event is in full effect at Pokerstars. Well over 2000 players signed up for the premier online Texas Hold’em poker tournament to compete for a shot at the 10 million dollar prize pool. I’ll be following the action of Pokerstars pros Daniel “KidPoker” Negreanu , Joe Hachem, Greg Raymer, and Peter Eastgate.

Hour 1 – 2: Raymer Out and Hachem on the Ropes
It’s been just under an hour and already Joe Hachem and Greg Raymer have taken big hits to their stacks. Hachem lost half his stack ($10,000 in chips) with pocket queens against Andy McLEOD who held 76s on a board of 7c 4d 6c 10s Jh. Hachem raised to $150 in early position and McLEOD called from the small blind with 7s6s. On the flop, McLEOD led into Hachem with a $350 bet. Hachem raised to $1,150 and McLEOD called. McLEOD check-called the turn and river to take down the $20,950 pot.

In hour two, Hachem as yet to gain any momentum, getting involved in several tough spots, and is now down to less that $5000 in chips.

Another Pokerstars pro, Greg “Fossilman” Raymer has already been knocked out. After losing most of his stack early, and never quite gaining momentum, Raymer finished the WCOOP in 2107^th place.

Daniel Negreanu has been using his small ball poker strategy throughout the beginning stages of the tournament and is staying about even. He’s been picking up a lot of small pots and not getting involved past the turn for the most part.

Hour 3 -4: The Negreanu blowup – Hachem and Eastgate hit the rail as well

Like I mentioned earlier, Daniel had been playing a very calculated game thus far. Then a guy named “bootman” appeared in the chat box flaming Daniel with insults. He and Daniel went back and forth a few times and the moderator was called (presumbably by Negreanu). Then, in two hands Daniel goes from a contender to a spectator. It was so crazy I had to write a separate post about Daniel Negreanu’s 2009 WCOOP.

Joe Hachem ended his WCOOP when he got all-in with a queen high flush draw against an opponents ace high flush draw. Neither player improved and Hachem was eliminated from the tournament.

Peter Eastgate, winner of the 2008 WSOP Main Event was the last of the Pokerstars pros I wanted to watch. With his extremely aggressive style of play, he had large swings throughout the tournament, but seemed to be doing well overall. He got involved in a few big hands and lost over half his stack, when this hand sent him packing.

Yoitsmedude ($43,971 in chips) raised in early position to $1,100 with pocket queens and Eastgate called on the button with Jh9h. The flop came 5cJs5S. yoitsmedude bet $1,600 and Eastgate called. The turn was the 3c. yoitsmedude bet $4,000 and Eastgate moved in for $13,992, and was instantly called. The final card was the Qc improving yoitsmedude to a full house and eliminating Peter Eastgate from the event.

So now what? Well according to the Pokerstars Blog Day 1 update, the only Team Pokerstars Pro still in the running is Jan Heitmann.

Meanwhile, Team Pro Jan Heitmann of Germany had been sitting near or at the top of the leaderboard through the better part of the day, making an impressive run toward the second day of the Main Event. His chip stack fluctuated throughout the latter part of Day 1, though he didn’t take a big hit to his stack until late in Level 21 when he lost a 232K pot to pakd650.

I may follow his tourney in addition to some other online poker pros.

What did you think of the performance of Team Pokerstars Pros at this year’s WCOOP?