They wrote. They tweeted. They played. Now, three people stand above the world's poker bloggers as the top dogs of the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker.
Over the past past couple of weeks, eligible poker bloggers across the globe have been engaged in a battle of poker, blogging, and live tweeting in an effort to pick up thousands of dollars in prizes. Today, we got the final winner envelopes and we can now announce the champions.
When the competition opened, he posted this video announcing what he would do with the $5,000 if he won the Best Blogger category.
In case you missed it, Jones said he would use 25% of his winnings for his family, 25% for a UKIPT buy-in, and then donate the rest to charity.
In the end, his writing throughout the WBCOOP festivities earned him the money and distinction of Best Blogger.
"I'm speechless!" he declared. "It was a great competition from the start. Half of the prize will go to Temple Street Children's Hospital in Dublin Ireland. The hospital relies so much on public donations."
Best Live Tweeter
Some folks might argue the world of social media has made Twitter even more relevant than the world of blogging. The full debate is one for another day. For now, we must congratulate Agnes Archibong-Omon who plays and tweets under the name cardkahleesi.
Her posts to Twitter during the event caught the attention of PokerStars' social media team and earned her $1,000 for her efforts.
"Winning the prize is really a bloody good icing on the awesome cake that was #WBCOOP 2012," she said. "Thank you to the PokerStars crew."
Agnes Archibong-Omon
Player of the Series
Finally, WBCOOP paid close attention to how these bloggers and tweeters actually fared at the tables. During the course of the many WBCOOP events, Bartosz Oder, aka wilczybobek, had a stellar series and ended WBCOOP on top of the leaderboard.
There was more than the honor of winning at stake. For his efforts, Oder wins a WBCOOP 2012 trophy, a live event or online package for any global PokerStars sponsored event, a 2012 SCOOP Main Event Medium ticket, and a special edition chip set.
Here's how he stacked up against the rest of the field.
2012 WBCOOP Player of the Series leaderboard final
If you thought the contest for best blogger was over, we have news for you today. There are now two more wildcard spots open from the PokerStars Blog team. More on that at the end of this post. But first, a little background.
WBCOOP Best Bloggers By: Donnie Peters On Thursday, February 23, the World Blogger Championship of Online Poker (WBCOOP) kicked off. On this year's schedule are 31 events stretching until Sunday, March 4. The submissions for the WBCOOP are now closed and plenty of players have gotten in on the action. In order to qualify, bloggers were asked to send a 500-word blog post or short video telling what you would do with $5,000 if you won the WBCOOP's Best Blogger prize.
On PokerNews, a contest was held where various bloggers would submit blog posts and people would vote for the best blogger. There were plenty of submissions, but not everyone could get voted to the top. With 311 votes on his blog post titled, "WBCOOP 2012 The epic beginning of our poker blogging journey!" Radostin Minchev is sitting number one.
Right at the beginning of his post, Minchev states that "this is the very beginning of his blogging journey" and goes on to say that the blog is aimed as "A way for me to show you that the more you believe the bigger you can be." From there, Minchev gives a little background on how his poker career and outlines a few of the things it takes to be a successful player.
After the introduction, Minchev opens up with honesty and says that the main reason he started this poker blog was for the WBCOOP. As for the $5,000 he'd earned for winning WBCOOP Best Blogger? Minchev sites some hardship with being able to land a successful, full-time job in his country, but says he's been able to always find time for his first love -- poker. Working on his game throughout the years and saving some of his salary in order to build a small bankroll, Minchev eventually made his first real-money deposit and claims, "my life turned 180 degrees."
Unable to consistently move up limits due to regular withdrawals in order to sustain himself, Minchev claims winning this $5,000 would, "help me be the person I know I'm supposed to be , the player I'm supposed to be." He also goes on to be very thankful of all that PokerStars has offered him and allowed him in his life, saying, "PokerStars gave me the hope and did what my home country couldn't, it turned my potential in profit."
Along with the over 300 votes, Minchev's blog post has 21 comments. Much of them are wishing him good luck in the competition along with other positive comments. Reading the comments section truly shows the camaraderie within the game of poker and especially within the world of poker blogging. You can find Minchev's blog HERE..
The person with the second most votes comes in at 195, which is still a ways off of Minchev. This blog comes from a man named Ernestas, who is originally from Lithuania, but now resides in Edinburgh where he is studying. Known on PokerStars as "Wernestas" and "WeRnIS" to most people, his blog can be found HERE.
In his WBCOOP blog post, Ernestas states that "shock" would be the first thing that would pop into his mind if he won the Best Blogger prize. That's very understandable as $5,000 is a good chunk of change for most people. "If I won such prize, I could barely speak for several days and it would be such a big honor for me. When I would actually understand what happened, I would start thinking what to do."
So, what would he do? First, Ernestas says he would withdraw some of the money in order to pay for some of his study expenses, which we believe is the smart thing to do. From there, he'd spend the rest of the money he left online for poker, where he prefers online tournaments to cash games. He also mentioned that he'd like to purchase some poker books in order to better his game and also invest in a poker chip set so he could play with his friends.
Then there are live tournaments, which Ernestas mentions that he'd like to be able to play a bit more of. Winning $5,000 could certainly allow him some room to buy-in to some smaller events and hopefully go on to become a star.
In the end, Ernestas is very genuine in everything he says. He finishes the post by saying, "My expectations are not big, I am just a simple man, but if I won any award in this competition, I would see it as a trophy. And I really value such trophies, they show what you have made that others did not, it shows what skills you have, and it shows your strengths. I would like to thank PokerStars for creating such competitions, it helps you to show your creativity, share your ideas."
Siting in third with the most votes is Paul and his blog can be found HERE. He has 118 votes, which is a good way off of the top two, but still a very respectable number. Closely behind him is Arkly with 110 votes and his blog can be found HERE.
All together there have been tons and tons of blog posts made about the WBCOOP and the series is now running. Every tournament awards Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) tickets to the highest finishers, and everyone who cashes will also be invited to play the 2012 WBCOOP Main Event. On top of having a shot at the Best Blogger award, PokerStars is giving away a second award for $1,000 to the Best Live Tweeter. That's a reminder for the playing bloggers to be sure they are sticking to their social media duties while grinding the events on the schedule.
Now, a special announcement: we here at the PokerStars Blog have just been asked to keep our eyes open for a couple of bloggers who are doing exceptional work while WBCOOP is running. Over the next few days, we'll be picking two wildcard bloggers who will join the top ten from PokerNews to go on to the finals and PokerStars WBCOOP judges.
So, keep writing, and make sure we know you're writing!
Poker bloggers are an interesting sort. They come from all places, come in all shapes, and eschew any sort of mold. One thing is sure, though: if a poker blogger has gone to sleep, it wasn't willingly. Poker happens all the time, and writing about it is a practice in forced insomnia the likes of which only astronauts and speed addicts truly know. Bloggers fall somewhere along that sliding scale. For the next week or so, the bloggers' mettle will be tested in a way a PokerStars championship can.
This week, the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker kicked off with thousands of dollars in prizes on the line. They'll go to the people who not only put their blood, sweat, and tears into the practice of writing about the game we all love.
Hundreds upon hundreds of bloggers from around the world wrote their best 500 words on what they would do if they won the $5,000 best blogger prize. Everyone who did now has a chance at winning some big money over the next week and half.
The first three events played out yesterday. Now there will be several events a day until March 4 and the $5,000 WBCOOP freeroll.
Our advice: if you know a blogger, be a friend and get him or her some coffee, Red Bull, or other suitable stimulant. It's a blogger's job to write about WBCOOP, and that will keep them busy enough. Now, they have to play three events per day, too. It's going to be a grind, but in the end, some of them might have enough sleep-deprivation experience to be astronauts.
Who would've thought it in 2005 when the World Blogger Championship of Online Poker sprung up on PokerStars? Who would've thought that seven years later in the new world of Twitter and Facebook that the idea of blogging would be almost quaint.
Back in 2005, WBCOOP was a way to celebrate the efforts of people using the new-ish communication medium. Today, WBCOOP returns as a salute to the people who still spend their hard-earned words in a medium that's already said goodbye to its younger days. These are the die-hards. These are the people who, like us, still believe it takes more than 140 characters to tell most stories well. These are the poker bloggers of the world.
This afternoon, PokerStars announced WBCOOP was back with thousands of dollars in prizes and the biggest schedule it's ever had. Bloggers who win their way into the main event will have a chance to share in the $5,000 prize pool. Beyond that, there are a ton of other big prizes up for grabs:
$5,000 for the WBCOOP Best Blogger
$1,000 to the Best Live Tweeter
WBCOOP Leaderboard prizes
The WBCOOP events kick off on February 23. The $5,000 main event runs March 4 at 10am.
One important reminder about this year's event: you can't just enter a URL to be eligible. You have to submit a full blog post. You're a blogger. Now prove it!
If you're a blogger and want to see if you're eligible for this year's events, head on over to the WBCOOP entry page.
The PokerStars Blog would like to congratulate dexali for winning the 2011 World Blogger Championship of Online Poker and nearly $5,000 worth of tournament tickets to SCOOP and the Sunday Million.
The win came at the end of a big week for the world's poker bloggers. 2011 WBCOOP consisted of six preliminary events and one big main event. At stake over the course of the week was $58,000 in tickets to some of PokerStars biggest events. At the end of it, dexali took the lion's share of the prizes for the main event victory. That effort was worth $4,860 in event tickets.
Here's how the main event final table finished up:
During this weeks competition, WBCOOP organizers tracked how each player performed over the entire series. The player with the most points at the end of the week would pick up $5,000 worth of PokerStars live event packages. When it was all said and done the prize went to Russia's Dramaturg. Here's how the rest of the leaderboard shook out.
Play instead of write? It's not an easy task for the poker bloggers of the world. They spend as much time ruminating in print about poker as they do playing it. But as the World Blogger Championship of Online Poker kicked off las night, it was at long last time to ignore the keyboard and grab the mouse.
Topping the WBCOOP Leader Board after the first night of play was the Netherlands' MoneyShuffle.
WBCOOP Event #1 was a PLO freeroll for 540 poker bloggers around the world. When it was done, MoneyShuffle had picked up two $215 SCOOP tickets, two Sunday Million tickets, and a seat in the WBCOOP Main Event.
Here's a look at the top finishers and current rulers of the leaderboard.
When the World Blogger Championship started in 2005, it was designed as a way to reward the people who spend their time writing about the game we all love.
A lot has changed since then.
Technology has given us new blogging platforms, new blogging styles, and yea verily, Twitter.
This year, WBCOOP awarded prizes for more than simply how the bloggers played in the events. It also recognized some of the best live-blogging and Twitter posts. Here are the winners.
It is a special treat for many in the poker community. The World Blogger Championship of Online Poker is an opportunity for those who take poker seriously enough to blog about it in some form or another, whether for work or pure enjoyment of the game, to compete in any of a week's worth of freeroll tournaments for tickets to SCOOP events.
The WBCOOP started on January 25 and ran throughout the course of the week with a little bit of everything - NLHE, PLO, and even an 8-game mix. All tournaments gave away entries to Spring Championship of Online Poker tournaments, which players can then use in the coming months when the 2010 SCOOP gets underway. For many of us who don't play as much as we'd like, the chance to parlay a freeroll into the possibility of significant money is, as mentioned, a treat.
Today, a total of 2,062 bloggers took seats in the WBCOOP Main Event for SCOOP tickets of various values: $22 tickets to 46th - 136th place, $55 tickets to 28th - 45th place, and $215 tickets to 10th - 27th place. (There were also SCOOP tickets awaiting those who did the best live event blogging and best tweeting throughout the series.) And that brought us to the fight for the final table.
It was serious business. No one at the last two tables was leaving without a fight. But it finally came down to hand-for-hand play and took only a few minutes to see lordTasse push all-in with pocket jacks and BelaLany call with [Qd] [Kd]. The flop hit the latter with [7c] [Ks] [3c] for top pair, and the [6s] turn and [9h] river ended it for lordTasse, who was awarded a SCOOP ticket worth $215 for the effort.
In Level 31, with blinds at 3,600/7,200 and a 900 ante, the final table began with chip counts as follows:
Seat 1: BelaLany (615,412 in chips)
Seat 2: ErickRiveraD (402,949 in chips)
Seat 3: luvrhino (522,812 in chips) out of hand
Seat 4: lostsoul311 (470,822 in chips)
Seat 5: metsapull (958,908 in chips)
Seat 6: hanktankus (447,078 in chips)
Seat 7: sprocket66 (414,709 in chips)
Seat 8: cardinal23 (697,514 in chips)
Seat 9: kalamiis (624,796 in chips)
Though metsapull headed into action with a significant chip lead, it took only one hand - a double-up of lostsoul311 with K-Q over a failed flush draw - to change that. The lead then went to lostsoul311, while metsapull fell to the middle of the pack until slowly but surely chipping back up. Though many several levels than passed without any heart-stopping action, this hand caught everyone's attention pretty quickly:
RSS readers click through to see replay
And there were still nine players. Until one hand crippled luvrhino. Upon moving all-in preflop with pocket kings, hanktankus called with A-D of diamonds and caught the ace on the turn. That left luvrhino with little more than 35,000 to play on. It only took a few more hands for the all-in move to come, which received two callers - lostsoul311 and hanktankus. They checked the [9c] [Kd] [Ks] flop, but when lostsoul311 bet the [6s] turn, hanktankus folded. lostsoul311 then showed [Kc] [8c] for the flopped trips, while luvrhino had to show [9d] [5d] for two pair. The [2h] on the river ended the run for luvrhino, who picked up a $2,100 SCOOP ticket for a day's work and ninth place finish.
The action sped up a bit. BelaLany raised a hand preflop, and ErickRiveraD reraised. BelaLany came over the top all-in, and ErickRiveraD called all-in for his tournament life with pocket kings. BelaLany showed [As] [Ks], and the board came [Td] [8s] [Jd] [5s] [7s] to river the flush and eliminate ErickRiveraD in eighth place, which was worth a $2,100 SCOOP ticket.
In super-fast mode, several more players exited the tournament. The first incidence started with metsapull and BelaLany going to see a [2h] [Qd] [5s] flop, at which point metsapull bet, BelaLany raised, and metsapull called all-in with pocket jacks. But BelaLany showed [Qc] [9c] for top pair, and the [Ks] turn and [4h] river allowed that to remain the best hand. metsapull was eliminated in seventh place with a $2,100 SCOOP ticket.
Moments later, hanktankus and cardinal23 went to see a flop of [(c] [Jh] [Th]. The initial bet came from cardinal23, but hanktankus check-raised. cardinal23 called all-in for 323,615 chips and showed pocket jacks for the set. But hanktankus turned over [Ks] [Qc] for the flopped straight. The [Qd] and [2h] completed the board and eliminated cardinal23 in sixth place with that $2,100 SCOOP ticket.
Action slowed for a time, as the five remaining players began to see the light at the end of the tournament. However, kalamiis had been sitting out for quite a few levels at that point and was in short-stacked position because of it. Upon that player's eventual return, hanktankus was found to be dominating the table with more than 2 million chips. But as play continued, kalamiis continued to experience internet connection issues, which didn't bode well for any of the tired players.
Finally, many levels later, one player left the fun. The hand started with hanktankus and BelaLany limping in and lostsoul311 checking the big blind option. After the flop of [4h] [3h] [Th], lostsoul311 bet out, hanktankus called, but BelaLany raised it up. lostsoul311 responded with an all-in reraise, which pushed hanktankus out. BelaLany called with [Jh] [Ts] for top pair, and lostsoul311 showed only [Ah] [7s] for ace high. The [Kc] on the turn and [8c] on the river allowed the pair of tens to hold, and lostsoul311 was eliminated in fifth place with a $2,100 SCOOP ticket.
It was well into the tenth hour of the tournament that sprocket66 found an opportunity to chip up, doing it via a double-up through BelaLany. That put sprocket66 and BelaLany in the 1.5 million-chip range and hanktankus only holding a lead by a slight margin. kalamiis was still disconnected and losing chips as a result, having been relegated to a stack of less than 300K. In time, BelaLany took several big pots to climb well over the 2 million mark, sitting solidly in top position.
Finally, it came time for someone to make a move. The hand began with sprocket66 and BelaLany checking out a flop of [2s] [Kd] [3h], which they both checked to see the [7c] on the turn. The bet came from BelaLany, the raise from sprocket66, and more action led to sprocket66 pushing all-in with [Kh] [Td] for top pair. But that was trumped by the [Ks] [7h] and two pair of BelaLany, which held up through the [8d] on the river. That left sprocket66 out in fourth place with - you guessed it - a $2,100 SCOOP ticket.
The disconnection problem for kalamiis led to a diminishing chip stack that was put all-in automatically by being in the big blind. BelaLany was there with [Qs] [Jd], and kalamiis had [Qd] [Tc]. The board blanked with [7s] [2d] [6h] [9s] [Kh], and kalamiis was ousted in third place.
Heads-up play then began with the following chip counts:
Seat 1: BelaLany (3,996,009 in chips)
Seat 6: hanktankus (1,158,991 in chips)
The two battled for some time before hanktankus felt the ability to make a double-up attempt, which succeeded:
RSS readers click through to see replay
But in order to get ahead, it was going to take another double-up. The two started the hand innocently enough by limping in to a [5s] [9d] [2c] flop, at which point the betting and raising ultimately led to hanktankus moving all-in with [5c] [2d], but that two pair was outdone by the [9s] [2h] of BelaLany. And when the [9c] hit on the turn, BelaLany had the full house. The [3c] on the river ended the tournament, with hanktankus finishing in second place for the $2,100 SCOOP ticket.
The winner of the WBCOOP Main Event and the $3,150 SCOOP buy-in was BelaLany of Munich. Congratulations from the PokerStars blog!
To find out who wins the best live blogging and tweeting SCOOP tickets, check back with the PokerStars blog. Though we can't win our own contest, we can still let you know who deserves your attention for taking down the bonus awards! And keep eyes peeled for the SCOOP schedule, which will be listed here when it is released.
I'm not going to pretend to even begin to understand the life that our latest WBCOOP winner leads. The man known as skllzdatklls writes the blog theskillzdatklls that, unsurprisingly promises "The tales of a SSNL poker grinder mixed with touches real life drama."
He's been writing there for a couple of years now. I'll be honest, here. I was understanding everything just fine until I got to his recent training in pick-up artistry. The blogger has a bit of the James Van der Beek thing going on, and apparently his buddies--professional pick-up artists by the sounds of it--are taking full advantage. Frankly, that's as much as I gleaned before my wife started looked over my shoulder and asking, "Why are you looking at pictures of a bunch of hot girls in Vegas?"
All of that said, last night our hero was playing some $200NL when he realized he was doing pretty well in the third event of the 2010 World Blogger Championship of Online Poker. So, he started to focus and, in his words, "owned the entire tournament."
That was a tournament that featured 1,843 of the world's bloggers fighting it out for bragging rights and thousands of dollars in tickets to the Spring Championship of Online Poker.
WBCOOP continues tonight with another NLHE event. Good luck to all the bloggers in tonight's tournament.
And congrats to skllzdatklls for his big win, and apparent ability to score in Vegas.
There are writers among us at the PokerStars Blog who have a well-documented fear of a man who plays at the World Series of Poker. In fact, although we are loathe to admit it in a public forum, we actually believe this man might be the devil himself. We spend as much time as we can actively avoiding confrontations with the guy. It's become something for which we're considering therapy.
So, when we watched the end of the first event of the 2010 World Blogger Championship of Online Poker...well, we were more than a little put off by the winner's screen name.
DevlsBnkroll.
We looked at it once, twice, and a third time.
"Devil's Bankroll."
Well, damn.
It's our job to seek out people like this and report on their success. But, we also have a long-running problem with...well, the devil.
With all of that said, we did our jobs and we are happy to report that the author of the winner's blog is not, in fact, the devil. It's this guy.
The 28-year-old man from central Florida writes the blog "A Slice of Poker History," a relatively young site that takes you on a tour through the man's live and online poker life over the past six months or so.
Last night, the blogger won a $1,050 entry to the Spring Championship of Online Poker after taking down the first WBCOOP freeroll of the week, a No-Limit Hold'em contest featuring 1,740 of the world's bloggers.
While his WBCOOP finish was a nice score, he has bigger plans. He told us today, "I plan on focusing a series of blogs in the near future on the need for an effective and easy to use system for backers to be connected with the masses of young and highly talented players. Essentially, the need to change the system to make it easy and secure to use for both sides of the deals."
So, keep an eye out for that. Our first winner will be looking for feedback from bankrolls of all sizes. Even the devil's size (which is still a matter of debate).
During last night's six-hour contest, the winner and countless other people were posting on Twitter about their experience. We're following along that way from our @PokerStarsBlog account and we suggest you do, too.
Tonight we'll watch the bloggers go after a Pot-Limit Omaha contest with tons more SCOOP money on the line. Good luck to everyone playing.
And congrats to DevlsBnkroll. We're really glad you're not the real devil.
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They wrote. They tweeted. They played. Now, three people stand above the world's poker bloggers as the top dogs of the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker.
