Owen Messere, playing online as Pr0digy, has won the inaugural Cash Game World Championship (CGWC) at CoinPoker, finishing with a massive $590,000 in profit.
As the first CGWC champion, Pr0digy will also receive an engraved Rolex Daytona Ghost and the bragging rights that come with beating some of the most high-profile players in the game. That includes Swiss pro Linus Loeliger, who was last year’s biggest winner overall and who many believe to be the best online cash game player in the world.
Pr0digy’s win was made even more impressive considering the hole he started in, battling back from a week 1 loss of $22,000. He managed a small profit in week 2, before battling for the lead from week 3 on.
Top Two Go Head to Head
Things were too close to call between Pr0digy and riggedeck in the final week, despite the final standings looking pretty conclusive when all was said and done.
In a tournament, it all boils down to the final two players going head to head. But in a cash games series where players can come and go as they please, why would you bother playing if you’re already comfortably in the lead with time running out?
Fortunately for fans, Pr0digy and riggedeck had made an agreement to play at least 1,000 hands on each of the last two days of the CGWC, giving whoever was in second a shot at taking chips directly from the leader.
The eventual champion took full advantage of his head-to-head encounters, which included a clean double up while holding AQ.
At $50-$100, riggedeck opened for $250 and then called Pr0digy’s three-bet to $1,300 from the button, going heads-up into the flop. The A62 gave Pr0digy top pair and the second-nut flush draw. He led out small and riggedeck raised to $1,200. Pr0digy called and the turn was the J, prompting a check. His opponent bet pretty big – $3,400 – and Pr0digy just called to take the pot to $11,900.
The river came 5, and Pr0digy checked it once more before his opponent shoved all in. With $14,000 behind, he had a major decision to make, but eventually found the call and saw the good news as riggedeck only had pocket eights with a club.
Most Hands By A Single Player
KevinPaque has provided constant entertainment throughout the CGWC, from his king-high river jam to his $15,000 triple-barrel bluff. He played the most hands of any entrant with 72,251, continuing to battle right into the final week as he gunned for an outside chance of winning the series.
His plan almost backfired. He’s been in a top-four position in every one of our weekly recaps, yet at one stage found himself down $5,000. Somehow, he bounced back all the way to fifth with $194,000 in profit.
One hand which certainly helped was a $44,000 pot against iWasOnly17. With $50-$100 blinds, KevinPaque opened to $220 with pocket jacks and iWasOnly17 three-bet to $800 in the next seat. The flop came Q44 and KevinPaque check-called the bet of $700.
The turn was J, giving KevinPaque a full house. He checked and iWasOnly17 bet $2,300 into the $3,100 pot.
KevinPaque sensed his opponent had a hand he wouldn’t be folding, and popped it up to $8,200. This drew an all in, with iWasOnly17 flipping over AK for the royal flush draw. They ran it twice, but KevinPaque unsurprisingly won both.
Final Leaderboard
Place | Player | Profit/Loss | Total Hands |
1 | PR0DIGY | $590,912.23 | 43,529 |
2 | riggedeck | $302,494.63 | 69,799 |
3 | LLinusLL0ve | $257,901.13 | 32,978 |
4 | asianflushie | $241,568.67 | 32,682 |
5 | KevinPaque | $194,271.18 | 72,251 |
6 | Enlight | $142,056.29 | 16,330 |
7 | DaniilVasilev | $96,528.30 | 11,205 |
8 | KayhanMok | $95,326.83 | 16,816 |
9 | IgnacioMoron | $75,784.80 | 7,400 |
10 | AbsoluteTopUp | $72,762.10 | 35,218 |
11 | MunEZStaRR | $57,115.81 | 41,977 |
12 | XIAOJUN7777777 | $55,296.23 | 2,266 |
13 | Stambolov | $41,404.37 | 928 |
14 | DavyJones922 | $35,020.65 | 13,806 |
15 | youseffahmed | $30,937.71 | 478 |
16 | Schyllae | $28,928.56 | 8,907 |
17 | DKaladjurdjevic | $28,105.83 | 21,204 |
18 | DarrellGoh | $18,411.18 | 3,498 |
19 | JMBigJoe | $10,992.90 | 580 |
20 | AlexTrevallion | $6,581.57 | 1,276 |
21 | FoldOrDieTrying | $6,327.34 | 192 |
22 | ChrisNguyen | $3,443.96 | 9,244 |
23 | Iimitlesss | ($7,551.21) | 502 |
24 | TaistoJanter | ($8,004.44) | 500 |
25 | Freenachos | ($12,093.47) | 68 |
26 | Doblou | ($18,546.38) | 1,619 |
27 | asHagg | ($42,028.36) | 201 |
28 | Ohhimark18 | ($52,556.18) | 5,151 |
29 | Stefan11122 | ($71,295.81) | 533 |
30 | NaoufelSmires | ($73,042.25) | 2,344 |
31 | Brownballa55 | ($78,832.16) | 1,803 |
32 | D13SEL | ($89,619.51) | 2,742 |
33 | iWasOnly17 | ($93,794.19) | 38,356 |
34 | lolvoidaments | ($97,747.83) | 8,881 |
35 | BeppeBergomi | ($105,013.57) | 16,062 |
36 | JSchusteritsch | ($107,277.79) | 7,742 |
37 | JoeAdams | ($111,544.57) | 12,167 |
38 | PetrKnopp | ($118,154.12) | 20,248 |
39 | MattMarinelli | ($131,525.90) | 16,471 |
40 | therock123 | ($196,833.58) | 7,232 |
41 | CD9K | ($227,136.64) | 12,583 |
42 | TDuthweiler | ($231,692.16) | 9,582 |
43 | jasamgale | ($237,827.02) | 12,659 |
44 | SeaLlama | ($255,158.61) | 25,014 |
What Next?
While there has been no official announcement yet regarding a future cash game series at CoinPoker, given the high volume of play and massively positive feedback from fans, it seems likely the event will make a return.
Nik Airball has made a splash with his own CoinPoker VIP tables, which opened up during the CGWC, and – during a CoinPoker stream – the team has informally indicated these types of VIP games will continue. In fact, asianflushie and KayhanMok kept the heads-up action going at a $200-$400 VIP heads-up table in the hours after the CGWC ended.
As for CGWC part two? For now, we’ll have to wait and see.
*Photo by PokerGO