The PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) is now in full swing and Wednesday's conclusion to the WCOOP 17-H: $10,300 Super Tuesday High Roller brought about a star-studded lineup to battle it out for the title on the final table.
While he came into the final table with the shortest stack in play, Brazilian footballing icon and PokerStars Ambassador Neymar Jr. had a shot at his first-ever World Champion title – albeit on the felt, rather than the pitch.
In order to claim the title, however, the Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain legend had to fight through a murderer's row of online wizards.
Neymar Jr. regularly plays high buy-in poker tournaments – both live and online. Neymar Jr.'s fellow countryman Pedro 'PaDiLhA SP' Padilha began the final table with the chip lead – followed by Ole 'wizowizo' Schemion and Talal 'raidalot' Shakerchi. In the middle of the pack, Canada's Guillaume 'Nolet20' Nolet, 'Jepser8', and Linus 'LLinusLLove' Loeliger all had workable stacks.
Neymar Jr. rounded out the bottom of the chip counts, and although he wasn’t far behind the middle of the pack, he certainly had his work cut out for him.
Shakerchi ends Neymar's title challenge
Unfortunately for Neymar, his time at the final table was very brief. After roughly five minutes of play, he ran two pair into Shakerchi's nut flush and his dream of a WCOOP title was over. For his seventh-place finish, the footballing superstar collected $26,111. He fired two bullets, so he just scraped a profit.
Schemion was out next, followed by Padilha, Loeliger and 'Jepser8', leaving heavyweights Shakerchi and Nolet heads-up for the title.
After almost four hours of play, Nolet got the win. He whittled Shakerchi down to about four big blinds, before the Brit was forced to make a stand. He called off his last chips with 
and found himself behind Nolet's 
.
Things went from bad to worse for Shakerchi as Nolet flopped top pair and then turned trips to seal the victory. Nolet picked up the title and $186,434, while Shakerchi's consolation was a $134,351 payday.
The final hand of the WCOOP NLHE Super Tuesday High Roller.WCOOP runs all the way through to October 1 on PokerStars — check out the full schedule.
WCOOP 17-H: $10,300 Super Tuesday High Roller results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Guillaume 'Nolet20' Nolet (Canada) | $186,434 |
| 2 | Talal 'raidalot' Shakerchi (UK) | $134,351 |
| 3 | Jepser8 (Austria) | $96,818 |
| 4 | Linus 'LLinusLLove' Loeliger (Austria) | $69,771 |
| 5 | Pedro 'PaDiLhA SP' Padilha (Brazil) | $50,279 |
| 6 | Ole 'wizowizo' Schemion (Austria) | $36,233 |
| 7 | Neymar Jr. (Brazil) | $26,111 |
Feature image courtesy of PokerStars.
