“Hymn2Ninkasi” & “RomeOpro” Taste Immediate Success At 2023 WCOOP

Summary:

• Espen Jørstad won one of the first events of the WCOOP series for $122,371
• Ukraine’s Romanovskyi won the popular high roller event for $203,121
• The 2023 WCOOP runs until October 4 with big prizes waiting to be won

One of the largest and most highly-anticipated online poker series of the year, the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), officially kicked off just a few days ago, and among the early winners was no other than Espen “Hymn2Ninkasi” Jørstad, best remembered for winning the 2022 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event.

Jørstad Starts WCOOP Campaign in Style

As expected, the WCOOP series has once again attracted and will continue to attract some of poker’s prominent players, including Jørstad who took part in WCOOP 03-H: $3,150 NLHE Progressive KO. The Norwegian pro, who is now based in the UK, topped a 132-entry field to claim the top prize worth $122,371, including bounties.

Another big name who reached the final table of the tournament was Patrick “pads1161” Leonard who, coincidentally, was also Jørstad’s partner in the 2022 WSOP Tag Team. Leonard finished fourth for $21,748 in total prize. Dumitry “pora adrian” Pora battled it out with Jørstad in heads-up play but ended up as the runner with a $45,167 payout.

Completing the final table were, Pedro “pvigar” Garagnani (3rd, $30,129), “13santoy13” (5th, $22,936), “bnbm73“ (6th, $13,116), Ognyan “cocojamb0” Dimov (7th, $17,939), “kZhh“ (8th, $7,985) and David “MissOracle” Yan (9th, $9,337).

Romanovskyi, Bruschi Claim Early Victories

The first winner of the WCOOP Championship title was Brazil’s Renan “Internett93o” Bruschi who won the WCOOP $5,200 World Championship of Progressive KO NLHE for a total top prize of $198,664.

Several WCOOP events are now in the books since the series commenced over the weekend, and the biggest winner so far is Ukrainian player Roman “RomeOpro” Romanovskyi who outlasted 84 other entrants in WCOOP 04-H: $10,300 NLHE High Roller.

 

Romanovskyi’s victory came with a $203,121 payout, which will likely emerge as one of the biggest scores when the series wraps up.

The event generated $850,000 in total prize pool and other players who walked away with a decent share of that figure included Rodrigo “SELOUAN1991” Selouan who finished 2nd for $156,974 and Benjamin “bencb789” Rolle who took home $121,311 for his 3rd-place finish.

There is still a lot of action left in the 2023 WCOOP which runs till Oct 4.