Seat 1: Jack Hinchey, Canada, $349,000
Seat 2: Bjorn van Bavel, Netherlands, $41,000
Seat 3: Mark Castonguay, Canada, $52,000
Seat 4: Piotr Stanislaw, Poland, $102,000
Seat 5: Bart Wetsteijn, Netherlands, $139,000
Seat 6: Michael Lawson, Canada, $207,000 (Annette Orbristad)
Seat 7: Bert van Doesburg, Netherlands, $38,000
Seat 8: Mark Rossler, Germany, $58,000

The World Poker Crown Championship drew an impressive field of 2214 players. The preliminary tournament had a $1050 buy-in with the guarantee of 8 players making the televised final table and, of course, taking down the $1 Million dollar First Prize. Each player making the Final Table was guaranteed to take home $22,500. Indeed, an excellent pay day for any online poker player.

This format is what makes the WPC unique and why it attracted so many players to the satellite qualifiers. To my knowledge this is the first online televised tournament to be streamed and show the hole cards of the players.

The fanfare began as it does with most televised events when the announcer began seating each player by calling out his name and chip count. After a short round of applause each player happily took their seat at the half moon table and began to play in the tournament of a lifetime. You could sense the tension among the players as this is the largest Final Table any of them have played in thus far.

The very first hand folded around to Bart Wetsteijn on the button with QQ. He promptly raised it up to $6000 and took down the first pot.

The interesting thing about this Final Table is that despite having three players with relatively short stacks they were in no real danger of being pushed around with the blinds being set at $2000 / $1000. So there was plenty of play for everyone and certainly enough time to build your stack if you were short.

The two chip leaders, Jack Hinchey $349,000 and Michael Lawson $207,000, had the luxury of playing the style of their choice due to their large chip stacks. So it came as no surprise that these two players decided to stay way from each other early in the tournament.

The first player to be eliminated was Mark Castonguay. He picked up [K][J]os in the big blind and the small blind, Bjorn van Bavel completed his blind holding [T][4]os. Most players would have raised in this spot and simply took down the pot right there. Instead Castonguay decided to slow play his [K][J]os. Little did he know it would soon led to his demise.

Castonguay flopped top pair but he allowed his opponent to flop two pair. Castonguay bet out. He was immediately check-raised All-In. At this point Castonguay had no idea of where he was at in the hand. He thought about it for a moment and called. Bavel turned over his hand and showed him the bad news.

No help came on the turn or river and Castonguay exited the tournament with $30,000 in cash and an eighth place finish.

Mark Rossler was the next player to be felted when he flopped top pair against chip leader Jack Hinchey.

The flop came down [J][9][2] and Rossler bet out only to be re-raised by Hinchey with his meager [K][3] holding. Rossler immediately called and saw that he had the best of it.

The turn was a [Q] and the river was a [T] giving Hinchey runner runner for the straight. Rossler, disappointed as he may be, simply shook hands and walked through the curtains taking his $60,000 prize as yet another casualty of war. Hinchey would then begin a bit of a rush soon thereafter having now amassed an even more sizeable chip stack to be used at his discretion to pressure the table.

Bert Van Doesberg was the next player felted when he pushed his [K][9]os into the middle. Van Doesberg was short-stacked at this point and needed to make a play. [K][9]os is not that bad a hand and you really can’t blame him for taking a shot with it. Unfortunately, Hinchey woke up with Pocket Fives [5][5] and called the All-In of Doesbert. No help on the flop, turn, or river and Van Doesberg was felted taking home $90,000 in prize money and allowing Hinchey to once again add to his massive chip stack.

By this time you could see the worry on the faces of the remaining players. With five players remaining and Hinchey on a rush this was not the time for foolish mistakes. Each of the players still had plenty of chips and lot’s of play remained. However, with Hinchey’s confidence growing along with his chip count one of them would need to make a big play in order to make a run heads up. Lawson continued to stay out of Hinchey’s way and continued to play small pots and protect his stack.

Bart Wetsteijn was the next player to exit the tournament taking a tough beat against Hinchey. Hinchey picked up [A][4] and raised it up. Wetsteijn, holding [K][K] decided to call instead of re-raising Hinchey which would have likely pushed Hinchey off of his meager holding. That would turn out to be a major mistake for Wetsteijn.

Hinchey bet out and was immediately re-raised All-In by Wetsteijn. Hinchey turned over the straight and Wetsteijn just sat and stared as the bad news began to sink in. The board paired on the turn but no help on the river to complete the Full House. It was all over for Wetsteijn as he took home the $120,000 Fifth Place prize.

With four players left you could sense that they felt a bit helpless. Honestly, there is not much you can do when a player goes on a rush like Hinchey has been on. You have to just wait for the guy to cool off. The problem is that Hinchey was showing now signs of slowing down. The more chips he got in his stack the more aggressive he was playing. On top of that he was hitting some incredible cards. He was playing big stack poker the way you’re supposed to. Hinchey was impressive indeed but there was still plenty of work to be done with four players left.

Hinchey’s good fortune continued when Bjorn van Bavel picked up Pocket Nines [9][9] and Hinchey held [Q][Q]. Both players got their chips in the middle with van Bavel needing to hit a [9] to double up and take down the pot.

The flop gave van Babel a gut-shot straight draw. The turn and river were no help and Hinchey’s rush continued. Bjorn van Babel exited the tournament taking down $140,000.

Peter Stanislaw had been weathered the entire tournament. He started out with over 100k in chips and had almost been felted on a couple of occasion only to fight his way back into contention. However, with only three players left and holding [A][5] Stanislaw decided to make a stand going All-In pre-flop. Unfortunately, he ran into Hinchey’s [A][T] and it was all over.

No help on the turn or river for Stanislaw and he was felted taking down $210,000 and the experience of a lifetime.

Hinchey now had a three to one chip lead on fellow Canadian Mark Lawson with $900,000 to Lawsons $212,000. Lawson still was very capable of making a run and turning things around at this point. Lawson really didn’t pick up that many chips throughout the tournament and Hinchey had been on fire for most of the afternoon as well. If ever there was a time to go on a rush Lawson needed to do it now.

As play commenced Lawson was able to pick up a few hands and narrow down Hinchey’s lead to less than two to one. However, the final hand of the tournament had to confound even the most seasoned of poker players.

Hinchey, while on the button, limped with [K][Q]. Lawson, holding Pocket Tens [T][T], chose to call.

Again, the third time in this tournament where a player holding a big hand decides not to raise or re-raise his opponent.

Hinchey called almost immediately. The turn was a blank and another [K] hit on the river giving Hinchey trips and the $1 Million Dollar First Prize. Lawson walked away with $397,800 for Second Place.

The World Poker Championship marks the beginning of a new era and format for both live and online poker. The tournament was intriguing, exciting, and certainly full of surprises. I get the feeling the WPC is on to something here. Let’s hope that we can see a lot more of these tournaments broadcast over the web in the near future.