Belgian online poker player Coenaldinho7 took the safer but less lucrative option of a chop on his way to winning this year’s Pokerstars World Championship of Online Poker main event, but still took home an impressive $1.3 million instead of the projected $1.7 million for a win.
The $5,200 buy-in Main Event generated a prize pool of $10 million and attracted a field of 1,995 players, with 243 cashing.
Down to four-handed action, the Belgian negotiated a four-way chop with $200,000 left on the table for the winner, but the pool divvied up like this:
Coenaldinho7 – $1.1 million
AlwaysiNduCe – $1million
Nolet20 – $1.23 million
beertjes79 – $800,000
He went on to crush the opposition despite runner-up AlwaysiNduCe dominating much of the final table action and starting the heads up with the lead. The Belgian fought his way back into contention and then seized the chip lead and eliminated his last opponent.