Talal Shakerchi leads WCOOP Main Event Final Nine

The "best recreational player in the world" can make history tonight if he takes down the event.

The Event #70-H: $5,200 NLHE 8-Max Main Event generated a total of 1,637 entries (including 599 re-entries) for a prize pool of $11,180,000, with $1.665 million to the winner. The top 271 spots were paid and the field is already down to the final nine, which guarantees each of them at least a $111K payday.

Talal "raidalot" Shakerchi is considered by many as the best recreational player in the world for a reason. The 55-year UK businessman has been a regular participant in the high-roller tournaments for several years now, with $7.6 million in total live earnings to his name.

Talal is no stranger to the virtual felt either, he took down the $10,000 SCOOP Main Event for $1.468 million back in 2016, meaning he could be the first player in history, to win a SCOOP and a WCOOP Main Event.

Shakerchi is the current chip leader with over 122 million, which gives him a comfortable room as the second biggest stack – belonging to Belgium’s "XMorphineX" is 82 million, while current third Danilo “dans170” de Lima Demetrio has 81.8 million.

2019 WCOOP Main Event High Final Table Standings

Play will resume tonight at 7:00 PM CET on PokerStars with blinds of 500,000/1,000,000 and an ante of 125,000, meaning that even the smallest stack is good for 28 big blinds. Even though "raidalot" has a pretty healthy stack, the way to victory will not be an easy one.

WCOOP 2019 WCOOP Main Event High Final Table Payouts