If no-limit hold'em is a schoolyard brawl of unbridled aggression and fog-of-war cunning, limit hold'em is the battle of wits and math skills that takes place inside the schoolhouse. Inside, you're not going to win by bashing in your opponent's skull and scaring him out of his pants. Inside, you're going to have to patient, smart, and aware of every possible probability.

The penultimate 2006 World Championship of Online Poker event pitted 695 limit hold'em players against each other in a battle to be the $1,000 Limit Hold'em champion. Among them were well-known pros and the author of an upcoming book on the math skills it takes to win at poker.

Here's how the players stacked up.

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Seat 1: Marcus85 (79456 in chips)
Seat 2: birdguts (467495 in chips)
Seat 3: SchockoLinz (239766 in chips)
Seat 4: amichaiKK (621031 in chips)
Seat 5: LazySunday (286328 in chips)
Seat 6: laurentia (742570 in chips)
Seat 7: Pike528 (239361 in chips)
Seat 8: davmcg (161138 in chips)
Seat 9: jerrod (637855 in chips)

Marcus85 started the final table with the fewest chips and, at the 16,000/32,000 level, knew he had to make a move soon. Facing a raise from, jerrod, Marcus85 put in the rest of his chips with KdJc. Jerrod held KQ, made a queen on the flop and knocked Marcus85 out in ninth place for $10,772.50.

The level continued for another ten minutes when davmcg came in for a raise with pocket fours. Jerrod called and they saw a flop of Jh7s6d. Davmcg bet out and jerrod, once again, called. The turn was another six. Again, davmcg bet out, but this time, jerrod raised and put davmcg all-in. Davmcg called to see jerrod's pocket eights. The river was a blank and davmcg exited in eighth place, earning $16,332.50.

Pocket eights served to knock out davmcg. SchockoLinz soon found the same hand and decided to try to make it work for him. When Pike528 came in for a raise, SchockoLinz re-raised with his eights and then got all in on a TT6 flop. He was fine for all of one second. A queen fell on the turn to match Pike528's AQ. SchockoLinz couldn't find an eight on the river. His seventh place finish grossed him $22,935.00.

The first ugly beat of the final table came at the expense of math whiz, jerrod. Holding pocket aces, he came in for a raise and got a call from laurentia. The flop was all hearts. With no ace of hearts, jerrod went to war with laurentia, doing his best to get the opponent off the hand before another heart fell. The turn was a blank and jerrod ended up running out of chips to bet. Nonetheless, a heart fell on the river matching the jack of hearts in laurentia's J4. Laurentia won a 354,796 chip pot and jerrod was out in sixth place for $29,885.00.

Birdguts, who at one point looked to make a run for the bracelet, eventually lost a series of pots that put him in very bad chip position. With 90,000 in chips, he got into a raising war with Pike258. They capped the betting and got birdguts all in with AT vesus Pike258's K3 suited in diamonds. Pike258 made a king on the flop and a flush on the river. Birdguts took fifth place and won $36,835.00.

It was about that time the railbirds got a look at how laurentia was going to run over the table.

LazySunday came in for a raise with A8 and laurentia called with KJ. Two jacks on the flop didn't deter LazySunday. He was all-in and drawing dead on the turn. Laurentia knocked LazySunday out in fourth place for $44,480.00.

Five minutes later, short on chips, Pike528 decided to go with 7hTh. This time, laurentia had pocket fours. All-in preflop Piker528 never improved and was out in third place for $62,758.50.

Heads-up, laurentia and amichaiKK cut a quick deal to lock up their profits. Two hands later, it was over. AmichaiKK got in with Jc2s versus laurentia's suited A8. AmichaiKK couldn't run down the better hand and finished in second place for $105,215. Laurentia, a poker player from Hungary, walked away with the bracelet and more than $145,000.

You find a list of all the money winners on the PokerStars WCOOP Event #17 results page. Final table results are below.

PokerStars WCOOP Event #17 Final Table Results
Results based on two-way deal that left $10,000 for first place

1. laurentia (Hungary) $145,200.00
2. amichaiKK (Israel) $105,215.00
3. Pike528 (United States) $62,758.50
4. LazySunday (United States) $44,480.00
5. birdguts (Canada) $36,835.00
6. jerrod (United States) $29,885.00
7. SchockoLinz (Austria) $22,935.00
8. davmcg (United Kingdom) $16,332.50
9. Marcus85 (Sweden) $10,772.50