ECOOP V is off to a flying start after the first event saw some fierce sparring for the honor of being crowned the champion of the first event at the fifth installment of this particular tournament. What started off from humble beginnings has now become a major tournament draw for online poker network iPoker and its flagship operation Titan Poker.

The first tournament was a no limit hold ‘em event with a $215 entry fee and a guaranteed prize pool of $250,000. When everything had been closed as far as registration was concerned, it was discovered that 1241 players signed up for the tournament. That was not enough to make the $250,000 prize pool larger, but it also meant that the guaranteed amount was larger than the normal prize pool would have been, giving each player that entered the tournament a little bit of equity right from the start.

The tournament started with each of the players getting 3000 in their starting chip stack. The tournament levels were also 20 minutes long which by the standards of online poker tournaments is actually quite long. Right from the start, it was obvious that this tournament would be a long slog to the top for anyone that wanted the top prize of $52,500.

Over the course of the day, players started to be eliminated in a fast and furious pace of action that saw people simultaneously having to fight their own fatigue and the aggressive player sitting on their left. Eventually, play came down to the final table where each player was guaranteed at least $3500 in prize money.

The long slog continued and as Monday became Tuesday, eventually the tournament got down to heads up play between players analika and thanasis1982. These two players fought tooth and nail for position, but as the tournament was well into is tenth hour both of them were certainly fighting their own fatigue at that point. In the end, thanasis1982 ended up besting analika to take down the top prize. Although analika was undoubtedly disappointed at the loss, the consolation runner up prize of $27,500 was undoubtedly also a soothing balm on that disappointment.