Can Viktor Blom claim the $1.8m first prize?

PokerStars will be running a WCOOP main event final table webcast, and you can watch all the action right here with the company of EPT commentators James Hartigan and Joe Stapleton, who will be joined by Team PokerStars pros Ike Haxton and Mickey Petersen.

The tournament is expected to reach a final nine during the early hours of Tuesday morning, at around 04:30 CMS.

Big money, big names

The largest and most prestigious online event on the poker calendar is currently paused until 19:30 WET this evening, with 271 of the original 2,142 runners remaining - 270 of those players will pocket at least $12,316 each.

A total prize pool of $10.71m was reached, generating an incredible $1.8m first prize - the biggest we've seen up top since Tyson 'POTTERPOKER' Marks won $2.2m back in 2010.

To list just a few big names, nosebleed heroes Viktor 'Isildur1' Blom and Ben 'Sauce123' Sulsky, Sunday Million Anniversary champion Andrius 'benislovas' Bielskis and Justin 'ZeeJustin' Bonomo all remain in the hunt.

Team PokerStars is also looking in good shape, with Matthias 'mattidm' de Meulder, Jake Cody, Alex 'Kanu7' Millar, Andre 'aakkari' Akkari and Naoya 'nkeyno' Kihara still vying for the title.

Everyone will be looking up in envy at Israeli player 'Viking8844' however, who currently holds the chip lead with 613,924 - the tournament average is 158,081.

Heads up chop in $10k High Roller

Jani Vilmunen

In other WCOOP news, Event #65 - the $10,300 buy-in 8-game mix - has finally concluded and Finnish grinder Jani 'kiiski' Vilmunen emerged victorious to claim $231,000 and his second WCOOP title. He was pushed all the way by Noah 'Exclusive' Boeken, who managed to pocket $221,000 for second place after a heads up deal.

Andrey 'kroko-dill' Zaichenko took third place, while there were also deep runs from Matthew 'MUSTAFABET' Ashton (4th), Stephen 'stevie444' Chidwick (5th), George 'jorj85' Lind (9th) and Bryn 'BrynKenney' Kenney (10th). Daniel 'KidPoker' Negreanu bubbled the event in 19th place.

Will the WCOOP main event ever beat its long standing top prize of $2.2m? Let us know in the comments box.

