In Event #48 of the 2010 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker, or WCOOP, Daniel LeonP Colpoys came away with a $213,000 payday for first place in a $1,050 No Limit Hold’em Two-Day affair. The Massachusetts online poker player logged his largest online poker score to date, although scarily it didn’t mark his first six-figure cash. Previously, he cashed out for $120,000 after final tabling the Sunday Million three months ago.We asked Colpoys how it felt to top his $120,000 score with a six-figure cash of nearly twice that amount. He explained, “I kind of saw it coming. I had been running deep in a ton of events and it was my second Sunday Million final table at the time.” Colpoys tripled up on Day 1 of the Two-Day WCOOP tournament after flopping two pair with 9-8. He dodged two naked flush draws and wound up with a stack of 100 big blinds as a result. Colpoys ended Day 1 in third place out of 69 players.
Colpoys relived his Day 2 experience: “I kind of hung myself with 25 or so left in a pretty ugly bluff. It was an embarrassing hand, but then I grinded a short stack to come into the final table in a pretty good position.” On ramping up for the second day of play, he told PocketFives.com, “You really just need to settle in and not go all out the first hour and try to force things. These tournaments have great structures, so just let the table dictate your play.”
Also landing at the final table of Event #48 were Phil USCphildo Collins and Nick Grip Grippo (pictured), who took fourth and ninth, respectively. Collins is a former Monthly PLB champion on PocketFives.com, while Grippo is at #76 worldwide in the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings.Colpoys had plenty of experience playing with Collins and Grippo and, accordingly, broke down their games: “Grippo is extremely great. He is so tough and I think he has one of the best pre-flop games in the world. Collins is very good too. He had position on me, which was tough, and he owned me a couple of times. I kind of tried to steer clear of him.” A total of $1.2 million was dished out in the 48th WCOOP event.
Colpoys got his start in the game through James lamp3122 Lampropolous two years ago and has been playing full-time for half of that period. Why did he decide to turn to poker as a career? “I was a student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst studying business. I had some success in poker, so it was just too convenient.”
He’s inching closer and closer to the top 100 of the Rankings with every tournament he wins and every PLB Point he racks up. At the time of writing, Colpoys stood at 170th worldwide and second in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts behind BgsaPnaples. Accordingly, he looked forward to cracking the upper echelons of the leaderboard: “It has definitely been a goal of mine since I started. Everyone in the top 100 is great and I have a ton of respect for them all. It would be cool to have something to show for the hard work I have put in and long hours.”
If he’s soon going to appear in the top 100 in the Rankings, he’ll be associated with some of the game’s elite. Colpoys singled out several players in the group he’s looking forward to joining, including Steve gboro780 Gross, who he described as “a really nice guy, humble, and a great player.” He added, “Eric Blizair Blair is consistent and very solid and I also need to give Chris Big Huni Hunichen (pictured) some props too. He is fearless – a lot like my style – and I love his game.” Hunichen is this week’s PocketFives.com Podcast guest.Colpoys wanted to send shout outs to Hunichen, Blair, Gross, scnoodle, Joe JoeBlazenyc Chaplin, XTHESTEINX, Tigerspot, Jamie thecronic420 Rosen, kingsofcards, Jared dareyou2call Jaffee, and New Jersey’s bigredAK. See who else has dominated by checking out our WCOOP results. Also, visit PokerStars for more information.
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